Architecture Commons^™

Slowness In The Fray : Architecture That Orients To Nature, Colin Christensen

Masters Theses

We currently live in a digital age that is marked by the rise of virtual reality and instant access to information and entertainment through smartphones. These technological developments are not inherently bad, but they have reduced our attention span and ability to focus on the world around us. This phenomenon is best stated by social scientist Herbert Simon,“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a …

Shadow Theater, Yaodan Wu

Masters Theses

In this project, I try to explore the relationship between light and shadow, light and image. From exploring the formula of lens refraction, to observe unique path of object moves created by nature. I am always exploring and trying to use architecture in response to light and to sculpture light, and attract people to come to this space feeling light, interact with light. In this space, people, architecture, light and shadows are as the elements of mutual equality, influence in interaction, waving the space tighter.

Project is located in Pemaquid Point, Maine State. In the day time light are mainly …

Nostalgia For The Future : Home 2028, Junqing Yang

Masters Theses

to

People I met,

Places I have been,

the past

and future

Lighting : An Atrium Core To Reconnect With The Sun, Quan Lei

Masters Theses

At the Rhode Island School of Design, students work so much that they treat their studio as home; the majority stay in studio past midnight, which leads to lack of sleep. How to improve students’ physical and mental health is a question demanding immediate investigation, particularly as relates to rest. According to the scientists at the Lighting Research Center (LRC) in Troy, N.Y, engagement with daylight environments increase occupant productivity and comfort, and provide the mental and visual stimulation necessary to regulate circadian rhythms, encouraging more restful sleep. Students cannot function healthily because their busy schedules remove them from the …

A Tale Of Lights : Light As The Visual Construct Of The Ephemeral Space, Alice M. Zhen

Masters Theses

Buildings are designed for a specific purpose. A library has large open rooms to accommodate bookshelves, schools have classrooms and auditoriums for groups of students, businesses have offices and conference rooms, homes have bedrooms and living rooms, and so on. In each situation, conventional architecture would start by establishing the boundaries of the site, defining the 2 dimensional floor plan, and then introduce other secondary aspects, such as circulation & light, which eventually create a coherent and cohesive 3 dimensional space.

In my thesis I wanted to explore the reverse process to emphasize the importance of light. I wanted to …

[De]Construction And [Re]Construction : A Promenade Theater, Jingjing Zhao

Masters Theses

REFRAME THE COMMONPLACE

I see corners, ceilings, openings and steps. I see the whole through gathering the spatial fragmentations. I see the extraordinary phenomenon within the frame of domestic life. I see the potential for being anomaly from what we usually take for granted.

Spaces are entities propelled by the phenomenological, the conceptual and the physical. Built and spatial forms serves as functional and structural vessel to capture, balance and rearrange the multiple forces between the common and the abnormal, between the real and the abstract.

Capturing the domestic moments in daily life and reframe the fragmentations into certain from …

Motion And Architecture : Transition Between Spatial Fluidity And Body Language, Tong Li

Masters Theses

Architecture is always changing. Seeing birds flapping the wings, horses running across the grassland, leaves falling down from the tip of the tree, clouds being blew away by a gust of wind, a drop of water sliding down from a flake of flower...I see architecture.

Sharing : A Synergy Of Natural Forces, Existing Urban Conditions And Human Characteristics, Zhen Meng

Masters Theses

"Sharing is a synergy which produce a combine effort greater than their separate efforts. It based on the dependency of independent material(s), object(s) or structure(s), and can generate more possibilities.

There always be one dominant, one compliant, one gives the direction, one follows the order. Sometimes the direction is selectional and compliance can be multiple. By following the characteristic of objects, with the superposition of selected orders, the result can be complex and diverse.

When design complient to the natural forces and existing urban condition, then meeting different human characteristics, taking advantage of the restrictions, carefully making small changes that …

Unfolding : Architecture As Dwelling In A Folded Space-Time Continuum, Feiyi Bie

Masters Theses

Architecture can be described as the relationship between exterior form and interior space — typically a representation of desire by both architect and inhabitant. However, when architecture responds specifically to issues of transportation, it must unfold in time and space, creating different spatial experiences that provoke an evolution in human habitation.

Twilight Revelation, Shuwen Xu

Masters Theses

The first inspiration came from the thrilling phenomenal nuance caused by the natural light, especially the diffused and cool light — that’s why I am so fascinated with the dawn. Also, the “conditional” idea proposed by Robert Irwin in his book “Being and Circumstance — Notes Toward a Conditional Art” influenced my attitude towards landscape and public art: the design could be a tool to “reveal” the phenomenal changes and make people become more aware of them, instead of changing the existing condition arbitrarily.

Then I chose “threshold” — the space between private and public condition, interior and exterior, which …

In Light Of Light, Chen Sun

Masters Theses

The pursuit of architectural discourse is indeed a search for a better material existence of space serving the immaterial. Meaningful space should outreach beyond its actuality, satisfying more than the basic pragmatist. It should generate an experience evoking appropriate sequence of emotions, expressing the current life and culture.

Light should surely be the subject of the discourse then, because that space conveys most of its intentionality through altering the behavior of light, while we also contributes to the alteration with our inhabitation. Like a silent speech, Light doesn’t merely conduct the spatial actuality; it also conveys the emotions attached through …