Architecture Commons^™

Off-Grid Living For The Normative Society: Shifting Perception And Perspectives By Design, Patsun Lillie

Masters Theses

Off-grid houses in the United States are often connoted with mostly non-professional, home-made structures and isolated, hippie living in remote rural areas. These off-grid homeowners may also complete their consumer-independent commitment with a minimal-waste, land-dependent lifestyle that includes methodical harnessing and recycling of resources and materials, raising livestock, and productive gardening on the property. This research paper explores the background, methods and kinds of typical off-grid living structures, their ability to harness natural resources for function and performance, and the ability of its occupants to remain resilient in the face of depleting fuel resources, extreme weather patterns, and rising costs …

Law School News: Joyce And Bill Cummings Of Cummings Foundation To Deliver Keynote Address At Rwu Commencement 4-20-2023, Jill Rodrigues

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Cherokee Architectural Traditions: A Southeastern Environmental Design Precedent, Josie J. Tunnell

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Intermodal Transit Terminal: Integrating The Future Of Transit Into The Urban Fabric, Guy Vigneau

Masters Theses

The very foundation of transportation relies on its ability to efficiently move people and goods through a transitional space. Transportation hubs are key to achieving this goal. However, many transit terminals are outdated or poorly designed to fit the needs of the modern world. At the core of this thesis are two overarching questions. First, how do we design intermodal transit terminals so that they successfully integrate into an existing urban fabric? Second, how do we design for innovative modes of transportation, such as hyperloop technology? This thesis explores how architectural design can recover existing transit connections within an urban …

Community Perspectives On Neighborhood Characteristics And Home-Buying Decisions, Madhuri Sharma

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This paper analyzes households’ perceptions of neighborhoods according to Brown and Chung’s framework of Market-Led Pluralism (M-LP). Using household survey responses from 100 respondents in Columbus, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I empirically test MLP’s utility in understanding consumers’ decision making processes on where to live and who to live with. Consumers from all races/ethnicities ranked these attributes similarly, closely aligning with the M-LP. The quality of schools, safety of neighborhoods, price and affordability generally mattered to all consumers. However, African Americans’ perceptions of certain attributes as more valuable than others’ are likely due to their lower socio-economic status and the …

The Strategic Design Approaches For Chittagong Hill Areas To Reduce Risks Of Landslides And Exploring The Opportunity Of Tourism Development, Syed Monirul Islam, Maher Niger

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

Chittagong is the largest port city and second largest city of Bangladesh and contributes substantially to the economic development of Bangladesh. Chittagong is quite an attractive location. Surrounded by the rivers, hills and the sea, Chittagong possess the opportunity to uphold its image as a fascinating, multiple tourism destination where visitors can enjoy both the sea and hills. Chittagong has boundless opportunities for thousands of people living in the hilly areas. But unfortunately the hillsides are highly vulnerable to frequent and damaging landslides. Recent major landslides were caused by an extreme, higher than average, rainfall within a short period of …

The Shenzhen Activist Program`, Hyunggyu Kim, Jae Hyun Kim

Architecture Senior Theses

There is a gap between being an architecture student in western countries and working as an architect in underrepresented communities. Architect Teddy Cruz defines the role of an activist architect as "expanded mode of practice", and the task of "deigning the protocols or the interfaces between communities and spaces".

This thesis contends that architecture schools need to continue to embrace the widely-accepted norm of studios studying abroad and working in an international studio. Current study abroad programs tend to skew towards being touristic field trips and there is not a curriculum or programmatic investment in cultivating relationships between the visiting …

Future Oriented Sustainable Design. Design Purpose: What Is Design And Who Is It For? [Please Note: This Is A Large File And May Be Slow To Download.], Barry Sheehan

Academic Articles

In November 2016 I was asked to make a presentation at the Future Oriented Sustainable Design International Conference in Wuhan in the People's Republic of China. My topic was Design Purpose: What is Design? And who is it for?

The presentation examines the wider aspects of design and its categories and asks who were are actually designing for.

I made a powerpoint presentation that I narrated in English whilst it was simultaneously translated into Chinese for the attendees at the conference. On my return to Ireland I created a soundtrack to accompany the presentation slides for people to watch the …

The Importance Of Passive Sustainable Design, Caitlin Raymond

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Sustainability is a topic regularly discussed within today’s culture. Many people are worried about society’s future due to pollution, excessive use of nonrenewable resources, and more. Even with all of the growing awareness and promotion, the historical context and more specifically the passive design techniques used in buildings have received little attention. It is imperative to increase this awareness, as well as increase the application of passive sustainable techniques to ensure that sustainable building is efficient and effective. This project has two portions, a literature review and a design project. The literature review assembles research and techniques collected on passive …

Sustainable Design In The Healthcare Environment, Shannon M. Griffin

Honors College Theses

From creating an efficient business to helping people heal, there are various and difficult goals in a healthcare project. There are significant issues in healthcare design that can be harmful to the people that inhabit the spaces and to the environment. Through evidence-based research, this paper will outline the latest developments in sustainable design and how they can be implemented to solve the current building-related issues in healthcare facilities. Lastly, the solutions will be put into practice in a Healthcare Design Capstone Project utilizing the elements of sustainable design to achieve the goal of sustaining the health of occupants, the …

Measuring Good Architecture: Long Life, Loose Fit, Low Energy, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Good architecture is something that we all seek, but which is difficult to define. Sir Alexander John Gordon, in his role as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, defined ‘good architecture’ in 1972 as buildings that exhibit ‘long life, loose fit and low energy’. These characteristics, nicknamed by Gordon as the 3L Principle, are measurable. Furthermore, life cycle cost (LCC) provides a method for accessing the economic contribution or burden created by buildings to the society they aim to serve. Yet there is no research available to investigate the connection, if any, between 3L and LCC. It might …

Syllabus: Public Space Design Plus: Integrating Sustainable Design Through Exploration And Research, Carolina Aragon

Sustainability Education Resources

This studio focuses on the integration of sustainable technologies into the design of a public space on campus. We will explore this integration at various scales: the human scale, the site scale, and the campus scale ––while covering subjects like materiality, people’s behavior, and innovative sustainable solutions for landscape applications. The work of the studio will be a combination of creative exploration and research supporting this exploration. The methodology will include experiential learning ––learning by doing, research through direct observation, and research using library resources. Through research and use of library databases, students will gain a broader perspective of the …

Methane Production By A Packed-Bed Anaerobic Digester Fed Dairy Barn Flush Water, Sean Richard Thomson

Master's Theses

Packed-bed digesters are an alternative to covered lagoon digesters for methane production and anaerobic treatment of dilute wastewaters such as dairy barn flush water. The physical media of packed-beds retain biofilms, often allowing increased treatment rates. Previous studies have evaluated several types of media for digestion of dilute wastewaters, but cost and media fouling have setback commercial development. A major operational cost has been effluent recirculation pumping.

In the present effort, a novel approach to anaerobic digestion of flush dairy water was developed at pilot-scale: broken walnut shells were used as a low-cost packed-bed medium and effluent recirculation was replaced …

Predicted Performance Of A Skytherm North, A Highly Insulated Building Envelope System And A Frost Protected Shallow Foundation, Kitrina Ann Stratton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

How do you design a durable, sustainable, and financeable Net Zero Energy house for a cold weather climate using little or no external energy that is also affordable? Reviewing all of the factors that would influence the design and materials selection of an appropriate response to the issues, the perfect system for housing people, whether it is in response to affordability, durability, comfort, cultural sensitivity, appearance or being locally appropriate, is using some kind of straw bale construction system with an integrated frost protected shallow foundation and a SkyTherm North design.

The focus and intention of this research is to …

Block 271, Reviving An Industrial Artifact, Jared Thomas Pohl

Masters Theses

Vacant industrial sites are scattered throughout our cities all across the country. These sites, these remnants of industry, are occupied by a very interesting category of buildings. They are artifacts from an industrial era that served very unique and specific functions. These service buildings suffered programmatic failure and have lost their vitality. They have entered a form of hibernation, waiting for the post-industrial epoch to wake them up.

The building stock under investigation makes up a large portion of the city’s structures. Identifiable by their heroic scale, clean articulated lines and tendency to be vacant, these service buildings raise arguments …

Mcda And Assessing Sustainability, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Extract: Multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a contemporary alternative social cost-benefit analysis as a means of evaluating sustainable development. It avoids the problem of converting social and environmental performance into monetary terms simply so it can be combined with tangible costs and benefits and included in a discounted cash flow.

Designing For Future Adaptive Reuse, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Extract: Existing buildings that are either obsolete or rapidly approaching disuse and potential demolition are a 'mine' of raw materials for new projects, a concept described by Chusid (1993) as 'urban ore'.

Eco Living, Chris Knapp

Chris Knapp

Combining sustainability with trend-setting design is one of the great challenges of contemporary architecture. Resource sparing living space is one of the most important themes. In addition to the increased consciousness of the interactions between the human being, his built environment and eco system, the desire to leave behind an intact environment worth living in for the next generation and to fashion a healthy environment for oneself are also factors gaining in economic significance. Depending on the building project and its circumstances, procedures and techniques of ecological building may be applied. Building orientation, shape, the type of materials and building …

Ut Bgsu Research Poster 2014.Jpg, Andreas Luescher

Andreas Luescher

Developing A Sustainable Campus Through Community Engagement: An Empirical Study, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Linda Too

Sustainability is increasingly a basic tenet within the organisational philosophy of many universities. While those universities that have a sustainability strategy have largely focused on operational improvements, the engagement of staff and students is equally important for creating a sustainable campus. This paper develops a 6-P community engagement framework for promoting eco-centric practices within university campuses. The objective of the study is to apply the framework to a university community in order to establish the validity of this framework. To this end, interviews with staff and students at Bond University were undertaken. The interviews reveal that the 6-P framework is …

Developing A Sustainable Campus Through Community Engagement: An Empirical Study, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Sustainability is increasingly a basic tenet within the organisational philosophy of many universities. While those universities that have a sustainability strategy have largely focused on operational improvements, the engagement of staff and students is equally important for creating a sustainable campus. This paper develops a 6-P community engagement framework for promoting eco-centric practices within university campuses. The objective of the study is to apply the framework to a university community in order to establish the validity of this framework. To this end, interviews with staff and students at Bond University were undertaken. The interviews reveal that the 6-P framework is …

Identifiying Adaptive Reuse Potential, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

How to adapt existing building stock is a problem being addressed by local and state governments worldwide. In most developed countries we now spend more on building adaptation than on new construction and there is an urgent need for greater knowledge and awareness of what happens to commercial buildings over time.

Sustainable Building Adaptation: innovations in decision-making is a significant contribution to understanding best practice in sustainable adaptations to existing commercial buildings by offering new knowledge-based theoretical and practical insights. Models used are grounded in results of case studies conducted within three collaborative construction project team settings in Australia and …

The Human Green Office Experience: Happy And Healthy Or Sick And Frustrated?, Lynne Armitage, Ann Murugan

Lynne Armitage

Adopting the proposition that the effect on people using, interacting or working in a ‘green’ workplace environment is not currently clear nor fully understood, the purpose of this research is to examine what the green workplace environment is like from the perspective of one of this sub group – the users’/employees’– especially when it comes to satisfaction levels and health outcomes. This study examines and compares responses between employees in green and in non-green workplace environments in order to determine if a gap exists between the satisfaction and health levels of these two groups. The survey covers 351 employee respondents …

Architecture As Pedagogy: Designing Sustainable Schools As Three-Dimensional Textbooks, Ester Ehrlich Schwartz

Masters Theses

The importance of school buildings has been recognized as a fundamental element of modern society. Today, roughly a quarter of America’s population, including our youngest citizens, spend the majority of their days in school buildings. Still, many of our nation’s schools are in disrepair, with systems in need of repair or replacement.

Over the years, strong evidence and research have shown that school building impact student’s health and their ability to learn. Green schools mean healthier environments for students and staff. Pragmatically, we also know that that green schools save money. Energy-efficient buildings help reduce energy costs, which in turn …

Sustainable Water Management On Brownfields Sites, Ryan Fenwick, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This practice guide was developed by the Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN) through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Through a cooperative agreement with HUD, EFCN is providing capacity building and technical assistance to recipients of grants from the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an interagency collaboration that aims to help towns, cities, and regions develop in more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable ways.

Reclamation - An Eco-Industrial Park In Greenfield, Massachusetts, Sage W. Sluter

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Honors Projects

Sustainable Industrial Design
Reclaiming a Brownfield in Greenfield, Massachusetts
Abstract:
For the senior capstone project at the University of Massachusetts, this student completed a conceptual site design project for the City of Greenfield. The City of Greenfield wishes to redevelop the Brownfield site, currently known as the Bendix Property, into an eco- industrial park. Working closely with the City’s officials, the student created a realistic vision for the site. After twenty years of soil and groundwater treatment, the site is ready to come back to life. The student investigated what an eco -industrial park is, and how the businesses cooperate …

Designing For Deconstruction: Extending The Lifecycle Of A Commercial Retail Building, Anthony Bene

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

In our fickle economy today, retail can be booming one year and going out of business the next. When things aren't going so well commercial retail buildings are left vacant and then can become eyesores that lead to a communities economic downturn. This thesis proposes a solution by designing commercial buildings for re-use by designing for deconstruction; so that whole buildings can be disassembled and relocated, or that building components can be recycled back into the materials loop.

Sustainable Portland: Implementation Series 3, New England Environmental Finance Center

Climate Change

This report is the third in a series of efforts by students at the Muskie School of Public Service, Community Planning and Development Master’s program, in a core class called “Sustainable Communities.” In this course students seek to understand principles of sustainability and how efforts to implement Sustainability programs can become more successful. The report assembles term papers students completed on particular efforts by municipalities, universities, and other groups to achieve sustainability goals. Students worked on each project in a service learning format with real world clients. They were asked to fashion their papers around lessons learned by other organizations …

Contemporary Practices In Sustainable Design: Appraisal And Articulation Of Emerging Trend, Archana Sharma

Architecture Publications and Other Works

Sustainable design is a phrase commonly used in the realms of design practice and yet the definition of the same remains quite fuzzy, thus providing the motivation for this research. The paper looks at contemporary sustainable design practices in the area of architecture design, building construction and landscape architecture. The objective is to understand what the term “sustainable design” really means as used in practice and what strategies are being employed towards the goal of sustainable development. The practices are assessed for their empathies as per the currently defined social, ecological, economical well-being goals of sustainable development. The paper concludes …

Substituting Residential Rainwater Harvesting And Greywater Reuse For Public Water Supply: Tools For Evaluating The Public Cost, Jennifer L. Ferguson

Master's Theses

The intent of this project is to provide tools for public administrators to implement and evaluate the cost of an alternative on-site residential water supply using rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse in their jurisdiction. These tools are then applied to the city of San Luis Obispo (SLO), California as a case study to demonstrate how rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse could be implemented to supply all residential potable and non-potable water needs, completely replacing the current centralized publicly-managed water system. Further, energy and direct fiscal costs of the alternative system are compared with the current system. A cost analysis is …