Architecture Commons^™

Reinvigorating Englewood, Chicago Through New Public Spaces And Mixed-Income Housing, Givan Carrero

Masters Theses

At the start of the second industrial revolution, Chicago was home to many workers from the Union Stock Yard meat packing industry located in what is now known as the Back of the Yards neighborhood. As business grew, so did the need for housing, leading to the development of a new neighborhood, Englewood. For years, the neighborhood was prosperous and was home to the second largest business corridor in the city. During the Great Migration, much of that changed. Racially Restrictive Covenants forced African Americans to live in the Black Belt, and the eastern side of Englewood slowly transformed, paving …

To Lend Is To Love: The Benefits Of A Lending Library On Campus, Lucia Boulos

Honors Projects

This project centers around the construction of a lending library for Bowling Green State University’s campus. It seeks to answer questions concerning the frequency of reading both academically and leisurely, the preference of printed texts over electronic texts, the financial toll of textbooks and other materials, and how to make resources more accessible for students and community members. The concept behind a lending library is to “take a book and leave a book.” Participants can choose to do both or one of those options. The final structure is installed by the Community Garden behind the Fine Arts building. The project …

Autonomous Shuttles In Santa Fe Springs, Brendan Edward Norton

City and Regional Planning

The urban planning implications of AV Shuttles and how they could be incorporated into Santa Fe Springs, Los Angeles, California.

What Is Rural Design? Decentralized & Community-Driven Approaches For The Green New Deal That Value Existing Rural Land And Community, Cornelia Overton

Masters Theses

In contemporary design conversations, rural areas are discussed less than urban ones, and yet rural communities are in need of good design, and a new rural pattern language could hold the keys to a healthier human relationship with our environment. If the United States were to enact a Federal Green New Deal, rural landscapes stand to see big changes. Not only would landscape architects have new funded opportunities to design in rural places, but bolstered support of ecological urbanism would have broader repercussions in the rural landscape.

By exploring the changing meaning of rurality, translating urban design theory for rural …

Reviving The Hollowing Rural Village: Research On The Coastal Mountainous Region Of Kaihua, China, Rui Tao

Masters Theses

My research focuses on one county in China and the regional and local structure to understand the existing flows between urban and rural areas, including both ecological, industrial and social exchanges. Kaihua county, located in north-west Zhejiang Province, is currently the poorest county economically in this region and has more migrant workers and a more severe hollowing degree.

This thesis aims to revive the hollowing rural village and improve the village’s value as a hybrid public realm - a space encouraging reciprocal flows exchanged from both “rural ground” and urban “new comers,” strengthening the ecological and social ties among water …

Solving Pollution Through Design Integration: A Sustainable Model For Underdeveloped Mexican Cities, Marcos Cruz

Master of Science in Architecture Theses

Oaxaca requires an architecture that can cleanse the environment, provide affordable and clean energy, and mitigate the crime and poverty within their city. Community awareness is key to the development of this architecture, and this project will focus on creating a design that influences and informs the community about a safer and more sustainable way of life. This project will focus on using the United Nations sustainability goals to address the global challenges we face including poverty, climate, and inequality. This thesis will create a building that will integrate these goals while still maintaining the cultural aspect within the region. …

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 issues, …

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 like a …

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 …

Solving Pollution Through Design Integration: A Sustainable Model For Underdeveloped Mexican Cities, Marcos Cruz

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Oaxaca requires an architecture that can cleanse the environment, provide affordable and clean energy, and mitigate the crime and poverty within their city. Community awareness is key to the development of this architecture, and this project will focus on creating a design that influences and informs the community about a safer and more sustainable way of life. This project will focus on using the United Nations sustainability goals to address the global challenges we face including poverty, climate, and inequality. This thesis will create a building that will integrate these goals while still maintaining the cultural aspect within the region. …

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 …