Architecture Commons^™

The Way Of Water: A Cultural Revival, Mariana Munoz

Architecture Senior Theses

THE WAY OF WATER: A CULTURAL REVIVAL MARIANA MUNOZ:

This thesis aims to address the challenges facing the coastal community of Condado, Puerto Rico, by proposing interventions that protect against floods and restore access to water, while also enhancing daily life and cultural practices. Through an examination of the community’s existing conditions, and answer three research questions: (1) how to mitigate flooding without displacing the community, (2) how to meet the needs of the community during times of emergency, and (3) how to integrate interventions into daily life and existing practices. The proposed interventions include a canal system to redirect …

Hacking Bioluminescence: A Living Laboratory In Puerto Mosquito, Blanca Roura

Architecture Senior Theses

Following a study of the chemistry and biology behind the process of bioluminescence and an understanding of the components of a bioluminescent bay, the project proposes a living laboratory in the Puerto Mosquito biolumi nescent bay for the appreciation of bioluminescence. activity will be recycled to become the imput for another. To prevent detrimental effects upon the ecology resulting from the anthropogenic presence, a feedback system that redirects waste and resources among the programmatic components is implemented. The waste from one “There are places in the world where diving into the water on a moonless night is like diving into …

Liberated Confinement: Puertorican Hacienda And Prison Environments, Adriana Concepcion

Architecture Senior Theses

"Understanding the similarities between constrained environments in colonial Puerto Rican Haciendas and the typological needs of prison architecture, the exploration of both confinement systems and programs can lead to the re-activation of a typological puertorican plantation. Consequentially a shift from prison's historical identity, from panopticon's main purpose of controlling the masses to a de-centralization of surveillance through the provision of personalized spaces within confined environments can re-structure constrained architecture to produce liberated, flexible spaces, without sacrificing security."

Casa Como Yo, Gabriela Montilla

Architecture Senior Theses

"The key to addressing Puerto Rico’s increased life expectancy is to provide housing that improves people’s quality of life while growing older. I contend that the role of architecture is to encourage people to embrace aging through a re-conceptualization of senior housing: designed as “not so senior” (which stigmatizes the older individual as being less capable) and more focused on life satisfaction- promoting free will, flexibility, and program integration. Housing for the aging population should accommodate spatial needs over time in a self-directed personal environment, as well as provide interest and connection to the larger urban community."

Mangrove Housing: Ecosystem As A Housing Typology For Culebra, Pr, Jose Manuel Marti

Architecture Senior Theses

"This thesis will address ways in which design can provide safe shelter for the local residents of Culebra. It promotes an architecture that provides safe shelter during hurricanes, which creates an awareness of the danger and effects this natural force has."

Reclaiming Vieques, Angela Albela

Architecture Senior Theses

" The physical environment at any point in history is the result of all the various events of the history of that place prior to that moment. It tends to manifest itself as a palimpsest of artifacts and mentifacts. It is my contention that architecture has the capacity to create a space of education and reflection about history. The objective of this process is to create an architecture that reclaims and presents the history that may have vanished. "

Rehabilitate The Urban Context By Rehabilitating Individuals Through The Rehabilitation Of Buildings, Paloma Del Mar Riego

Architecture Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Identity Through Spectacle, Miguel Antonio Felices

Architecture Senior Theses

"The space of cultural spectacle can lead to a re-definiteion of identity in Condado through architectural implications that capitalize rather than 'sole' its state of ambivalence. For the foreigner who seeks the exotic and the denizen who seeks the authentic, the cultural spectacle can become a point of convergence.

Architecture has the capacity to mould an ambiguous cultural identity by facilitating and sustaining the cultural expressions of a people though a space of spectacle."

{Perm] House: Performance Of Recycled Materials, Cristina Alonso

Architecture Senior Theses

"The construction of single-family housing units will prodive an opportunity to design using recycled materials. This thesis seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the unit's performance in a tropical climate, through means of passive cooling; in particular the promotion of comfort ventilation during the daytime."