Architecture Commons^™

White Picket Possibilities: Socially, Economically And Environmentally Reshaping Suburbia, Brendan Carroll

Architecture Senior Theses

What does the future of suburbia look like? For much of its history suburbia marketed itself as a pillar of the American dream. While it could be argued that for many years owning a single-family home was an obtainable goal for most Americans, this is far from the case today. Suburbia has shifted from the housing type advertised for the masses to a housing type only obtainable by a fraction of Americans. Suburbia and the housing units within it do not match the social, economic, or environmental needs of today's society.

As the demand for suburban living remains at all-time …

In The Projects: Rebuilding Social Housing In New York City, Ruo Piao Chen, Caroline Jeon

Architecture Thesis Prep

There is a shrinking stock of all types of affordable housing, resulting in the inflation of rent across all demographics. The rise in rent makes housing detrimentally unaffordable for people with extremely low incomes. Mayor Bill de Blasio also recognizes that there is an affordable housing crisis, promising to build over 200,000 units of affordable housing in the next ten years. However, his plan applies to new and privately-owned construction, not the massive public stock that the city already owns. The state of disrepair of public housing combined with generally underutilized sites in 1950’s projects makes the public portion of …

Foreign Body Politics: Inflammation Of Micro Cities In The Urban Environment, Ariana Douso

Architecture Thesis Prep

"This thesis focuses on the intense rigidity of government affordable housing and the homogenization of those designs that condemns them to become foreign bodies in the more flexible surrounding urban environment. Mike Davis categorizes these foreign bodies as modern-day slums. Project housing bracketed in the slum category associates it with the condemning qualities of its predecessors. Such developments are dangerous and unhealthy; they become massive sores on the city. How can this be remedied without offering project developments up to the same fate that their predecessors in the 1930's suffered (slum clearance)? "

Village Methodology For Grandfamily Housing, Meghan O'Reilly

Architecture Senior Theses

"The study, analysis, and use of a village as a model for housing, specifically grandfamilies housing, allows the opportunities to see the bridge between community spaces in a village, a community spaces in housing. Villages operating as a community through the creation of spaces [such as: town squares, meeting halls, churches, stores, schools, and places of worship] can be used as an architectural model for how in the housing typology of grand families, the same spaces [such as: gathering halls, gardens, communal kitchens, counseling centers, after school care, and spiritual spaces] can allow the community to operate as an analogous …