Architecture Commons^™

High Density La: Ego-Centric Housing, Yannick Matthews

Architecture Thesis Prep

Los Angeles has spread out too far and needs to adjust its urban strategy in terms of higher density develpments and compact urban nuclei.

These nuclei will establish more defined city centers with locally available amenities, thereby decreasing Angelino’s reliance on an overtaxed private transportation infrastructure. To sustain these centers there is a need to increase both population and housing density. Courtyard housing is the ideal typological model to remedy the situation. The Courtyard model, additional allocation of public space, and encentivised public transportation are key to achieving the best possible results.

Re-evaluate Los Angeles through a Freudian filter, identifying …

Housing Indeterminacy: Responsive Design For Diverse And Changing Households, Mark Sousa

Architecture Senior Theses

This project hopes to create a new outlook on the future of housing design. Ray Forrest wrote, “The pace of demographic change need not be that dynamic to outpace the capacity of markets or states to provide appropriate dwellings in appropriate locations. […] Dwelling placement or adaptation is always likely to lag.” The preceding statement reflects the belief that housing is static and rigid, and that dwelling replacement or major structural adaptation is necessary to accommodate a continually evolving population. On the contrary, responsive housing can release significant pressure on housing systems by anticipating change and providing a lower cost …

Residential Square In The 21st Century: Applying A Typology To Create A New Urban Morphology, Elizabeth Whittington

Architecture Senior Theses

The transposition of the residential square will be part of a large-scale strategic plan for the re-development of low-rise low-density neighborhoods on the fringe of the central business district in the post-industrial city. A community garden will be defined by a public housing project. Thus, the neighborhood’s identity will be presented through the physical landscape, building volumes and façade. The project will become part of the system of communal spaces within the city. American individualism will express the civic realm, while creating a secure and connected environment. The new housing block provides a proto-type for an urban morphology that decreases …

A Sustainable Urban Village For The "Six Corners" & "Old Hill" Neighborhoods Of Springfield, Massachusetts, Patricia O'Flaherty

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

In the United States, traditional urban centers, particularly in the Northeast, have suffered from neglect, dilapidation, and the general decay of their built environments over the last 50-60 years. Corresponding with this on the social side are increased poverty, unemployment, crime, and the disruption of the family unit.

Our current knowledge of the disciplines of architecture and sustainability can be applied to a built solution that will yield a greater public good. Good design can improve the lives of people by creating homes, neighborhoods, and villages that are comfortable, secure, and sustainable for all of the activities that make life …

A Place Of Dwelling For Graduate Students, Garth H. Schwellenbach

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The lives of graduate students are often insular and focused, with high workloads and resultant stresses. Beyond the unifying demands of academia, graduate students have a diverse set of individual challenges. Some students have families, some are visiting the US and learning to live in a new culture, and some are fresh out of undergraduate studies and living on their own for the first time. In addition to these challenges the graduate student body is a diverse and disparate group, representing varied cultures, experiences and generations. Due to these demands and circumstances the students have little time and energy to …