Architecture Commons^™

Crafting Community: A Ceramics Center, Nadia Mechboukh

Theses and Dissertations

For artisans, being part of a community can facilitate engaging with the public. Networking and collaborating with peers are vital for building meaningful relationships that can lead to mutual inspiration and learning opportunities. By strengthening the connection between society and various forms of craft, we can weave invisible threads that link the stories that craft tells with the time and place in which they were created. Pottery is a craft that has existed for thousands of years. Ceramics and clay have carried the history of communities and their ways of living through centuries and have been used as identifiers of …

Design Hub: Activating Community By Design, Ed Williams

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION

At the turn of the century, Robert Putnam (2000, 27) wrote “...a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current.” Putnam is describing a loss of “social capital” throughout American society. Research suggests that many of our contemporary issues are the result of a decline in “social capital,” or “community.”

This pervasive lack of community is thought to be detrimental to “educational performance, safe neighborhoods, equitable tax collection, democratic responsiveness, everyday honesty, and even our health …

Capturing The Ephemeral, Caroline L. J. Matteson

Theses and Dissertations

Music, it has been shown, has the potential to both create social cohesion and encourage conflict resolution (Koelsch, Offermanns, & Franzke, 2010). In a city with deep roots in slavery, music may be more powerful than language or the toppling of monuments to help create a cultural identity that every demographic can fit. Not only can music improve mood in an individual, but musical contagion affects large groups at once. Creating a space to equalize access to and share the experience of music—both making and appreciation—would give the city an opportunity for reconciliation and community bonding.

While a universal quality …

Creating Place For A Placeless Generation, Laura Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Making up one quarter of the current United States population, some 80 million Generation Y-ers are changing the ways in which we live, work and play. Dubbed “Millennials” this population is comprised of those individuals born between 1980 and 2000. This generation is the first to have been raised with cell phones, the internet, and reality television. The “Selfie” or “Me Generation” is snubbed for narcissism and an instant gratification attitude. Yet on the whole Millennials have progressive values, are well educated, are conscious of their health and are optimistic about the future despite coming of age during the Great …

Music And Movement, Yvonne M. Lefrancois

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this project is to provide a musical hub for the learning, practice, and performance of music for students ages 10-18 in order to cultivate trust and education in the community. This project examines the role music plays as a vital part of our communities and city resources. The communities we live in should not only supply opportunities for the music but support the music. Support of the music can allow cultural learning in the community and create a new pattern of education between parent and child. Just as most school systems support the learning of math and …