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Full-Text Articles in Architecture
The Shenzhen Activist Program`, Hyunggyu Kim, Jae Hyun Kim
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 …
Occupy Pomo | A Citizen's Guide To Urban Excavation, Kriti Garg
Occupy Pomo | A Citizen's Guide To Urban Excavation, Kriti Garg
Architecture Senior Theses
Traditionally, architects' definitions of solid-void conditions create a dichotomy between private, or built matter, and public, or void, spaces. Yet, this notion is a missed opportunity to understand the complex society of the twenty-first century that no longer operates within the realm of open, public space nor acts as a point of primal cohesiveness for culture and community. Rather than aggregating at instances of density, it is lost within a new ghostly cosmopolitan substitute of mass consumption and globalized culture. This new public realm is a "phantom public sphere", one comprised of "sub-publics", tailored to the demands of a mass …
China's New Weird, Bangyuan Shi
China's New Weird, Bangyuan Shi
Architecture Senior Theses
This thesis offers a critique of the diminishing communal life int he contemporary Chinese city which is created by the gap between large-scale master planning strategies and the contemporary need to focus on the individual instead of the structure of communities.
China's New Weird proposes an alternative to large-scale urbanism through the use of micro-urbanism strategies that preserve the relative scale and character of traditional urban settlements, like those of the "hutong", while also addressing the contemporary need to increase inner city population densities. The intention is to adapt the patterns of space and use that are found in these …
The Allopoiesis Of The Urban Artifact And The Palimpsest Of Context, Cristina Abondano
The Allopoiesis Of The Urban Artifact And The Palimpsest Of Context, Cristina Abondano
Architecture Senior Theses
This thesis contends that Pathological Urban Artifacts , as defined by Aldo Rossi, could be made Propelling through Allopoiesis in combination with the palimpsest of the urban context. The proposal consists of a dialogue between the two strategies of growth, aiming to reconnect the Artifact to the city.
Allopoiesis is the process by which a system produces something other than the system itself. In this thesis, allopoiesis is the mapping of the artifact’s underlying geometry as catalyst for urban development.
Rossi sees in the Propelling Urban Artifact a formal structure that confirms the presence of the city and persists through …
Never-Land | A Parasitic And Accumulative Approach To Urbanization In China, Xiaoyan Dong
Never-Land | A Parasitic And Accumulative Approach To Urbanization In China, Xiaoyan Dong
Architecture Senior Theses
Ever since 1960s, European situationist and Japanese metabolist architects constantly reject the uniformity and totalitarian of modern architecture/urban design, seeking parasitic and dynamic approaches to post-war urbanization. Projects such as the Plug-In City and the Tokyo Bay dream of alternative urban scenarios by reversing traditional perceptions of infrastructure’s role in the city, combining architecture, technology and society together. However, these megastructure projects not only neglect the existing urban context but also lack political and economic driving force. As a result, they are considered utopian by many contemporary critics.
Fifty years later in China, fast urbanization process creates problems for both …
New Beijing | A Renewed Vernacular, Bowen Victor Zhang
New Beijing | A Renewed Vernacular, Bowen Victor Zhang
Architecture Senior Theses
What does the term "vernacular" means? In an increasingly flay world, this thesis seeks to define the essential elements of the vernacular architecture of Beijing in order to propose a contemporary residential archetype.
In the past century, China has experienced unprecedented economic growth and development. Along with the many influences introduced by cross-cultural interactions, the phenomenon of architectural and social gentrification has begun to affect many of the populations living in urban centers. The same gentrifying forces that have drastically changed Greenwich Village and other New York City neighborhoods has rapidly moved to China and has replaced centruries-old vernacular communities …