Architecture Commons^™

Modernity In Miniature: Maoism And The Beijing Department Store, Samuel M. Hellmann

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the Beijing Department Store as a contradictory structure embedded in the world’s largest Communist revolution. By looking at the urban planning decisions behind constructing a colonial form in the center of the socialist capital, I attempt to unravel the complex intersection of economic development and egalitarian mass action in the early Maoist period. Constructed in 1955 during the first Five Year Plan, the Department Store sheds light on the specific parameters of post-revolution modernization campaigns. Furthermore, by looking at the conceptualizations of the building by the Party, architects, and the workers inside the store, I examine ...

Plastic Paradise: Reconstitution Of Plastic Waste Through Design Of A Module, Janel Stitt

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

As a material, plastic has many redeeming qualities, but as waste product, it is detrimental to our environment. This thesis aims to advance the encapsulation of plastic waste within a new building component: cladding material and/or modular design element. To see plastic as a one-time use material is short-sighted and doesn’t account for the potential which is inherent in this material composition. By examining any given city, you will find a surplus of plastic waste -- whether it is at a landfill, recycling center, or littered throughout the streets. This plastic waste has the ability to be something more ...

Camps In Crisis: Challenging The Architecture For Refugees, Duc Huy Ho

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Every minute, 24 people are forcibly removed from their homes. This is due to violence, natural disasters, or human rights violations during premigration. Globally, there are 70.8 million people who are displaced, the largest number in history. To put this into perspective, imagine taking everyone from California and Texas and forcing them elsewhere. This is the scale of the refugee crisis. With this many people, we have to ask: what are the options? One: refugee camps or two: resettling in a foreign community. Unfortunately, some refugees are staying in camps designed for temporary use for up to 25 years ...

An Experiment For Millennial Living: West-End Atlanta Social Housing, Kino Hamilton

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The number of social housing being built is at its lowest for 70 years and we face a lack of housing that people can afford. As a result many people will live in fear and stress of being forced to move out of their home. Millennials however, will have to endure this problem coming out of college while suffering the dept of student loans. One of the biggest heartbreaks in America was the downfall of public housing throughout the nation. The demolition of public housing to give way to new infrastructures that are more promising and that will generate more ...

The Material Light: Exploring The Relationship Between Contained And Container, Oliver Brown

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Many buildings around us use the same ubiquitous boundary materials that fall short in directly influencing the disposition of the space it defines. There are many different opportunities to explore myriad material compositions to present the ambient qualities of space in a manner the puts the constructed boundary to the task to acclimatize the interior it envelopes. This thesis will explore a series of material compositions, with a focus on natural light, and how the articulation of the spatial boundary can bring out the strong qualities of daylight for visually sensitive activities. With this exploration, I will examine ways to ...

Dignified Dwellings: Minimum Dwelling For The 21st Century, Andrew Smith

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The first major architecture treatise written in the first century B.C. by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio defines three principles that constitute a work of architecture, namely firmness, utility, and delight. This thesis speculates on whether housing for the under-sheltered in the 21st century has focused disproportionately on two of the three values of the triad, falling short in providing delight to under-served populations. In turn, the thesis offers four pillars to the discourse on transitional housing that paves the way to expanding delight for these housing strategies to include safe community spaces, access to ample natural resources, securable quarters, and ...

Between The Seats, Katherine Hall

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Cinema and Movie Theater spaces are dwindling in attendance, while community-gathering areas are thriving. Digital media platforms have taken over the need for an extra expense in the household. The goal of this project is to increase the community members' attendance rate to their local theatre through the development of innovative design solutions that amplify social component of theatres. More specifically, the project aims to turn a local theatre complex into a community hub. Which will incorporate social spaces along with designated theatrical spaces that are responsive to emerging cultural, social, and technological demands via design.

According to trend of ...

State Of Independence: Reinterpreting Senior Living Through Backyard Homes, Trevor Sparrow

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

If a senior was able to live within a network of family and friends who could ensure a good quality of life was being met, as well as live in a space that was intentionally designed with their accessibility needs in mind, the independence and health of the senior can be well maintained into the final stages of their life. I am proposing the development of premanufactured homes which are designed specifically to address a senior's accessibility and care needs. These homes will be placed on the property of the existing home of the senior, their loved ones, or ...

Restoring History: Mixed-Use Hotel & Retail Center, William Chase Sisk

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Monroe, Georgia, is a unique small town, located halfway between Athens and Atlanta. The small-town atmosphere and amenities have become a popular destination for people attracted to the historic buildings, downtown events and UGA football home games. Monroe is popular for its wedding venues, antique malls, and car shows, but there are not enough hotel rooms. Currently within the historic downtown, there are only one bed and breakfast, two AirBNB’s, and no hotels, although every downtown storefront is occupied by restaurants, retail stores, and businesses.

The need for overnight accommodations has raised the possibility of a new mixed-use hotel ...

Border[Wall]; A Space For Play | Providing Moments Of Intimacy To An International Stage, Jamison Owen

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In the past many countries and dynasties have practiced the use of strategic defenses such as walls or fortifications to protect the people of said country, yet defense analysts often question if these historic barriers resulted in safety from other nations or provided complex social implications that changed the structure of the civilizations socio-cultural system. After the events of 9/11 in 2001 the moment the Twin Towers fell to the ground from a series of terrorist attacks the United States Border Control procedures vastly changed and adapted to the threat of Terrorism. Through the “War on Terrorism” declared by ...

The [Hydro-Gen] Cell_ A Hydroponic, Regenerative, Modular System For Optimized Vertical Farming, Jose Asbiel Samaniego

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Thesis Statement:

This research project aims to design, develop, and test an intelligent hydroponic system that can be integrated into the built environment for advancing sustainability.

Proposal:

Hydroponic systems are methods of growing plants in a water-based solution, which are currently used in vertical farming practices for food production. In this research, the hydroponic-regenerative or [Hydro-Gen] Cell is envisioned as biomechanical hybrid machinery that, while designed to be used in mid-to high rise buildings it would address sustainable aspects such as food production, enhancement of air cleaning capacity, and reduction of energy consumption. The project specifically aims at addressing the ...

Empirical Empowerment - Mental Health In The Built Environment, Emily Mcclure

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

One in five adults in the US experienced a mental illness in 2018 and 19.1% Of the adult population suffers from the damages of poor mental health, affecting family, friends, as well as productivity in the workplace and physical health. The environment we occupy often goes unnoticed as the catalyst of neglecting mental health, while we spend more that 80% of our days on average indoors, there is a direct connection between environment and its impact on our mental health. Health and human services defines mental health as our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, affecting how we think, feel ...

Micro Living - Big Mindset, Erin Lyttle

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Where does the idea of “Tiny Home - Big Mindset” come into play with all the information that has been presented, you may be wondering. I am proposing that we take a new position at how we live, starting with our personal space and home dwellings. One of the main issues with tiny homes is that they are looked at as RV’s (recreational vehicles) or motor homes, but I’d have to argue and say that they have much more to offer is comparison to what they have been mistaken for. While most tiny homes are mobile, they are not ...

A Bite Of Architecture: Farm-To-Table & Dining Experience, Steven Yang

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The way people experience a city is its food and architecture. It has the most cultural impact, by creating its own unique social interactions and experiences within our urban fabric and food. The architecture provides a sense of place and creates an artificial framework that ties in through harmony in the environment through research and design by promoting where food is coming from? How to grow and prepare food, and creates a unique dining experience. The project intent is not to create a food hub, but to create a framework that builds from a food hub all the way to ...

The City Aetherus An Urban Design Methodology For Energy Use, Anthony Yan, Ermal Shpuza Phd

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In the last few decades, there has been a growing awareness about the relationship between building design and energy use, environmental impact, and sustainability in general. Now, environmental design is a well-established field of architectural studies and practices. By contrast, it is only recently that the relationship between urban design and energy use has started to get due attention by the designer and planning communities. Due to our increasing energy needs and imminent global urbanization, humanity needs a solution to tackle the largest energy consumer: the city. This thesis is situated within the newly emerging discourse on the relationship between ...

21st Century Social Genesis, Jessica Headrick

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The modern adaptations of technology have shifted the pendulum of human life. Its positive strides and challenges have evolved human behavior with new social, spatial and cultural genesis today. The modern human life today is monitored, interacted with, and immediately immersed into new age technology the second life starts. This shift in behavioral acceptance can distinctively be recognized when compared to life fifty years ago. A frequent awareness and understanding of such rapid technological shifts necessitate a place where people become more aware and be educated on the innovative strides that research and progressive technology offers in order to anticipate ...

A Phenomenological Approach To Performance Architecture Through Light And Acoustics, Bree Chambers

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Throughout history, performances, the fine arts, and music have brought society together to persuade, inspire, and bring to light the pressing issues of their time. The Roman’s used the coliseum to distract their people with games and spectacles from political instability and famine. The Greeks performed in open amphitheaters to communicate tragic stories of morality. I want to influence the entertainment of our time, that is music festivals, from America’s first 1954 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island to 1969 The Woodstock Aquarian exposition reported 500,000 people in attendance. Festivals are an escape from a conventional society ...

Between Aesthetics And Ethics, Seth Landis

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Violence and political unrest in Central America led to high numbers of refugees at the US-Mexico border at the end of 2017 and continued into 2018. Tent cities like the one outside of Tornillo, Texas is one example of many that shows how unprepared and unwilling we are as architetects to become involved in sensitive issues like immigration.

While the immigration policies of the government seem distant and abstract, the consequences are concrete: the buildings and tents that held these children were designed and implemented by engineers, builders, and private contractors. What can the architect contribute? We are taught to ...

Primary Focus, Breck Small

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis proposes a new construction method that looks beyond the physical needs of a community to train and equip unskilled laborers to continue expanding their own build environment. In areas where electricity along with running water are sparse and construction materials are expensive in contrast to average income, this method of construction will look at the manipulation of indigenous materials, climate, and passive systems to design a project that is both respectful to the surrounding community and innovative in its final design. This method could be replicated in sites with similar context, training unskilled labors to build structures in ...

Re-Place The Big Box, Matthew C. Harkin

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Within the suburban environment of the United States it is not uncommon to see a large big box store, centered upon the landscape without rhyme or reason in relation to the local physical or social attributes. These big box stores are not designed at all. They are cookie cutter buildings, copy and pasted structures that give no regards to their context. The mass is plopped onto the site, and surrounded by parking, roads, and barriers cutting the shopping center off from pedestrian access and its general surroundings. These commercial zones do not hold a sense of place, but rather are ...

Golden Scrutiny | Compositional Subtlety, Devon Sams

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The golden ratio in relation to architecture revolves around the use of composition, geometry and mathematics. The mathematical ratio informs a specific set of parameters that a design can adhere to and is believed that, when utilized properly, gives a creation a beautiful aesthetic. My approach to understanding this system is by exploring its specific functions and how ‘I’ as a designer can inform my design with the golden ratio as the key principle.

My research examines a comprehensive set of studies and explores through a set of experiments in both drawing, model making and digital fabrication to combine the ...

Dynamic Workplace Design, Eduardo Parra De Nova

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The design of workplaces is often complex because it balances two opposing forces: on the one hand, innovation and creativity often involve teamwork processes and collaboration, occurring in spaces which may then produce higher than normal noise levels. On the other hand, many work processes rely on individual work, which requires quiet spaces needed for concentration. Another complex issues that office design architects must address involves the ever changing nature of workplaces, either as part of short-term evolving daily activities or as part of the longer-term changes organizations have to bring to their managerial style in order to stay competitive ...

Informational Space, Jacob Beal

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the future potential impact that the library typology has on society and how the architecture of these spaces can influence usage andchange. Libraries have been one of man-kind’s most inspirational systems that have provided spaces to store information and to educate oneself. As the typology progressed it became an important part of each community and provided patrons with new opportunities that they might not regularly have. With the role that this typology currently takes, it allows for the possibility for improvements of social issues within multiple communities. By focusing on select ...

Guaya Symbiosis, Diana Gil

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Located two degrees from the equator, west of the Amazon rain forest, and perched between the Guayas River and the Pacific Ocean, an Ecuadorian city named Guayaquil is home to the most bio-diverse environment in the world. In Red Book of Endemic Plants of Ecuador (2000), biologist Lorena Endara’s research was cataloged providing evidence that Ecuador has the highest concentration of species biodiversity. Based on this seminal report, the Ecuadorian government amended its constitution so the Red Book would be accepted as a governmental document, which was an important step for conservation planning and policy (2012). Unfortunately, the uncontrollable ...

Eco-Hub, Diego Vazquez De Santos

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have generated waste. With the age of industrialization came urbanization, and as a result, large populations quickly multiplied within cities. In 1842, a report entitled The Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population, Edwin Chadwick argued for the need for proper removal and management facilities of waste. This report played an important role in securing the first law addressing waste collection. Today, only 26% of the estimated 75% of recyclable goods get recycled. This problem is more eminent within New York city which currently is the topmost wasteful city. New York City residents throw out ...

The Factories: Bringing A Derelict Icon Into The New Age, Douglas Reid

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The Chatillion Factories were constructed in 1927, and added on to in subsequent years. The factories \changed owners and purposes many times over the following decades, until at some point in the 90’s the factories were left mostly abandoned. This industrial complex occupies some prime real estate near downtown Rome. It is just under a mile from the rapidly growing Broad Street, a quarter of a mile to State Mutual Stadium, and right across the road from Ridge Ferry Park. As such, it has the potential to act as a central location to help unite these three nodes of ...

Inner City Artscape, Michelle Nguyen

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The research of this project deals with multiple disciplines such as art, culture, and social connection that ultimately benefits human development and well-being. Through the architectural urban design of the main street of Hapeville, GA, this thesis aims to solve the issues of vitalization and attraction to a main city street in a design of a residential community to activate public spaces through the work and input of the creative class and local community. Ultimately, this redesign of the main street will be a catalyst of economic growth and well-being of the local community, revitalizing a home into an urban ...

Towards Community: A Resource-Based Rural Development, Christian Newman

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The Caribbean nation of Haiti has experienced much hardship in providing services and opportunities to its general population and even more so to its rural populace. Of the scarce services the government provides, most are not accessible to millions in the countryside and smaller cities beyond. According to the United Nations Development Program Haiti, poverty Is much more prevalent in rural regions at 75.2% compared to 40.8% in urban regions. I have personally witnessed this in my own trips to Haiti. The concentration of services and centralization of power to Port-au-Prince can make living outside the capital seem ...

Temporal Mindset : Retrofitting Senior Living, Christine Vu

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis started by looking at malls that were no longer being used and the issued that developed with the decline of these places. I thought of how architecture could benefit and improve the quality of these spaces and the site.

The total population of the United States is approximately 325 million people. Out of the 325 million, approximately 53 million people will be over the age of 65. Between 1946 and 1964, the Baby Boomer generation increased more than any other generation. That generation is now reaching an age where the need for senior living options are more in ...

Piecing Minds : Creating A Healing Space For Mental Health In The West End Neighborhood, Jeromette Belcher

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Throughout history mental health has been an issue. Mental health has been labeled from a disease, to treatment, and to facility design. There have been design theories that have been looked at throughout the centuries such as anthroposohy, evidence-based design, generative design, planetree, salutogenic design, and specialist design. There has been facilities designed for people dealing with mental health such as residential, impatient, and outpatient. But, the impact of the environment on mental health plays a significant factor. Specifically, in the lower income neighborhoods which have a lot more issues in mental health that they face than people living in ...