Architecture Commons^™

70 Mph: Place And Perception In The Automotive Landscape, Erik Nathaniel Hall

Masters Theses

This project explores the adverse impact of the automobile in regards to perception and the resultant disconnect from environment exhibited in the contemporary suburban landscape. It posits that the way we move through the world affects the way we understand the world, both physiologically/sensually, and philosophically/ethically. The automobile, and its landscape, prejudices vision as a means of cognition. Specifically, it is biased to the perceptual characteristics of vision at high speed- that is, a decreased cone of vision, with a consequent increase in the total area of the peripheral visual field. This peripheral field is characterized by flattened, monocular perception, …

Integration Of Bicycling And Walking Facilities Into The Infrastructure Of Urban Communities [Draft], Cornelius Nuworsoo, Erin Cooper, Eugene Jud, Katherine Cushing

City and Regional Planning

Several manuals, handbooks and web resources exist to provide varied guidance on planning for and designing bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Yet there are no specific indications about which of the varied treatments in these guides work well for users. This project highlights best practices and identifies program characteristics associated with high levels of non-motorized travel, with an emphasis on bicyclists and pedestrians, in the selected Californian urban case study communities of Davis, Palo Alto and San Luis Obispo. The case studies are used to illustrate how urban communities can better integrate non-motorized transportation modes into the physical infrastructure and the …

Liquid Infrastructure: Transnational Spaces Of Water, Timothy Gale

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

As a response to the geopolitical issues of water importation into London UK, a new political entity emerges: theThink Tank. Through coupling political architecture and water infrastructure, the Think Tank legitimizes itself as a dominant institution for water governance. The project reveals the existing spatial subversion of Think Tanks and physical subversion of Pumping Stations to alter existing political structures by allowing the public to access the territorial.

It does not attempt to solve conflict or tensions, it instead seeks to utilize the architectural methods of coupling new programs and functions in the city to create a political and public …

Detroit: Reproductive City, Marielle Vargas

Architecture Senior Theses

A Systems motivated test, coupling infrastructures and food processing for a productive city core.

Liquid Infrastructure: Transnational Spaces Of Water, Timothy Gale

Architecture Senior Theses

As a response to the geopolitical issues of water importation into London UK, a new political entity emerges: theThink Tank. Through coupling political architecture and water infrastructure, the Think Tank legitimizes itself as a dominant institution for water governance. The project reveals the existing spatial subversion of Think Tanks and physical subversion of Pumping Stations to alter existing political structures by allowing the public to access the territorial.

It does not attempt to solve conflict or tensions, it instead seeks to utilize the architectural methods of coupling new programs and functions in the city to create a political and public …

Biomimicry: Emulating The Closed-Loops Systems Of The Oak Tree For Sustainable Architecture, Courtney Drake

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Biomimicry comes from bios, life, and mimesis, to imitate. Biomimicry is becoming an increasingly well-known topic in the field of architecture, imitating nature’s designs and processes to solve human problems. This project uses the oak tree as a model, measure, and mentor to derive sustainable architecture. Biomimicry is examined as a holistic methodology with six steps: identify, interpret, discover, abstract, emulate, and evaluate. Using this methodology, this project investigates oak tree’s closed-loop systems including water, oxygen, and food. The synergies that exist within these systems are emulated to develop a complex green infrastructure of building and landscape systems. …

Crossings, Noel Brady

Books/Book Chapters

Chapter concentrates on the bridges of Dublin’s river Liffey; their importance to the vitality of the city, its commerce and people. It also highlights the importance of crossings in the city linking and opening up new paths to growth and development.