Architecture Commons^™

Toxic Glacier: Confronting Our Society's Consumerism Culture, Valeria Otero Lopez

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis is situated in the scenario of a dysfunctional society in which States refuse to cooperate with one another, and every State refuses to import NYC’s waste.

I’m proposing the implementation of a waste treatment plant that processes waste into a “Toxic Glacier” in Central Park, which was originally developed as a place to escape from the overcrowding and polluting streets. Because of the tremendous size this would conquer, there is nowhere in NYC to execute the project but the park.

This project uncovers the City’s hidden motives for concealing waste from its inhabitants. It questions the City’s intentions …

Unearthed: Architect Invades Time Square With Soil, Megha Murali

Architecture Senior Theses

Rammed Earth has not yet been studied in terms of soil's inherent spatial qualities. This thesis aims to create a set of rules to follow when designing with Rammed Earth. Coupling physical testing and a series of interviews with experts, the rules are formed by manifesting natural qualities of soil as spatial manipulations. The outcome goal of this project is to broadcast soil as a material. Imagining a Rammed Earth intervention in today's world, the news about Rammed Earth would be spread as the headlining article in the New York Times. Aiming to educate a wide audience on Rammed Earth, …

Radicalization Of The Spectacle: Fostering Free Artistic Expression Through Architecture, Mackenzie Lubin

Architecture Senior Theses

My thesis, entitled Radicalization of the Spectacle, explores the intersection between the urban conditions of New York City, Times Square, and the notion of radicalization. The term ‘radicalization’ refers to an extreme change in worldly affairs. This term is critical in understanding my view of architecture, as it suggests architecture must formatively react to changes in culture, climate, politics, etc. Moreover, the term ‘radical’ is aggressively progressive and favors social reform performance, adding an urgency for new ideas to form. Secondly, the term ‘Spectacle’ refers to a visually and spatially arresting event that is dramatic in occurrence. The act of …

A School Design: For Homeless Children In Nyc, Tingjie Zhou

Architecture Senior Theses

By the end of 2017, more than fifteen thousand homeless families with over twenty-three thousand children lived in shelters in New York City (Coalition for the homeless, Facts About Homelessness). Receiving education in a school, a daily activity for school age children, can easily become an unachievable thing for homeless children. Though many programs and acts are carried out to help these children, their educational situation is still severe.

Noticing the circumstance that homeless children are facing, I’m interested in the role that architecture can play in responding to homeless children’s educational concerns. When looking at the schools with high …

Growing Above The City: Application Of Open-Source Urban Agriculture System To Different Boroughs In Nyc, Jiyoon Bae

Architecture Senior Theses

The metropolitan area we live in faces the environmental as well as social issues such as air pollution, high density, or broken work-life balance, which cause our unhealthy lifestyle. New York City is one of the representative areas where faces social and environmental problems. At the same time, many of the social movements are uprising to overcome those issues. Urban agriculture is part of these movements to restore their healthy life, resisting against food discrimination, or educating the public about health and environmental significance. According to official reports, the number of urban farms reaches 550 through the entire city. However, …

Atmospheres And Bureaucracy: Challenging Everyday Perception And Regulation Of Public Space, Philip Claghorn

Architecture Senior Theses

It is common for us to overlook the everyday elements encountered in the city such as public Wi-Fi beacons, aestheticized benches, bike-sharing stations, and other items which have colonized street-scapes. In reality, these components are cosigned by business investment districts, private businesses, and city governments who stand to profit by maintaining control of public space. This struggle between formal and informal urbanism has been played out globally. The best example of informal urban contention can be found in street vending policy. An increasingly congested sidewalk, in conjunction with convoluted policies in places such as New York City, has made street …

Re-Forming Prison: Better Mental Health Through Progressive Penitentiary Design, Emily Lodato

Architecture Senior Theses

Prisons are intended to both punish and inform their inhabitants. Complicating this task are the 21.7% of inmates who have serious mental health issues. Most contemporary experts claim that addressing mental health challenges in a progressive manner in prison will promote better results in terms of reduced recidivism through improved therapeutic techniques that foster an enhanced level of general humane-ness in the day to day management of penitentiaries. This thesis can be used as a methodology for rethinking community development and the promotion of mental health through architecture.

Bookspace: Re-Evaluating How Books Occupy The City, Rhett C. Bruno

Architecture Senior Theses

I contend that a new space for books is required in the city. One which blurs the boundary between public and private - between seclusion and exposure. This space, or “Bookscape,” will integrate those who read books with those who craft him, offering a new level of interaction that benefits all parties involved.

Distributed Workplace: A New Office Typology For The 21st Century Workstyle, Haotian Lin

Architecture Senior Theses

We are now at a critical junction in history where we desperately need to redefine [workplace] so that it can better accomodate the lifestyle's of today's workers.

East Village Housing New York City, Alice J. Raucher

Architecture Senior Theses

The intent of this thesis is to develop low-rise, high density urban housing which will provide its occupants with the basic amenities of light, air, and green space, while reconstructing and extending the fabric of New York City into an area of the East Village.
There exists in the East Village, as in other areas of Manhattan, an uneasy relationship between the low-scale rowhouses and tenements [...] and the monolithic architecture of the superblock housing developments of the 1950s. These rowhouses and tenements [...] provided few amenities for its inhabitants.
The proposed development would investigate new housing prototypes for a …