Architecture Commons^™

St Louis Modern Residences As Cultural Sites, 1938–1951, Mariana Melin-Corcoran

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

In the 1930s and 1940s, the modern architectural style was first introduced in the United States through exhibitions and publications. The style was also introduced through the works of prominent architects, in particular through their own homes, where they were not beholden to a client. This investigation examines six modern residences in St. Louis during the foundational years of the style, analyzing their architectural, social, and cultural impact as their distinguished local designers navigated new ideas of modern living in the region. These modern houses primarily acted as private homes, but they were also works of art that intrigued and …

Cahokia's Hidden Landscape: Mound Building And Landscape Modification In The Ramey Field, John Grant Stauffer

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cahokia is the largest known PreColumbian settlement north of Mexico and includes over 100 documented earthworks, generally called “mounds.” Additionally, it contains several plazas and occupation areas, or village areas, that are divided into management units called tracts. The Ramey Field is one such tract that includes mounds, plazas, village areas, and portions of large palisade walls that enclosed the central core of the site. The research findings presented here focus on the timing and scale of landscape modifications that included construction of multiple mounds and an East Plaza that co-existed with three other plazas oriented to the cardinal directions …

Mosque Architecture And Identity: A Study Of The Autochthonous Mosque In China, Yutong Ma

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

This thesis argues that an autochthonous mosque architecture exists in China, and this historical type adequately serves as a reference for contemporary mosque building in southeastern China in light of how it responded to the Chinese cultural and urban contexts. Many Hui Muslims and architects in this region refuse to consider historical mosque architecture built in traditional Chinese architectural style as their cultural references in constructing new mosques, as they believe that the traditional Chinese architectural language is insufficient to express their identity as Muslims. Instead, they prefer a collection of symbolic architectural elements to be used in mosque architecture …

Neighborhood Form And Social Cohesion: What Can We Learn Before And During Social Distancing, Wei Liu

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

Creating a more sustainable urbanism is among the most pressing issues facing the world. Social sustainability is often overlooked as a pillar of sustainable urbanism. A cohesive community, a core component of social sustainability, is an essential social resource in developing a fundamental unit of sustainable urbanism. Social cohesion has the ability to help communities navigate and overcome crisis, a quality of a cohesive neighborhood that has been brought to the forefront during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While the urban planning and design literature provides insights into the role of physical form in social cohesion more research is still needed. …

Art And Empathy: Self Discovery In A Dark Forest, Younser Lee

Graduate School of Art Theses

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million people report feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress as the world moves at an increasingly rapid pace and faces unprecedented challenges. However, many ignore these negative thoughts and fail to acknowledge them as a serious issue. My art, which shares my own experiences, creates safe, cathartic places for viewers to think about their own emotional experiences. Crucial to this process is my use of daily objects and the creation of individualized, participatory, and multisensory experiences.

My art relates to daily life and the negative emotions that we experience daily. I …

Sustainable Diets For Planetary Health: A Study Of Indigenous Based Agri-Food Systems In A Community Of The Central Highlands Of Ecuador, Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrio

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to explore the psychosocial and agroecological dimensions of sustainable diets and their roles in the rural Andean community of Caliata in the Ecuadorian highlands, I conducted a community-centered participatory mixed-methods study. Thirty-nine focus groups and ten key informant interviews were conducted, recorded, translated, transcribed, and analyzed using three-stage coding. The information was triangulated using participant observation, local records, and descriptive statistics from a survey of 57 female household heads, which included a modified 48-hour dietary recall module. Rural appraisal research assessed agroecological dimensions. Ten purposively selected sites were studied alongside local informants in order to obtain diversity indexes …

Drawings Of A House: Reading Multiple Authorships In Architecture, John Knuteson

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

This thesis reconsiders the notion of authorship in architecture by examining the drawings, characters and stories surrounding the W.A. Glasner House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1906 and located in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, Illinois. The house stands out in Wright’s body of work as his first project to assimilate the dominant horizontality of the prairie style with complex topography, and for its unusual residential program. Perhaps more importantly, the process by which the Glasner House was designed, drawn and modified reveals a critical way of viewing authorship in architecture by introducing the contributions of multiple different characters. …

For Cheryl: The Long And The Short Of It, Rachel Lebo

Graduate School of Art Theses

Short stories are an indirect way of creating a truth by showing instead of telling. They are a way to observe and communicate a single idea. A short story for me is a vehicle for hiding my truth behind a character, exploring myself in the safety of an identity that is not my own. When I read Chunky in Heat, author A.M. Homes and I hide together behind her character, Cheryl, and find solidarity.

The following writings, paintings, and sculptures are collaborations between myself and the women of short story fiction. Those women being the authors, the subjects, and …

Concrete Poetry, Sara Ghazi Asadollahi

Graduate School of Art Theses

This text addresses my work as an artist and defines it in the context of the following subjects: The concept of ruins, which highlights the relationship between architecture and landscape; the formal and metaphorical dialectic between absence and presence in abandoned places; and the idea of dystopia, which emerges from that in-between space where the real dissolves into the imaginary. At the same time, my work is inspired by the visual culture of cinema and literature, principally within the science-fiction genre, and draws upon my observation of abandoned buildings in Tehran, my native city. These urban ruins are products of …

Architectural Effects Of Urban Renewal In St. Louis: An Examination Of High-Rise Housing Development In St. Louis, Tingting Lyu

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the history and impetus for the low-rent high-rise public housing projects constructed prior to 1965 in St. Louis. Except for the largest and most well-known Pruitt-Igoe project which already had been the subject of a lot of study, other major public housing towers were John J. Cochran Garden Apartment (MO 1-3), completed in 1952-1953; George L. Vaughn Apartments (MO-1-6), Joseph M. Darst Apartments (MO-1-7), and Anthony M. Webbe Apartments (MO-1-7a). These later projects opened between 1957-1960. By situating these projects within the urban renewal movement and the context of public housing provision in the …

The Vital Ambiguity Of Surface: Culturally Determined Notions Of Metaphor And Performance In Contemporary Building Material, Christopher T. Campbell

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis investigates the systems and information decipherable within a material surface; more specifically, those ideas of value, performance, and function we may infer from the surface of contemporary building materials. When these materials are reduced to their flattened image, the cosmetic facade of a surface has the capacity to inform as well as deceive. Additionally, we may see in materials outward properties, such as color or tactility, the capacity for metaphor and the application of a symbolic personhood. This thesis seeks to comprehend the ways in which these expectations become fodder for complication and paradox, and promote a perceptual …

Can We Walk? Environmental Supports For Active Travel In India, Deepti Adlakha

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Rapid rates of increase of obesity, diabetes, and associated chronic and co-morbid non-communicable diseases (e.g., cardiovascular diseases and some cancers) are being documented in India, yet in-country evidence-based research of associated risk factors is lacking. Physical activity has been identified as a preventative factor to counter the risk from obesity-related non-communicable diseases. Built environment supports for physical activity represent promising strategies to curb the rise in non-communicable diseases. Mounting research evidence suggests that the built environment can facilitate or constrain physical activity. However, a majority of this research has been conducted in developed nations. Built environment correlates of physical …

Gold, Iron, And Stone: The Urban And Architectural History Of Denver, Colorado, Caitlin A. Milligan

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

The state of Colorado and its capital city of Denver conjure up mental images of swift skiers flying down snowy slopes, hikers making their way through dense forests, and enormous mountain ranges penetrating the skyline with their jagged peaks. The image of Colorado is one of the scenic beauty of the outdoors that awaits any tourist, and its capital city is at the center of it all. Since its founding in 1858, Denver has gone from a small pioneering village to a large metropolis with a spot on the global map. The history and development of this city is a …

Postwar Residential New Towns In Japan: Constructing Modernism, Michelle L. Hauk

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

In 1963, Japan passed the New Residential Town Development Act prompting the construction of publicly constructed large-scale residential satellite towns across the nation in response to a severe housing crisis. Addressing two case studies, Senri New Town near Osaka and Tama New Town outside of Tokyo, this thesis examines the historical and social context of the design and construction of postwar new towns by tracing the institutional, intellectual, and architectural histories that shaped their urban form. Senri New Town, the first to be built in Japan, exemplified the model for the postwar new town while Tama New Town, the largest, …

Chimeric Realities, Thomas C. Moore

Graduate School of Art Theses

This essay examines the urban experience in postmodern cities and mediated reality. Modernity brought a change in perception that altered the experience of the city. This shift was registered through cinema which disrupted the fixity of classical space and provided an aesthetic reception similar to the gaze the flaneur. With the transition into postmodernism came the idea of the Heterotopia, a city that is capable of juxtaposing multiple temporalities and spaces that are themselves incompatible. The postmodern city developed with the exponential growth of mass communication and consumption immersing us in mediated reality.

My projective works make use of collage …

Ek Tou Homerou Ad Homerum: A Survey Of The Roman Imperial Iconography Of Homer, Juan Dopico

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates the imagery of Homer in Roman imperial mosaics stemming from the 2^nd century AD to the 5^th century AD. In doing so, it will show that the Romans perhaps transformed the image of Homer in order that the patron may identify himself as an erudite and intellectual elite. This practice might have strong parallels with literary treatments with Homer during the Second Sophistic, especially among the Platonic philosophical tradition in the imperial period.

As a tool for those wishing to do a systematic analysis of figures in Roman art, mosaics contain some advantages that other …

Midcentury Planning In San Juan, Puerto Rico: Rexford Guy Tugwell, Henry Klumb, And Design For "Modernization", Linda Levin Moreen

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Columbia University's Introductory Pedagogy (1986 - 1991), Daniel Stephen Johnson

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Fumihiko Maki And His Theory Of Collective Form: A Study On Its Practical And Pedagogical Implications, Xi Qiu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This thesis seeks to reexamine Fumihiko Maki’s Investigations in Collective Form: 1964) from a historical and educational point of view, speculating the practical and pedagogical implications of Maki’s collective form theory. Firstly, to better understand the formation of both the writer himself and the book, the historical context in the 1950s and 1960s will be unfolded to reveal what Maki had encountered during his formative years that had contributed to his cross-cultural background and had inspired his thoughts in the book. Secondly, the three paradigms and the notion of linkage, as proposed in the book, will be analyzed through comparisons …

Modern In St. Louis: 1930'S Architects And Their Clients, Mary Reid Brunstrom

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The long decade between the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the entry of the US into World War 11 in 1941 is notable in the history of architecture in St. Louis because modernist trends first appeared during the period. This thesis examines these early appearances. Some three decades bad elapsed since the Viennese architect, Otto Wagner (1841-1918) in 1896 had coined the term "modern architecture" in his book of the same name, in which he argued for fresh architectural responses to the rapidly changing conditions of the machine age. 1 1n St. Louis, architectural works that even now appear …

Society, Consciousness, And Planning, Thomas Allen Dutton

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is concerned with the issues of social injustice and suffering and how they might be overcome through social change. The intent is to examine critically the role of urban planning within contemporary society. So that this may be accomplished effectively, the inquiry is not as much concerned with the fundamentals of planning proper, as it is an attempt to understand the processes particular to the social order, with special scrutiny to the relationship between science, technology, and the economic system. This focus of study is necessary in order to become more acquainted with the nature of the institutional …