Architecture Commons^™

Community Development In Emerging Cities: A Case For Lagos,Nigeria, Olaoluwa Olakunle Silva

Masters Theses

Urban spatial expansion resulting from urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is growing and will not stabilize in the near future. Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban growth rate is climbing faster than developing economies. Efforts should be concentrated on accommodating this phenomenon through the promotion of sustainable urban planning and development.

Relying on secondary data, this research examines models of indigenous Sub-Saharan African urban forms and residential architecture vernacular to understand these forms and their characteristics, and how these models and associated management, design, and planning principles can be adopted in a contemporary context. Also, studies of established indigenous building materials and technology, …

Architecture For The Revitalization Of Community, Erin Riley

Masters Theses

While human society has changed a great deal through time, our need for community has remained prevalent. Architecture is a reflection of this need for community in its ability to gather people together by its definition of space, even in that of the basic plane of the public plaza. Though there are many factors to creating a sense of community, architecture and the manipulation of our environment can act as a tool for drawing people together and encouraging interaction between them.

The community of Holyoke was at one time a thriving industrial community in the 1900’s. With the passage of …

The Community Cohesion Trail Of Brattleboro, Vermont, Patrick C. Kitzmiller

Masters Theses

The focus of this thesis is the creation of a series of architectural installations, bridges and gardens that link together via a pedestrian/bike path to connect the urban center of Main St. in Brattleboro, Vermont with the municipal park on the western end of town known as Memorial Park.

This thesis argues that the vast majority of community interactions take place along the sidewalks of the urban downtown, and in certain centers of activity in and around the area, such as Memorial Park. Thus, these two places have been chosen to test whether architecture can be used to bridge the …

Bridging The Gap: Community-Oriented Transit Development, Matthew C. Jones

Masters Theses

The bedroom community has become a prevalent and oft-criticized part of the modern architectural landscape. These suburban towns have continually grown radially outward from major cities across the nation since the end of the Second World War. While these suburbs have served to fulfill housing needs and wants of society, pressure to develop has often forced this growth to occur at a much more rapid rate than a traditional community. This rapid development has led to poorly implemented infrastructure, especially with regard to walkability and public transportation, which has fallen short of meeting the needs of users. These solutions in …

Place And Crowdfunding: An Examination Of Two Distressed Cities, Brenna Elrod

Masters Theses

Crowdfunding is a relatively new form of funding made possible by Web 2.0. This study examines community-based projects made possible through the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter. Projects were compiled that were successfully funded between the dates of April 28, 2009 and July 26, 2012. These projects were collected for all cities listed on the site in the United States. Subsequently they were compared across three measures: raw numbers of projects, normalized city population, and against the creative class index of Richard Florida. Using these measures, Detroit and New Orleans emerged as cities for further in depth analysis. Interviews with initiators in …