Architecture Commons^™

Baita, Xiong’An: Towards And Alternative Urbanism, Minglu Wei, Ying Zuo

Architecture Thesis Prep

The project focuses on Xiong’an, the new special area established in April 2017 by the Chinese government, as well as the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in China, both as a typology and political and economic events. By documenting and understanding the urban development pattern that has been implemented in China since 1978 and by revealing the process of translation and materialization of this capital and politics driven utopian model in the past forty years, the objective is:

1. To construct an alternate portrait of the development of Xiong’an, which is arguably a unique urban typology in China, from pieces of …

Growing Syracuse: The Architect's Role In Improving Syracuse, Ny's Food Environment, Stephanie Wagner

Architecture Thesis Prep

Urbanism requires community, and community requires a platform of public space. Underutilized spaces within the urban fabric can be activated by small scale architectural interventions to create formal spaces for community gathering, interaction, and commerce. The positioning and connectivity of these interventions can lead to the creation of new urban corridors that encourage growth within and between underdeveloped parts of the city.

It is the role of the architect to develop an architecture that is contextually relevant to a community, while addressing larger-scale urban issues, in order to create an accessible and beneficial built environment and lifestyle for users. The …

Crude Urbanism, Ahnaf Chowdhury, Anuradha Desai

Architecture Thesis Prep

Mumbai’s formal and informal components operate in interdependence. Matter from the formal is absorbed by the informal, where it is hacked, recycled and repurposed. The output, now lucrative, is spat back into the formal. For example, the city’s trash is collected, sorted and prepared by the informal as a commodity that is sold back into the formal. This cycle creates crucial nodes, where the formal relies heavily on the informal for its flexible and resilient systems.

Though these systems may be independent and engrained in Mumbai’s economy, the worker’s relation to the system’s matter reveals needs that the informal sector …

Atmospheres And Bureaucracy: Challenging Everyday Perception And Regulation Of Public Space, Philip Claghorn

Architecture Senior Theses

It is common for us to overlook the everyday elements encountered in the city such as public Wi-Fi beacons, aestheticized benches, bike-sharing stations, and other items which have colonized street-scapes. In reality, these components are cosigned by business investment districts, private businesses, and city governments who stand to profit by maintaining control of public space. This struggle between formal and informal urbanism has been played out globally. The best example of informal urban contention can be found in street vending policy. An increasingly congested sidewalk, in conjunction with convoluted policies in places such as New York City, has made street …

Suicide Normal Absurdity Foxconn Utopia, Yenhsi Tung, Yuchi Kuo

Architecture Senior Theses

Suicide normal absurdity Foxconn utopia is a study of modern architecture and urbanism in the information age. It posits that the metropolis spectacle that can be infinitely extended as a sprawling and systematic intervention. Snafu narrates the spectacle of high-efficiency in the Shenzhen and Hong Kong region, as represented by the existing Foxconn technology group in the Longhua campus. This manufacturing panorama is utopian. It consists of normal and all-inclusive phenomenon for each occupant in the form of productive cell that is embedded within an efficient coordinated system. Additionally, the standardization, optimization and hierarchical manipulation formulated by snafu generates a …