Architecture Commons^™

Water Borne Diseases: A Cry Of A Trapped Community, Passmore Mudundulu

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

The purpose of this study was to understand the problem of attaining safe and clean water that has contributed to high incidence of water borne diseases and to investigate its effects on the residents of Chawama Township, Lusaka, Zambia. A survey was used to collect data from 400 male and female participants to determine their source, treatment and storage of water; sanitary facilities; attitude, experience and knowledge of waterborne diseases. Findings indicated that, the most common source of water was communal city taps and residents did not boil or add chlorine to make it safe for use, making it susceptible …

Ann Based Load Identification And Forecasting System For The Built Environment, Hosen Hasna

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

"Phantom Loads" cause energy waste in homes and the built environment as a whole. Consumers spend more than $3 billion a year on "Phantom Load" in the United States alone. The goal of this work is to conserve energy by increasing consumer awareness on their energy usage and appropriate tools which in turn will be reducing and /or eliminating phantom loads and mismanagement of the load in the built environment. A further goal is to improve upon existing power distribution systems in the built environment with limited hardware additions to increase energy conservation. This work investigates remote identification of load …

Sioux Falls Downtown Design Guidelines: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Colin Punt

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

In the late 1980s, Sioux Falls, South Dakota recommitted to its downtown, removed a dead pedestrian mall, and joined the National Main Street program. The city‘s downtown revival efforts have been largely successful in the past twenty-some years, but this success has rendered the current downtown design guidelines from the early 1990s both function-ally and aesthetically outdated. The original city ordinance written in conjunction with the design guidelines has given both the City Planning Department and the Downtown Design Review Committee, which is appointed by the Director of Planning and administered by Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc., very little power to …

Experiential Interior Design: Branding Entertainment And Nightlife For The Postmodern Young Urban Professional, Niccole S. Skomal

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Past study on Interior Design has been primarily looked at through the lenses of aesthetics and functionality. Only recently have scholars begun to see the influence marketing, in the form of branding, can have on the Interior Design process in targeting specific lifestyle groups. The purpose of this research is to understand the fabric of the postmodern Young Urban Professional lifestyle as a marketing tool for branding and designing services in the form of entertainment and nightlife. With an increasing lack of community and social connectedness in today’s postmodern society, Young Urban Professionals tend to consume entertainment and nightlife as …

Corporate Office Employee Analysis: Transformation From Closed Office Layout To Open Floor Plan Environment, Stephanie J. Fanger

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The office workplace within the United States has undergone monumental changes in the past century. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has cited that Americans spend an average of 90 percent of their time indoors. As human beings can often spend a majority of the hours in the day at their workplace, more so than their home, it is important to understand the effects of the built environment on the American office employee. In order to stay current with modern times, General Dynamics, a corporation located in Scottsdale, Arizona implemented a renovation of interior space. This thesis examines the transformation from …

Technologies Enabling Sustainability In The Built Environment, Mahmoud Alahmad, Muhammad Zulfiqar, Hosen Hasna Hh, Timothy Wisnieski, Nasser Aljuhaishi, Hamid Sharif

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Energy conservation is among society’s greatest challenges, and the built environment has a concentrated impact on our natural environment, economy, and health. Fundamental understandings of how energy is consumed, monitored, and controlled are key prerequisites for an energy conservation process. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of real-time energy monitors (RTM) to influence behavior change in residential consumers. A methodology for remote identification of load types along the electrical circuitry where they (load) are being consumed is also presented. The load type and status (on, off, standby) are determined both remotely and in a non-intrusive manner using Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Methods. …

A Health Impact Assessment Of Mixed Use Redevelopment Nodes And Corridors In Lincoln, Nebraska, Katie Clear

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Obesity is a growing threat to America’s health. The national rate of obesity is 34% (Health Consequences, 2011), and Lincoln, Nebraska is not far behind that trend at 20.7% (BRFSS, 2011). Increasing physical activity is one way to reduce weight gain, (Edwards, 2008) and further studies show that small changes to the built environment can induce people to use alternative and more active forms of transportation such as biking, walking, and public transportation (Edwards, 2008; Zheng, 2008). The 2040 Comprehensive Plan for Lincoln, NE includes language to create a more walkable community. The proposal is to redevelop existing areas within …

The Urban Fabric Of The Great Plains, Andrew Becker

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

To most Americans the Great Plains region of North America is mysterious place. There are disagreements when defining its limits, and some people just refer to it as the Midwest. The Great Plains has been a place under an ocean, a place under glaciers, and a place on fire. It was once dubbed “the Great American Desert,” but is now known for its agricultural viability. The Great Plains sparks imagination because it is so massive and was one of the final frontiers for Euro-American settlement. The Great Plains is seen as a rural place but the majority of the region’s …

Factors The Cause Growth And Development In The City Of Lincoln, Ne, Kaylene Tegtmeier

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

This qualitative study looks at what factors may contribute to the outward growth and development of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. The two main factors the study discusses are the Lincoln Public School planners and their placement of schools in the city, and the “American dream” of the people, looking at where the people of Lincoln want to be living throughout the city and what some of their daily habits are. This study also discusses some of the main visions of the city of Lincoln’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan how the plan’s ambitions may affect the two factors looked at in …

A Choreographed Experience: The Role Of Technology In Restaurant Design, Clarissa J. Volker

Interior Design Program: Theses and Other Student Work

The 21st century dining experience has emerged with a focus on the engagement of the consumer. This project challenges and defines the role of technology within restaurant design bound by emerging concepts of interactive architecture. Through precedent research and the exploration of programatic space, a final schematic design visualizes an interactive hub to engage the everyday customer.

Adviser: Tom Allisma

Exploratory Case Study: How The Inclusion Of Nature In The Design Of Learning Environments Affects Learning Among Children, Cheryl Knodel

Interior Design Program: Theses and Other Student Work

The theoretical framework of Stephen R. Kellert linking nature and the built environment was used as the basis for this research. This case study research was conducted to describe the effect nature had on learning among children 3 to 6 years of age attending two north central Florida Montessori learning environments. Methods were examined by which this phenomenon might be studied in more detail in order to: (a) provide verification of the independent and dependent variables, (b) establish the empirical measure of learning outcomes, and (c) provide the refinement of the variable learning outcomes as influenced by nature.

A qualitative …

Building Low-Carbon Cities Through Local Land Use Planning: Towards An Appropriate Urban Development Model For Sustainability, Ting Wei

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

The main purpose of this thesis is to study how to establish low carbon, attractive cities for human beings. This paper attempts to contribute to sustainable development by encouraging the development of low-carbon cities through local land use decisions. The study proposes to answer the following two research questions: 1) how well do the fastest growing cities in the U.S. implement low-carbon principles in their local comprehensive land use plans?, and 2) how can local land use plans be improved to achieve the goal of low-carbon cities? Through evaluating the local land use comprehensive plans of the top fifty fastest …

Barriers To Implementation Of Sustainable Construction Practices In The Homebuilding Industry: A Case Study Of Rochester, Ny, Heidi S. Tomkiewicz

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

This study will evaluate the current barriers to standardization and widespread implementation of sustainable practices in the residential homebuilding industry. A literature review evaluates and defines the relevant tenets of sustainability creating a cohesive definition of sustainable building practices for the purposes of this study. These defined features were used to evaluate current practices and certification programs. An analysis of the current scholarship on barriers to sustainable development combined with this information to create a framework for a case study of homebuilders and their practices in the greater Rochester, New York area. This study was conducted in order to ascertain …

A Model Of Human Scale Tested On Rural Landscape Scenes, Richard K. Sutton

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Landscapes such as the Great Plains have been described as lacking human scale. This study developed a quantitative model of human scale and compared it with viewers' perceptions of visual structure. Visual structure was selected from the physical features of Otoe County, NE, forming boundaries, found as ground textures, vegetative screens, and topographic breaks and was depicted in photographs of landscape scenes. The model used and tested nine classes of scale based on grain and extent of the photos rated by viewers against those from the model. Viewers identified boundaries representing grain and extent that were synthesized into a viewer-perceived …

Zero-Net Energy Building Science Research: Nebraska Housing Case Study, Timothy Hemsath

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

What makes a new home sustainable? There is no simple answer and no silver bullet to reducing energy consumption, choosing the right building material or perfectly designed floor plan. Every case is different and every home-owner has their own perspective. To answer the question I was motivated to assemble this mini-portfolio of homes to begin identifying current best practices.

This booklet contains five newly constructed Nebraska homes. Each example identifies what high performance green building design elements, technologies and systems builders, architects and home-owners are using. The following five homes are not all Nebraska has to offer as examples, but …

Implementation Of Integrated Commissioning, Retrofits, And Control Optimization Process In A Small Commercial Building, Xiangnan Shi

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

A large amount of the primary energy consumed in the US is derived from the built environment followed by energy consumed in the transportation and industrial sectors. Consequently, improving the energy efficiency of buildings is an important part of ensuring a more sustainable world for future generations. Of the various techniques employed to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, commissioning and retrofits continue to be the most widely applied solutions. Control optimization, mainly imbedded with continuous commissioning so far, is not applied as widely. Even though there are currently a few applications that integrate all three techniques, no comparison has …

Optimized Control Strategies For A Typical Water Loop Heat Pump System, Xu Lian

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

Water Loop Heat Pump (WLHP) System has been widely utilized in the Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) industry for several decades. There is no doubt about the energy saving potential of this type of system from the design and construction perspective. However, there are still many unsolved problems, such as high loop pump energy consumption, low heat pump efficiency and high electricity cost due to improper operation, although the system design intension was to save energy. Thus, how to control the WSHP to realize its energy-efficient value is an innovative but practical topic on which this thesis will focus. …

Managing Stormwater Runoff With Green Infrastructure: Exploring Practical Strategies To Overcome Barriers In Citywide Implementation, Shaojing Tian

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

Cities in the United States are facing the challenges of protecting water resources, drinking water and public health with a rapid pace of population growth and urban sprawl. Large quantities of stormwater runoff arising from increased imperviousness on urbanizing watershed will cause municipal sewer system overflow and discharge of untreated runoff into waterways, and as a result, pollute local water bodies and affect the quality of drinking water in the long run. It has been increasingly acknowledged that Green Infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development (LID) can be used as an effective tool to capture and retain stormwater on site …

A Study On Facility Planning Using Discrete Event Simulation: Case Study Of A Grain Delivery Terminal., Sarah M. Asio

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The application of traditional approaches to the design of efficient facilities can be tedious and time consuming when uncertainty and a number of constraints exist. Queuing models and mathematical programming techniques are not able to capture the complex interaction between resources, the environment and space constraints for dynamic stochastic processes. In the following study discrete event simulation is applied to the facility planning process for a grain delivery terminal. The discrete event simulation approach has been applied to studies such as capacity planning and facility layout for a gasoline station and evaluating the resource requirements for a manufacturing facility. To …

Teaching Evidence-Based Design To The Beginning Design Student: Educator Perceptions About Incorporating Research In Beginning Design Education, Deborah Rushen Dunlap

Interior Design Program: Theses and Other Student Work

Educators’ perceptions influence academic protocols regarding the level at which evidence-based design is introduced to design students. Evidence-based design, a research methodology based on quantitative and qualitative inquiry that informs design decisions, permeated healthcare design to the point that the two are almost synonymous (Hamilton & Watkins, 2009; Nussbaumer, 2009). As this research based approach spreads throughout the profession, multiple specialty areas in architecture and interior design adopt evidence-based design into their methodologies (Hamilton & Watkins, 2009). These “developments in design practice now impinge directly upon education” (Zuo, Leonard, & MaloneBeach, 2010, p. 269). Teaching evidence-based design to design students …

A Virtual Supply Airflow Rate Meter In Rooftop Air Conditioning Units, Daihong Yu

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

Virtual sensing technology aims to estimate difficult to measure, expensive, or new quantities by using multifarious mathematical models along with non-invasive and low-cost measurements. Such embedded intelligence is a key to improving the performance of building systems in terms of functionality, safety, energy efficiency, environmental impacts, and costs. Considering the progress that has been achieved over many various fields (e.g., process controls, automobiles, avionics, autonomous robots, telemedicine) within the last two decades, numerous intelligent features have been incorporated and enabled that would otherwise not be possible or economical.

To identify the potential opportunities and research/development needs of virtual sensing technology …

Women's Specific Soccer Training Facility, Tockook Sabrina

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

My original intentions were to focus on healthy eating and designing a building that corresponds to the concept of cooking. Diving deeper into the concept I had come to discover the correspondence was not reaching the level that I desired. I knew that I enjoyed the concept of healthy nutrition, and exercise has been a constant theme in my life as well. This lead me to deal more stickily with nutrition and exercise.

Personally I have played soccer for 16 years of my life, and soccer was the first idea that came to my mind when thesis projects were first …

Harvester 1.0, Andrew Sorensen

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

One critical topic has always remained constant throughout the life of this thesis: efficient and multi-functioned urban land use.

It began with the questioning of golf courses and how much land they consumed for typically only a single, recreational function. After realizing the more direct and architectural programmatic relationships, the project shifted to the incorporation of farming into the urban environment while also linking it to today’s growing digital infrastructure needs. This thesis is a means of exploration through process and not necessarily an end result. The questions and potential that this project raises about the architectural relationships is what …

Agri-Remnant, Audrey Burns

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Along the lonely stretch of Highway 69 just west of the York and Seward county line close to Gresham, Nebraska, lies a site which has become of keen interest in my search. Two decrepit barns, placed irregularly on the site, have fallen victim to neglect. Most likely the owner of the land has erected newer steel structures to hold his equipment and is letting time be the only factor in the process of deconstruction to these barns.

Constructed entirely of lumber and fasteners, and constructed by the handiwork of the landowner, these barns are some of the few remaining salvageable …

Reactivate, Kelly Hiskey

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

[Question]

How can communities be incorporated onto the site of a closed military base?

[Signifcance]

The Government owns billions of square feet of unused property across the United States. In fact, the United States Government owns over 50% of the land in the Western half of the country. Military facilities

occupy the largest area of federal land, aside from parks and forests. Many of these military sites are being left to their own demise. In fact, 27% of the nation’s military installations have been closed by the Department of Defense, via the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) initiative, leaving millions …

Vertical Void, Trumble Maura

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

As architects, we continue to add enclosed spaces to the market in every city on a nearly daily basis, yet millions of square feet of viable, designed space lie empty around the world. While the responsibility of the surplus of leasable square feet is most often assumed to be shouldered by the real estate market, as designers, we must as some point begin to ask ourselves if the blame for the continued ignorance of this issue of vacancy cannot be laid at our feet. Spatial needs change with the economy, technology, and social needs, but have they changed so much …

A Museum Of Self Archaeology: Exploring The Potential Of Narrative In Architecture, Jonathan Martin

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The intent of this thesis project is to question the methods of translation between narrative text and architectural space and to examine new questions and creative directions of infusing text and story into architectural practice. It must be critical of the conditions of use where this type of method have been and can be used. Is it merely appropriate in the circumstances of culturally significant or memorialized buildings, or is there a broader use by which it can affect architecture? It must also be critical of how much influence and integration this method can have on architectural practice and the …

Sustainable Development, Matthew Gulsvig

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The goal of this thesis is to research, design and document an architectural project that address the realities of the current and future social, environmental and economic issues of the United States. Specifically, the intent of this venture is to produce a project which can obtain two levels of self-sufficiency within a dense urban context. The first level of self-sufficiency would be obtained by not requiring the acquisition of energy from nonrenewable external sources. The second level of self-sufficiency would provide the permanent occupants the means to sustain the basic needs of life without requiring financial support from externals sources. …

Intermodal | Multimodal, Adam J. Andrews

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The intent is to confront waste on both a global and local level using architecture to engage and educate the public. Global waste, in this case, is defined as intermodal containers and local waste is defined as municipally collected solid waste. I intend to show through my designs that architecture need not be the source of yet more energy use and material waste. Instead, design can be the vehicle through which we begin to lessen our impact on Planet Earth by reusing the materials already at hand to create architecture and energy.

A waste to energy approach [both architectural and …

Disaster Relief And Reuse, Beth R. Valenta

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

the human state in the aftermath of a crisis is at its most vulnerable.

the goal of disaster relief is to evaluate the needs of a community and options available for creating shelters for displaced persons in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

after a disaster, more than at any other time, people are concerned about their safety and security. architecture has the ability to provide a level of comfort through dwellings, which provide shelter,

privacy and security. once safety and stability are established, a healing process can begin.

architecture has two basic solutions for disaster relief. the first is …