Architecture Commons^™

The Tectonic Evaluation And Design Implementation Of 3d Printing Technology In Architecture, Robert Buttrick

Masters Theses

This design thesis is an assessment of the tectonic capabilities and applications of large format 3D printing, given the current available and practiced technologies. This review consists of an analysis of the technical specifications and limitations of the various forms and methods of 3D printing at all scales, followed by an in-depth analysis of technologies that have been adopted and employed at an architectural scale. A number of case studies are assessed to create a typology of tectonic types created by employing 3D printing technologies. These tectonic types: Holistic/Homogenous, Complementary/Integrative, Structural, and Sculptural are then tested to see how they …

Creating Dormitories With A Sense Of Home, Johnathon A. Brousseau

Masters Theses

With more people in the United States renting now than at any point since 1965, there is an amorphous temporality in the dwellings of many Americans (Cilluffo, Fry, 2022). This provides flexibility and thus, more freedom for upward mobility, an enticing attribute for younger people living on their own for the first time. However, this lack of permanence can create challenges in establishing a “sense of place”. When residents don’t feel a strong connection to their spaces, they can feel as if they don’t belong. This issue is especially prevalent in dormitories, where a feeling of belonging is vital to …

The Current State Of Practice Of Building Information Modeling, Kevin P. Brooks

Masters Theses

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has become extremely prominent in the construction industry in the past twenty years. It serves as a digital repository that can, when used to its fullest potential, combine all aspects of designing, building, and managing a structure in one place, alongside all the data produced in those processes. The construction industry has to date struggled to increase productivity alongside similar fields, such as the manufacturing industry, though the construction industry generally has far more stakeholders on one project than the manufacturing industry. Further, building designs are becoming more complex while project schedules are becoming tighter. As …

Designing For The Unhoused: Finding Innovative And Transformative Solutions To Housing, Hannah C. Campbell

Masters Theses

Architecture has not adequately addressed homelessness. A large population of unhoused individuals and families, in all parts of the country and even the world, are underserved by buildings and spaces. Moreover, architectural research has yet to address the depth of the problem and the necessity of versatile solutions. The aim of this research is to provide design solutions that are useful for those experiencing homelessness by focusing on the specific needs of the community. The program and design presented in this thesis attempts to find the best solutions specific to Amherst’s needs as a community. This thesis argues that, although …

Music As A Tool For Ecstatic Space Design, Pranav Amin

Masters Theses

Music and architecture share a sacred bond across cultures. Their histories intertwine and together, they shape ritualistic, religious, and popular practices. As one of the few remaining avenues of universal transcendental experiences that have been so integral to humans, music’s ability to create ecstatic spaces is ever more necessary for the modern human. This thesis uses spatial, artificial intelligence, visual, and aural tools—while engaging in a dialogue between rationalist architecture and shamanic conceptions of spaces—to create an ecstatic space that seeks to reimagine the union of music and architecture. It reveals new ways in which this union can be experienced …

Architecture Of Extraction: Imagining New Modes Of Inhabitation And Reclamation In The Mining Lifecyle, Erica Dewitt

Masters Theses

Mining is the primary method through which modern society obtains the minerals needed to fuel the global economy, provide for modern energy requirements, and support the built environment. Presently, mining accounts for nearly 1% of the global ice-free land surface, with a dramatic increase anticipated in the coming decades. Mining permanently changes and often destroys the pre-existing topography, hydrology, and ecology of the ground, and efforts to reclaim mining landscapes—with the aim of encouraging reforestation and soil replenishment—are often unsuccessful, rendering the land of abandoned mines both unusable and uninhabitable.

This thesis addresses the current state of mining in the …

Utopian Thought And Architectural Design, Anthony L. Faith

Masters Theses

This thesis proposes that architectural utopian ideas are the foundation for societal change. The communities that form from utopian ideas act as test sites for societal values on a microscale (Gondolf 1985). When communities work together on a utopian vision through dialogue, they avoid the pitfall of one person’s utopian vision being blanketed over the world (Schneekloth 1998). Utopian communities solve problems through experimentation that create different ways of living which act as visions that can provide hope (ibid). Ruth Levitas, author of The Concept of Utopia, defines utopia as “the expression of the desire for a better way of …

Improving Energy Efficiency Of School Buildings With Solar-Assisted Cooling For The Maldives, Ahmed Fathhee

Masters Theses

Anthropogenic activities are responsible for the impact of global climate change because of burning fossil fuels releasing harmful gases into the environment. As a result, the global temperature has risen about 1.18 °C since 1880, causing the global sea level to rise by 178 mm over the past century. This is a threat to countries that are closer to the ocean, especially the low-lying countries such as the Maldives. It is predicted if the sea level keeps rising, most of these islands could be below sea level by 2030.

The Maldives has a tropical climate requiring cooling to achieve thermal …

Prioritizing Climate Equity: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Massachusetts Mvp Program, Noah H. Gordon

Masters Theses

The Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program (MVP Program) has funded Community Resilience Building workshops in hundreds of communities over the past 6 years. The Planning Reports produced by these workshops offer valuable insight into the climate adaptation and climate justice priorities of Massachusetts municipalities. Climate justice literature holds that the impacts of climate change will be disproportionately felt by marginalized communities, and those addressing climate change should address the risks faced by those communities, referred to as Environmental Justice (EJ) Communities in Massachusetts. Using an inductive qualitative coding approach, this study analyzes 30 Planning Reports from towns with High, Medium …

Building Hygge In-Roads Into Incremental Living, Tanisha Kalra

Masters Theses

Housing is one aspect of architecture and urban planning that has constantly been improved and redefined to suit the needs of people during the time periods they have been living in. People have taken significant steps in establishing how they want to live in retrospect to the times, according to their values and needs. Today, more architectural research may address the understanding and production of a healthy way of living than any other aspect of placemaking. It is no surprise that so much effort supports this spatial concern, which contributes to a fundamental building block of shared cultural definitions.

The …

Off-Grid Living For The Normative Society: Shifting Perception And Perspectives By Design, Patsun Lillie

Masters Theses

Off-grid houses in the United States are often connoted with mostly non-professional, home-made structures and isolated, hippie living in remote rural areas. These off-grid homeowners may also complete their consumer-independent commitment with a minimal-waste, land-dependent lifestyle that includes methodical harnessing and recycling of resources and materials, raising livestock, and productive gardening on the property. This research paper explores the background, methods and kinds of typical off-grid living structures, their ability to harness natural resources for function and performance, and the ability of its occupants to remain resilient in the face of depleting fuel resources, extreme weather patterns, and rising costs …

The Evolution Of Chinese Supermarkets In North America: An Alternative Approach To Chinese Supermarket Design, Ruoxin Lin

Masters Theses

This thesis begins by investigating the evolution of traditional Chinese markets to Chinese supermarkets in North America. By charting the trends of these structures in shop floor layouts and site approaches, a hybridized architecture is uncovered. Then, through the design of a contemporary Chinese supermarket in Philadelphia, PA, the thesis demonstrates how values of identity and cultural awareness can be brought into dialogue with architectural trends.

Adaptive (Re)Purpose Of Industrial Heritage Buildings In Massachusetts A Modular Strategy For Building A Community, Riya D. Premani

Masters Theses

A significant portion of a building’s carbon emission comes from the materials used to construct it, primarily through fabrication and assembly. According to the World Green Building Council, this is called embodied carbon, and it makes up to 49% of the total emissions from global construction. Thus, new energy-efficient buildings can take from 10-80 years of time to offset just the carbon used in construction. Combined with such amounts of construction and demolition waste, new construction can be viewed as a wasteful or even destructive practice. Adaptive reuse presents a promising alternative method for creating new space, without the emissions …

Taming The Brut: Education, Conservation And Advocacy, Ludmilla D. Pavlova-Gillham, Chandler Mccoy, Jean Carroon, Eric Corey Freed

UMassBRUT Community

Is Brutalism part of your architectural biography? Midcentury public concrete buildings are easy to dislike, are demolished at an increasing rate, and comprise hundreds of millions of GSF . Join a panel of experts to discover how the conservation and adaptation of these “Bruts” is a principal strategy for climate action. Explore innovative solutions for Brutalist building reuse and conservation as part of a carbon zero initiative, learn how to develop an effective marketing and advocacy campaign for historic preservation, and learn why such advocacy matters for a circular economy and for the next generation of architects in practice.

LEARNING …

Arts - Culture - Local Dining - Back To The River: Transforming The Heart Ofindian Orchard In Springfield, Ma Senior Urban Design Studio Fall 2022, Lio Averill, Skyler Burns, Zixin Chen, Anamika Dargan, Ted Duffy, Marykate Farnham, Andrew Foley, Molly Hancock, Haruka Kushida, Matthew Ledoux, Shangyi Liu, Luc-Danel Metivier, Luviana Mclean, Taylor Mills, Camilla Novo, Lucia Peña, Andrew Reilly, Frank Sleegers

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Instructor

Frank Sleegers

Abstract

ARTS - CULTURE - LOCAL DINING - BACK TO THE RIVER takes a focused look at the neighborhood of Indian Orchard in their historic mill district and provides strategies for urban design and landscape architecture to support residents’ visions for the future. With the Studio’s partnership between the Indian Orchard Citizen’s Council, Grow IO (Wellspring Harvest), and the Springfield Office of Planning and Economic Development, the overarching goal for each design team was to create a transformative dining and arts district in the historic core of Indian Orchard. The Senior Urban Design Studio 2022 created six …

Green, Equitable And Livable Transforming The Core Of Mason Square In Springfield, Ma, Michael Amato, Jacqueline Berlin, Michael Chancellor, Zachary Delorenzo, Chaitrali Doke, Pavana Jairaj, Chandana Palika, Michael Riccio, Julie Slater, Jeffrey Taylor

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

GREEN, EQUITABLE AND LIVABLE - TRANSFORMING THE CORE OF MASON SQUARE takes a focused look at the Mason Square Planning District in Springfield, Ma and provides strategies for urban design and landscape architecture to support a community’s vision for the future.

The students engaged through various community meetings for the larger Mason Square district in the spring of 2023 and enthusiastically supported the ideas and thoughts that were expressed. brownfield at Wilbraham Avenue. The larger goal is to shape a district for everybody to create safe and beautiful streets, provide better connectivity to public urban green, enhance arts, culture and …

Restoration And Recreation A Cranberry Bog’S Return To Wetland For Water Quality And Recreation, Rebecca Requa Bagdigian-Boone

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Cranberry bogs are an iconic part of the New England scenery, specifically on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Commercial cranberry farming originated in the states starting in 1816, but the indigenous people of New England have had a much longer relationship to the plant, Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait. Cranberry farming relies more heavily on access to freshwater than other forms of agriculture; because of the use of water for irrigation, harvesting, and overwintering protection, cranberry bogs are often located in areas directly adjacent to waterways. Although necessary to support productive bogs the agricultural practices involved in cranberry growing have significant ecological impacts …

Empowering Marginalized Community Members To Impact The Food System: A Strategic Communications Plan For The Hampshire County Food Policy Council, Michelle Mccue

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Hampshire County Food Policy Council (HCFPC) is an initiative of Healthy Hampshire, which is part of Mass in Motion, a statewide public health initiative administered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Healthy Hampshire works to address the disconnect between food access barriers and opportunities in the 14 towns in Hampshire and Hampden Counties.

This document presents a Communications Strategy to serve as a roadmap to continue expanding awareness about the HCFPC and its work, both among partners and participants and throughout the community at large.

Beyond D-Space Landscape Strategies For An Expanding Wildland-Urban Interface, Bo Carpen

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Destructive wildfires have increased exponentially in number, size, and economic damages over the past four decades (Buechi et al., 2021). Since the 1990’s, the average duration of wildfire season and spatial extent of at-risk landscapes have both grown substantially, posing greater environmental risk for populations throughout the western United States (Balch et al., 2016). Within the Colorado Front Range, wildfire risk is also expanding into new terrian as threats grows in suburban grassland landscapes (Brasch, 2022). Recent wildfire mitigation plans developed by foresters, fire planners, local area planners, and landscape architects are inventoried to study emerging wildfire buffer approaches for …

Cumulative Impact Of Repeated Wildfire Displacement Events On Migration In The Western United States, Bo Carpen

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Climate migration has been identified as an urgent issue that will likely add greater complexity to existing climate change planning efforts (Black, 2011; Ahsan, 2011). Existing climate migration literature has primarily focused on international migration and the Global South, offering limited applicability to internal conditions in developed countries due to the issue’s high context dependency (Hoffman, 2020). Local and municipal planners have a responsibility to pursue evidence-based climate adaptation strategies (Mitchell, 2020). Yet, planners lack reliable data to forecast potential changes to regional migration based on repeated exposure to climate stressors. To date, research has been primarily qualitative in nature, …

Mill Redevelopment Toolkit, Janko Tomasic

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Not long ago, mills were the centerpieces and economic engine of many communities throughout New England. With the departure of the manufacturing industry, many of these structures and complexes fell into vacancy and blight, with many being demolished outright. The town of Ludlow, MA is an example of a smaller mill community that was impacted by the closure of its mill. It resulted in the decline and eventual stagnation of population and economic growth. Large unused buildings may bring sorrow to the residents who once worked the floors and machines, but they can also offer opportunity. Through the effective adaptive …

Where Did My Land Go?: “Land Rights For Quilombolas And Indigenous Peoples In Brazil”, Joyia Smikle

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This ArcGIS storymap project explores the history of the Quilombolas, the Afro-Brazilian people in Brazil that are descendants of enslaved Africans, and the path to land rights for the Quilombos. In addition this study looks at Indigenous land rights and the importantance of their sustainable practices to the health of the Amazon.

For access to the Storymap including full functionality with the maps, please go to “https://arcg.is/mXumD ”

Plum Island Resiliency Toolkit A Toolkit For Homeowners And The Community, Jake Harlow

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Most of the land directly on the Atlantic coast is flat and at sea level making it more vulnerable to sea-level rise impacts (EPA, 2022). Plum Island is in Essex County, Massachusetts, adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. Plum Island is divided between four municipalities that include Newburyport, Newbury, Rowley, and Ipswich a. Plum Island is a barrier island system that faces threats from sea-level rise and climate change impacts indicated in the “Newburyport Climate Resiliency Plan” and “Plum Island: Exploring the Fiscal and Economic Implications of Sea Level Rise, “report. The project focus area encompasses the northern 1/3 of Plum …

Arts And Culture In Amherst, Ma: An Economic Impact Analysis Of The Drake, Chanel Lobdell

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Drake is a live performance and music venue in the heart of Amherst that was developed in 2022 by The Downtown Amherst Foundation. The Downtown Amherst Foundation believes that art and culture will be the economic and destination driver for Amherst and the Drake was the organization’s first project to bring more arts and culture into downtown. Now that the Drake has been opened for over a year, the foundation is interested in learning about the economic impacts that it had on Amherst.

High Capacity Transit Through The Merrimack Valley Corridor: Feasibility And Alternatives For Improved Transit For The Region, Henry Mulvey

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Presently, the interurban bus routes of the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MeVa) connecting Lawrence, Lowell, and Haverhill have the highest ridership of any of the routes on the MeVa system. Connecting those three cities, and the surrounding suburbs and UMass Lowell, with a light rail line or a bus rapid transit line, would improve the commute of the people already using those bus routes and draw more residents to public transit. This project undertook corridor-based alternatives and feasibility analysis that looked at a specific proposal for a high capacity transit line connecting the three cities that would be beneficial …

Improving Mental Health Through Streetscape Design In Indian Cities A Typology And Proposed Intervention In The Kalkaji Neighborhood Of Delhi, Muskaan Handa

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Healing landscapes have long been an important aspect of human life. Monastic communities in the Western world-maintained infirmaries based on the use of herbs and prayers, which nearly invariably included a cloistered garden. The relevance of nature in the healing process has been significantly lessened as a result of modern improvements in technology, and this has been one regrettable result of the "cure over care" phenomenon present in many parts of the healthcare field. Traditional healing gardens are frequently located in or near indoor healthcare facilities. "Why?" is the question. Why can’t therapeutic gardens work as healing landscapes blending with …

Prioritizing Climate Equity: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Massachusetts Mvp Program, Noah Gordon

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The impacts of climate change are already being felt today and will continue to be felt for centuries. Thousands of scientists from around the world emphatically agree that anthropogenic emissions (emissions related to human activities) have caused an increase in the average global temperature since pre-industrial times, and will continue to elevate temperatures unless CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are drastically reduced (Working Group I 2021). Many governments at all scales around the globe have taken steps to mitigate GHG emissions. The US Environmental Protection Agency, for example, has set more stringent standards for the fuel efficiency of …

Design And Integration Of Multimodal Urban Allotment Gardens: Considerations For Landscape Architecture And Planning In Porto, Portugal, Remington Pontes

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Public open space is a fundamental and imperative constituent of contemporary urban infrastructure. As a resolute fixture of the built landscape, public space, especially green space, represents the sites and settings of public life, ideally functioning as the primary urban forum for political action and community representation, social interaction and integration, physical recreation, civic participation, and a variety of ecosystem services including stormwater management (Carmona et al., 2003, Chen, 2017). However, despite the socio- ecological significance of public open spaces in facilitating a cohesive and environmentally sustainable public realm, over the past half-century, cities throughout the Global North have been …

Thermal Efficacy Of Green Walls In Building Structures In The Northeast United States, Nathaniel Wright

Student Showcase

Climate change is one of the most threatening issues that humankind faces in the 21st century and there is indisputable evidence that our planet is experiencing global temperature rise, shrinking of ice sheets and sea level rise, warming oceans, and extreme weather events at an alarming rate. Urbanization drives these changes and creates the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. One method to mitigate this issue is urban greening, specifically the construction of green walls which take advantage of unused vertical exteriors of buildings. Despite existing literature on green walls especially in Europe and Asia, green walls must be researched more …

Memory And Resistance, Cami Quinteros

Masters Theses

The centuries-old neocolonial relationship between the United States and Latin America is marked by acts of silencing, either directly in the hands of U.S. foreign affairs organizations or by proxy governments economically supported by the United States. These attempts to de-memorialize the atrocities of the past consolidate the power dynamic between the inheritors of colonial rule, and those who were colonized. U.S. interventionist policies––borne of corporate interests, the safeguarding of capitalism, and a skewed sense of national security––have created mass and enduring violence in Latin America, resulting in waves of migration north, where the journeys of the displaced are often …