Architecture Commons^™

A Research Program For Studying Lams And Community In The Digital Age, Andreas Vårheim, Roswitha Skare, Noah Lenstra, Kiersten F. Latham, Geir Grenersen

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The paper outlines a research effort into the changing representations, policies, strategies, activities, and practices of libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) in the digital age. Comprehensive social changes including big slow-moving processes, such as aging populations, global migration, technological change, and environmental change, expose communities and LAM institutions to vulnerabilities. How do the institutions handle vulnerabilities, how do they become more resilient, and how do they contribute to building the resilience of their local communities?

Community, Preservation, And Street Art: A Proposal For San Francisco’S Mission District, Marissa Nadeau

Master's Projects and Capstones

The Latinx community is an integral part of San Francisco’s rich history. From Mexican missions in the late 1700s to an influx of immigrants from various Latin countries starting in the early 1900s, the Mission District (‘the Mission’) of San Francisco has served as a hub for this mix of residents, fondly called “Raza,” emphasizing the people of a community rather than the country they have come from. Wars and issues dealt in their homelands were close to the hearts of the entirety of the Latinx population of the Mission, and their voices and opinions were heard through a type …

Analysis Of The Difference Between Two Approaches To Assessing Housing And Community Standards, Kundoldibya Panitchpakdi, Tirawat Pimwern, Thammanoon Laohpiyavisut

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

This comparative study on housing and community comfortable living performance standards is a partof a participatory research conducted to meet the needs addressed by the Thai National HousingAuthority to improve existing housing and community standards. The research team conducted a case study of the Rim Khwae Awm Community in Samut Songkhram Province. This community had been identified as a model of comfortable living. This article presents the results of an analysis of comfortable living standards derived from a review of related literature and standards derived from the participatory process with the community case study. This research found that the standards …

The Role Of Community In Urban Regeneration Case Study City Of Skenderaj, Rineta Jashari, Safete Veliu, Valdrin Tahiri

UBT International Conference

The essence of the research is to study whether the role of community opinion within the decision-making process is a fundamental and essential factor to ensure the enhancement of the quality of urban regeneration activities. Various international research shows that community involvement can have an impact on quality improvement during the sustainable planning process and can lead to successful urban regeneration initiatives. Also, it emphasizes the need to integrate social elements in the urban regeneration practices in order to have a different approach by socio- economic changes, and socio spatial planning and community. Case study was taken city of Skenderaj, …

Imagine Community, Imagine Home (Chicopee, Ma), Christian Appia, Francesca Cigliano, Jenna Davis, Greg Labombard, Kristen Whitmore, Simeng Zhang

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The goal of the Master of Regional Planning Studio is to develop a student’s techniques for collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing spatial and non-spatial data and then presenting that collective data in a manner (i.e., report, video, presentation, and charettes) that is understandable to academics, professionals, and the public. Planning Studio allows students to integrate knowledge from coursework and research, and apply such knowledge to resolving representative planning problems. At UMASS Amherst, these problems are found in neighborhood, rural, urban, and/or regional settings.

For the fall 2018 Planning Studio, Chicopee tasked the Masters of Regional Planning Studio to prepare a Housing …

Cultural Embrace, Jeremy Penja

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Cultural embrace creating an identity on a larger scale in modern society. Architecture is a symbolic catalyst of a threshold, it is bound by the physical presence as well as “enriched by both the memory and dreams, past and future” Juhani Pallasmaa. It captures the sensibility of expectation and fulfillment, sense of symbols that resonated within. It evokes the absolutely necessary association of visual-tactile and identity to connect the history to present. It is an absolute cultural responsiveness and symbolism that cultural embrace strives for. Spaces have become empty container lacking true essence. The current architecture does little to address …

Hurricane Communities, Katie Masters

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Hurricane Communities: An Analysis of Florida Housing is a thesis that aims to reexamine how we can, as architects, design for hurricanes more effectively at the residential scale, through investigations of lateral forces, form, structure and site. The intent is to minimize the physical and emotional damages that are left behind. The thesis examines wind uplift and changes in water level as hurricane category rise.

A Green Dialogue For Aging Society, Dian Tan

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis addresses the issue about disconnections of communication between human to human, and human to environment. It seems like we got connections with other people via various smart devices, meanwhile we are so disconnected with the people and environment where we are currently living. Technologies sometimes hinder the communicating ability of human. Architecture could become a media that contains more messages send to human, helping on the communication between human to human, and human to environment.

Community-Based Initiatives For Neighborhood And Community Rehabilitation: A Case Study Of The Mission District, San Francisco, California, Francesca Monique Gallardo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Through the case study of San Francisco, CA’s Mission District, this research project addresses how community-based affordable housing development is operationalized to rehabilitate communities and neighborhoods experiencing effects of gentrification, mass displacement, and cultural dilution. My goals were to identify how the processes of building a sense of community, trust, and cohesion- rehabilitating and critical to affordable housing development efforts in the Mission District? And, how are nonprofit community development organizations engaging with these processes in collaboration with citizen and community partners? The final objective is to provide evidence-based strategies to assist other at-risk minority communities and neighborhoods in the …

Shake Rag Clippings File, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Research Collections

The Shake Rag Historic District, located along the north end of State Street in Bowling Green, Kentucky, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 2000. It is Bowling Green’s first National Register District recognized for its significance to African American history. The Shake Rag Neighborhood developed around Lee Square, a parcel of land donated in 1802 for use as a public square. From https://www.visitbgky.com/shakerag/, see for more information.

Capturing The Ephemeral, Caroline L. J. Matteson

Theses and Dissertations

Music, it has been shown, has the potential to both create social cohesion and encourage conflict resolution (Koelsch, Offermanns, & Franzke, 2010). In a city with deep roots in slavery, music may be more powerful than language or the toppling of monuments to help create a cultural identity that every demographic can fit. Not only can music improve mood in an individual, but musical contagion affects large groups at once. Creating a space to equalize access to and share the experience of music—both making and appreciation—would give the city an opportunity for reconciliation and community bonding.

While a universal quality …

Community Connections: Relief Through Athletics, Joshua Arthur

Architecture Theses

A sports based recreation facility can significantly enhance the quality of life in a community. Activities held within these facilities can encourage participation, promote health and well-being, and foster a sense of community and togetherness. Today with crime and obesity being increasingly troublesome in the US a space focused on athletics, health, and wellness would allow for kids to have a plethora of activities to do after school and on weekends. There they can make friends, learn about health, and stay off of the streets. Sports and recreation can demonstrate and contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources. They …

Community Wildfire Planning And Design: A Review And Evaluation Of Current Policies And Practices In The Western United States, Carlene C. Klein

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wildland fire is an important and complex issue, particularly in the fire-prone ecosystems of the Western United States. At the same time that the number of catastrophic wildland fires is increasing across the United States, more people are moving in to wildland areas growing the interface between urban and wildlands. Managing wildfire in the Western United States is becoming increasingly more complex and costly as growth and development continues to push the edge of municipalities into undeveloped wildlands. Communities in this wildland urban interface are exacerbating the problem of wildfire in the West.

With more people living in wildfire prone …

Reuse And Regeneration Of Industrial Zones, Rineta Jashari, Zana Prelvukaj, Faton Spahiu

UBT International Conference

The research in this paper deals with the industrial heritage, analysis of industrial buildings built during XX century in Europe and in Kosovo, where as the case study is taken the city of Pristina and industrial revitalized buildings as good examples in Europe.

Industrial heritage is part of the cultural heritage that deals with the buildings and artifacts of the industry that are inherited from the past, and preserved for future generations, as a symbol and urban identity.

In Western European countries, the phenomenon of resurrection and industrial heritage is constantly growing and developing, in Southeast Europe is still a …

Characteristics Of Urban/Architectural Developments In Tirana And Prishtina, During The Last Decade, Binak Beqaj, Armand Vokshi

UBT International Conference

Rapid urbanization as a process of societal transformation and intensive architectural developments in urban areas in Tirana and Prishtina, as capital cities of Countries in transition in sense of achievements for community living there and their urban qualitative life. Considering the planning process and role of different partners towards urban prosperity, the urban developments during the last ten years in both capital cities, based on research done and presented in this paper, using comparison methodology on some contextual bases:

• Policy context
• Physical space context
• Site landscape context

With analyses aiming to explain which are effects of three-dimensional mentioned above “contexts” …

Planning For A Community Wildfire Protection Plan In San Luis Obispo County, Justin Sauder

City and Regional Planning

San Luis Obispo County has a long history of wildfires and can be expected every fire season. Agencies providing fire protection do an excellent job at reducing the risk to loss of life, property, and natural resources in the area, but there is always room for improvement. California in general is experiencing increasingly longer, hotter, and drier fire seasons due to climate change, and San Luis Obispo County is no exception. As the population increases urban development is pushed to the outer limits of city boundaries where it often conflicts with forests in an area called the wildland urban interface. …

How To Get School Children Access To Urban Farming By Activating Vacant Land And Rooftops, Yixin Ren

Masters Theses

The thesis topic is how to get school children access to urban farming by activating vacant land and rooftops.

Phase one focuses on research about the rooftop urban farming systems in New York. As a high density and high land value city, New York is one of the cities with the largest number of rooftop farms in the United States. People use urban rooftop farms as a medium to improve community engagement and improve environmental issues. For phase one, this thesis researched the operation and conditions of existing rooftop farms, and evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of them to figure …

The Impact Of Housing Insecurity On Community Health Outcomes: Exploring Collective Community Solutions And Housing Models In The Western Addition, Jacqueline V. Brown, Jacqueline Victoria Brown

Master's Projects and Capstones

In a city where housing is scarce and prices continue to rise, the lower income residents of the Western Addition are in panic. Historically, the Western Addition/Fillmore is ground zero for Urban Renewal. This community is still bouncing back from the negative effects of the out migration of Black residents, Japanese internment, and rapid gentrification. For twenty years, this part of the city was known as Harlem of the West due to its world-renowned Jazz and Blues composers, and is informally known as “Tha ‘Mo”. San Francisco has set the tone nationally for public, mixed income, and private housing that …

Migrant Archives, Byronaé Lewis

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Migrant Archive is the cultural exploration of what design can be when it intertwines with the depth of ethnographic narratives . No longer allowing stationary boundaries to define where a culture begins and ends, as the space explores the migration patterns between divisions of each neighborhood within a city. The migrant hub works to capture and drop-off memory relics to tell the history of each region. The focus is to understand a culture through design while celebrating the positive and negative aspects within the past that have influenced the current moments.

Healing Architecture: Engagement, Nature, Community, Antonio D. Hinson, Antonio D. Hinson

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

My thesis focused on exploring death as a part of life rather than looking at death as a separate entity. I reframed a Cancer Center that engaged life as part of a community with nature rather than a hospice center that embraced death. In today’s society, healthcare institutions are very isolated and disconnected from the public like gated communities. Most people I know do not like to go to hospitals if they can prevent it. I felt there needed to be a place where people with cancer could go that offered some respite from the conventional healthcare institutions. A place …

Sport In Society: Enhancing The Experience, Sean Fuller

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

As an avid sports fan myself, sport has become a huge cultural event in today's society. It’s evolved from a social interaction aspect to a physical experiential standpoint. When you arrive to a sport stadium, the first thing you notice is the amount of people and the size of the structure. How can that many people fit comfortably in one space? Does the experience become something more than just finding your way to your seat and watching the game? By understanding the breakdown of stadiums and how they perceive experiential architecture, these massive structures can open up to the community …

Creating Better American Cities: A Study Of Circulation And Common Spaces Of Public Housing, Jessica Wood

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis will analyze common spaces and circulation spaces in terms of configuration (in relation to each other) and quality (whether they are interior, exterior, or allow space for interaction between residents) in an attempt to determine how stairs, elevators, hallways, and common spaces impact the level of community within a public housing project. Community in this study refers to lasting relationships among residents living in the same housing project. The goal is to answer the question “What role do circulation and common spaces play in the success or failure of a public housing project?” and to determine the best …

A Simulation-Assisted Workflow For Outdoor Thermal Comfort Design In Downtown Syracuse, Pouya Zhand

Architecture Senior Theses

Cities are not just about the buildings and skylines. Cities are also about the space be­tween buildings (the ground in figure-ground). More importantly and fundamentally cities are about people and the life that happens between buildings. Simulation tools can inform the design of attractive public spaces by pro­viding insight about the environmental conditions.

Restoring The Heart: A Community Vision For The Neighborhood Of Aldenville, Nicholas Campbell, Eric D. Gemperline, Todd R. Horner, Sean G. O'Donnell, Sierra T. Pelletier, Seth Taylor, Keitlin Young

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The goal of the Master of Regional Planning Studio is to develop a student’s techniques for collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing spatial and non-spatial data and then presenting that collective data in a manner (i.e., report, video, presentation, and charettes) that is understandable to academics, professionals, and the public. Planning Studio allows students to integrate knowledge from coursework and research, and apply such knowledge to resolving representative planning problems. At UMASS Amherst, these problems are found in neighborhood, rural, urban, and/or regional settings.

For the Fall 2017 Planning Studio, Chicopee tasked the Masters of Regional Planning Studio to prepare a vision …

The Architecture Of Place: Amaranth Bakery And Café, Biwer Bella

Architecture Student Research

The goal of this essay is to show that Amaranth Bakery and Café in Washington Park, Milwaukee better represents its community than other buildings in the area. The aspects I chose to discuss are the building’s physical character, its unique setting and the work of its dedicated owners, David Boucher and Stephanie Shipley. This essay discusses these three facets of the business and how they allow for a very successful bakery in the struggling neighborhood of Washington Park. Some of the aspects discussed are the building’s front-back morphology, the way the community utilizes the bakery and the collaborative work of …

Gra[In]Vincible, Kimberly Ann Wojcik

Masters Theses

This thesis is about the stitching of a community back together at a scale that is appropriate to the existing demographics. The memory of place and time are still evident in the relics that are the Buffalo Grain Elevators; the only changing variable is the rate of population and affordability in the adjacent Old First Ward.

The economic downturn of big business and the havoc it wreaked on the worker community created a ripple effect in large enough scale to grab hold of an entire city. In an attempt to bulldoze rust covered structures and knock down abandoned homes rather …

Architectural Intervention: The Resilient Community Center, Matthew A. Baumgartner

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

In the city of Centralia, Illinois, several issues govern the city’s future, all stemming from the same major problem: the economy. To intervene, this community center proposal aims to encourage economic development and growth in the city, assisting small businesses with starting and expanding in the region.

Transcultural Interaction Between Refugees And The Bowling Green, Ky Community, Emily Hamilton

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

In Bowling Green, Kentucky there is an expanding refugee population which is leading to a manifestation of problems in the form of cultural isolation, immigrant alienation and refugees failing the U.S. citizenship test. To combat these issues, a social intervention should occur in the form of a community resource center.

Vincennes Rehabilitation Center, Callahan H. Jordan

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This project proposes the Vincennes Rehabilitation Center which will provide adequate therapy for people with alcohol and substance abuse in Vincennes, Indiana. Each person handles recovering from an addiction differently. As such, this facility will include both active and passive rehabilitation techniques. Support by counselors and community volunteers helps promote a socially encouraging environment, and a drug and alcohol free future.

Real Estate: Urban Renewal At Shibati Community, Chongqing, Wenxin Zeng

Architecture Thesis Prep

The project is a “urban renewal” project at Shibati Community in Chongqing, China. The title “Real Estate” suggested that the land never become “real” until there are activities, communications happened between the occupants. The government did several renovation project in Chongqing, either totally destroy the entire site and build a copy on the site by saying we are preserving the history, or solely refurnished the façade of the houses but leave the inside of the house at a rough condition. The project is a critique of what the Chinese government and other official agencies in China have tended to respond …