Architecture Commons^™

Hurricanes And Housing: Highlighting The Ongoing Impact Of Hurricane Michael And The Post-Disaster Housing Problem, Mary Beth Barr

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hurricanes impact individuals and communities on many levels - emotional, physical, mental, financial - to name a few. Every time a hurricane occurs, lives are drastically altered forever. One of the ways that hurricanes impact individuals and communities most powerfully is through the effect that they have on housing. Unleashing uncontrollable damage to infrastructure and the built environment, hurricanes exacerbate housing problems that exist and create new ones where they did not exist before. Hurricane Michael, which catastrophically impacted the Florida Panhandle in 2018, is a case study in which the impact that hurricanes have on housing is prevalent.

By …

Bellingham's Housing Ecosystem, Malene Garcia

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The goal of my project was to understand what puts people at risk of becoming unhoused and what solutions are the most effective in combating and preventing houselessness.

To figure this out, I used Bellingham as a case study. I did research on homelessness in general, and then used that to guide my research specific to Bellingham. I focused on the causes of houselessness, the demographics of those experiencing houselessness, and the challenges that they face. Then, I researched solutions. To supplement this research, and get different perspectives specific to Bellingham, I interviewed people working in three different organizations: The …

Planning, Aging, And Loneliness: Reviewing Evidence About Built Environment Effects, Yingying Lyu, Ann Forsyth

Geography & Planning Faculty Publications

Large numbers of people in many countries report being lonely with rates highest among the very old. Does the built environment affect loneliness among older people and if so, how? Using a scoping review, we examined associations between loneliness and built environments at the block, neighborhood, and city scales The (a) neighborhood environment has received most attention. Research has also examined (b) urban contexts, (c) housing, and (d) transportation access. Findings are mixed with the stronger evidence that local resources, walkability, overall environment quality, housing options, and nearby transportation alternatives can help combat loneliness.

An Adverse Path To Home: Challenges For Low-Income Workers In Access Housing In Some Mexican Cities, Aurora Melisa Munoz Casarrubias

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis studies the homeownership discourses that encouraged low-income Mexican workers to commit to paying home loans and the process of providing mortgages as a strategy to address housing needs in Mexico with a case study of Homex developments. Homex was a large-scale housing construction project, which enabled me to study housing supply through loans and mortgages.

Currently, the purchase of new housing in Mexico is only accessible to those who receive more than five minimum wages (CONEVAL, 2018). To extend homeownership to low-income workers, financial institutions and the Mexican government promoted mortgage securitization and large-scale construction projects like Homex. …

A Proposal For Middle Housing Design Guidelines For The City Of San Luis Obispo, Abby Miramontes

City and Regional Planning

The City of San Luis Obispo is interested in developing a Missing Middle Housing Plan to promote the development of attractive, affordable housing in the city. Middle housing includes duplexes, triplexes, cottage courts, and townhomes. Although middle housing is not necessarily affordable by definition, it can increase housing affordability by improving the diversity of housing types available. Design guidelines will help ensure that proposed developments fit into the character of existing neighborhoods and the community as a whole.

Expanding Housing Typology, Increasing Affordability: A Flexible Density Program For The City Of San Luis Obispo, Graham J. Bultema

Master's Theses

The City of San Luis Obispo faces an ongoing housing production shortage and housing affordability crisis that has been afflicting jurisdictions across State of California for a prolonged period of time. The City faces many of the same housing availability and affordability challenges as the rest of the State, but also has distinct characteristics that necessitate unique policies and strategies, such as the concurrent presence of both a large student and young professional population as well as a wealthy retirement community, which drastically drives up housing prices and demand.

The Flexible Density Program is proposed by the City of San …

Difficulties Building Low-Income Housing And The View Of One Company: A Case Study, Kyle Henriken

Construction Management

This case study investigates low-income housing and why it can be more difficult to build compared to other construction projects. Five individuals of PREMIER Design + Build Group were interviewed and gave their opinions on the subject. Each person interviewed has a different role in the company a market leader, project manager, superintendent, and a project engineer to gain a more diverse view on low-income housing. These interviews were semi-structured and open ended to create dialogue about their experiences in affordable housing. This paper investigates a single project called The Cottages located in Lake Elsinore CA. This process found that …

“Don’T Make Fun Of The Residents!” Revisiting The Sunbelt’S Vanishing Communities: Mobility And Suburban Development, 1900-1990, Jerry D. Wallace

History ETDs

“Don’t Make Fun of the Residents” examines home ownership and suburban development over the last one hundred years in the borderlands, American West, and Sunbelt regions. In this dissertation I argue that mobility shaped urban planning, neighborhood design, and architectural identity in the Sunbelt over the course of the twentieth century. “Don’t Make Fun of the Residents” places architectural identity at the center of this dissertation discussion to understand the origins of the Sunbelt as a geographic and intellectual space. I focus in particular on smaller cities in the intermountain West---New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and California---an area that has …

Insert Community: A Revaluation Of Space, Joshua Ramirez

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis is an attempt to question the way in which we understand and create housing. Currently, there is a growing issue with lack of space within our major and developing cities, creating an increase of demand for higher density buildings, which is especially true for housing. Apartments are typically the answer for higher density, smaller square footage needs, leaving large amounts of uniformly small and repetitive housing units, slowly forcing people to abandon their individuality. The question is, are there no available options for creating more expressive and freeing units for people to be able to live in?

It …

Bio-Symbiosis: Reconnecting To Nature And Each Other Through A Biological Lens, Melissa Holder

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that we spend 93 percent of our time indoors. For decades, the design of space has kept exterior environments separate from the interior conditions we have engineered for ourselves. This design process limits our ability to interact with other forms of life. According to Stephen Kellert’s principles of biophilic design, which defines an innate desire to interact with other forms of life, it is imperative that our spaces be designed to interact with each other and nature on an intimate and spiritual level. As humans have a hard-wired tendency to seek out relationships with other …

Built Environment And Self-Rated Health: Comparing Young, Middle-Aged, And Older People In Chengdu, China, Yingying Lyu, Ann Forsyth, Steven Worthington

Geography & Planning Faculty Publications

Objectives: This article explores how the building-scale built environment is associated with selfrated health, examining differences in this association among younger, middle-aged, and older age groups. Features examined included building type, building condition, and sidewalk presence in front of dwellings. Background: Understanding how the relationships between built environments and health vary across age groups helps to build a healthy environment for all. However, most studies have concentrated on the neighborhood or indoor environment, rather than whole buildings, and few have compared age groups. Methods: This study analyzed survey data from 1,019 adults living in 40 neighborhoods in Chengdu, China, recruited …

Yimby And Covid-19, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Discusses whether the COVID-19 pandemic strengthens the case for the pro-housing YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) movement.