Architecture Commons^™

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 …

Cloud Seeding Pavilion, Modu

Building Case Studies

The ceiling supports 30,000 balls that move freely with the wind across its surface. This overhead movement allows public events to occur in different areas of the pavilion, connecting its cultural and leisure programs to the invisible forces of weather.

Smart Masonry, Zaarchitects

Building Case Studies

"The Smart Masonry is a structural design and a construction method, based on traditional masonry techniques. It deploys the digital optimization to minimize dead-weight of the skeleton and the robotic construction technique to assemble complex geometry."

Tesla Solar Roof, Tesla

Building Case Studies

The roof tiles are actually made of textured glass. From most viewing angles, they look just like ordinary shingles, but they allow light to pass through from above onto a standard flat solar cell. These roofs should far outlast the standard 20-year life cycle common for roofing materials used today and are able to power a strandard home.

Enel Pavilion, Piuarch

Building Case Studies

650 polycarbonate vectors. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent

Red Mirror Strips, Wise Architecture

Building Case Studies

The structure of the building follows the image of the strips. Instead of the general H-shape steel columns, numerous thin hollow steel sections support the building. It is like glazing the mullions to maximize building transparency from the interior. The building consists of many layers of materials: from steel, glass, super mirror strips, red transparent polycarbonate strips, and then back to super mirror strips. These layers make the in-between space of the stair passage fluid and blur its boundaries. They challenge the idea that architecture exists as a rigid structure in solid state.