Architecture Commons^™

Water Wise Landscape Practices: A Case Study For The City Of Gering, Christina E. Land

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

This professional project is founded on my education, experiences, and networks. I have had the opportunity to use what I have learned thus far and be challenged to look at public planning from a different perspective. In partnership with the City of Gering I was able to get knee deep in the facility planning of the city owned property which is home to the Community Ever Green House. The project reviews how the property is integrated into the community and the impact it has. Then, identifies opportunities to improve overall functionality with a closer look at addressing hazard mitigation using …

Water Relations, Understanding Our Relationship To Water: Through Research, Diagrams, And Glass, Tian Li

Masters Theses

As I observe the different ways human civilization interacts with water, I reflect on how I have interacted with it personally, in Califronia and Hawai’i. I also learn about the largest water-controlling infrastructure in China and its effects on the land and people. In Providence, I notice the infrastructure around the canal that keeps the water in. This relationship to water is unique to a post-colonial world where water is a commodity in which we spectate. What relationships did people have with water before we polluted the waters and created all this concrete infrastructure around it?

Through listening to Lorén …

Rehabilitation Of The River’S Role In Historic Urban Landscape Of Shushtar, Iran, Parvaneh Sabbagh-Ziarani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Historical cities are the most complete and, indeed, the most tangible incarnation of culture. They show the relationships of different generations of inhabitants with their life context. The strata of their urban topography speak about various phases of evolution and transformation as well as growth or decline. The city of Shushtar (Khuzestan, Iran) is a perfect example of a historic city formed based on sustainable and close interactions between man and nature. Its historical hydraulic system was registered in Unesco world heritage sites in 2009. This system - combining numerous elements in a practical and harmonious entity - shows ingenuity …

Water Inspired Places, Jiaqi Zhang

Masters Theses

How to abstractly reconstruct features of "water" in the digital realm and create new way of visual expression through virtual spatial experiences?

Just like painters using brushes, poets using rhymes, musicians using melodies and dancers using body movements, this project tries to explore the possibility of digital tools for designers to develop a new apparatus of art making process.

Choosing WATER as the main subject is based on its ubiquity and neutrality. When we encounter a body of water, we see a manifestation of natural forces, a reflection of ever-changing environments, and a testimony of human intervention. There are lots …

H2opulent, Reese Zimmerman

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This project is an experiment on resilience, in an attempt to set forth guidelines for a new architecture that is designed with water, for water, and against water. The intent of this project is to create a self-sustaining architectural model that will exist entirely detached from dry land in order to mitigate the affects of flooding and water level rise.

For this project I am analyzing projects in three categories: land, water and hybrid. Land includes projects built along the coast on solid ground, water includes projects that either float on top of the water or are built on stilts …

Terra Dispositions: A Lithospheric Investigation Of Wet-Matter, Alec Rovensky

Architecture Senior Theses

Human intervention of the landscape by damming, filling wetlands and over-extracting is resulting in the rapid perversion of water bodies through the desertification or flooding of terrain and the ensuing contamination of reservoirs. In turn, these changes are disrupting ecosystems, reshaping geological borders, and causing irreversible damage that poses a threat to clean water supplies. As humans exert agency over local hydrology, there is scarce consideration of the ensuing ecological consequences. This thesis aims to expose the ecological transformations of territories laced with human agency by examining the residues left by water in order to deviate from the misplaced nostalgia …

Water Ceremony, Adriana Alva

Masters Theses

My thesis uses water – a medium – : as a way to follow an intuitive force to create space, as a tool to visualize larger systemic problems (climate crisis + water mismanagement) and for cultural expressions of healing ceremony.

Solving Pollution Through Design Integration: A Sustainable Model For Underdeveloped Mexican Cities, Marcos Cruz

Master of Science in Architecture Theses

Oaxaca requires an architecture that can cleanse the environment, provide affordable and clean energy, and mitigate the crime and poverty within their city. Community awareness is key to the development of this architecture, and this project will focus on creating a design that influences and informs the community about a safer and more sustainable way of life. This project will focus on using the United Nations sustainability goals to address the global challenges we face including poverty, climate, and inequality. This thesis will create a building that will integrate these goals while still maintaining the cultural aspect within the region. …

Kentucky's Environmental Future, Fall/Winter 2004, Issue 9

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

A Public Reckoning: Interior Design, Comedy, & The Common Good, Caroline Mcilraith

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates drinking water quality and the ways in which our built environment can be used to as a tool to alter or confront perception through the violation of expectations. Research indicates that the design of public interiors could be a key component in regulating healthy urban ecologies. Desire to understand the opposing needs of two user groups – the skeptic and the advocate – led me to research design prototypes that prioritize the unexpected as it is manifested in spectacle as underscored through proximity.

By abstracting this research, a new hypothetical design is formed in the form of …

Shower Atomization, Chirag Ayappa Ravishankar,

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The research will help to design a shower for Dr. Chelson’s shelter, which can control the water flow, pressure and duration of the shower, which optimizes the utilization of water. The showers could be used in drought-hit areas where water is very scarce, as daily sanitation needs are necessary to keep a person safe and healthy without wasting water. The report from, World Health Organization shows that showers consume the most water. A timed shower could help resolve this issue through eliminating the wastage. Eco-friendly environmentalists may also be attracted to the showers, as their main purposes are to save …

Reconnect: Amplifying Circulation Typologies To Radically Rethink Urban-Aqueous Relationships, Tiffany Pau

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis proposes a radical rethinking of city-water relationships to leverage existing infrastructural and architectural divides; because it holds great architectural and social value to work within and challenge existing systems, and because access to the waterfront– for sustenance, transportation, commercial, or leisure purposes– is a core human need. The project questions what happens when connections are scaled extra-large, yet aim to maintain the qualities that are imbued within them at the micro scale to generate increased public activity at the water’s edge. It looks to create a new type of urbanism, one that prioritizes the very act of circulation …

Impermeable Assemblages: Flooding, Urban Infrastructure, And Stormwater Politics In São Paulo, Brazil, Nate Millington

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This project analyzes efforts to remake the relationship between water and city in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently experiencing overlapping problems of flooding, scarcity, and pollution, São Paulo illustrates the challenges of managing water in a contemporary mega-city. This dissertation subsequently considers the city’s water management through an approach that borrows from urban political ecology, social studies of science, and post-colonial urban theory. With an epistemological grounding in these literatures, this project analyzes ongoing conversations about water management in São Paulo, and focuses on how water is encountered and engaged with in the landscape by engineers, artists, and activists. This project …

The Self Sufficient Pod, Brenna Merola

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis presents a typology of temporary relief housing that will be self sustaining and will better address the procedure and process of housing individuals affected by disasters. The proposed pod will be adaptable in order to fit the needs of different types of environmental conditions, while still encompassing the architectural necessities of light, heat, and energy.

Best Practices In Community-Based Water Projects, Deborah Anyaibe

Architecture and Planning ETDs

International potable water projects are becoming more common in underdeveloped countries. The necessity of getting clean drinking water to remote areas, or areas with limited access to water is becoming more desperate. This desperation is causing more people to seek to give aid to those in need but often times this comes with a price to the community. This price comes in the form of infrastructure that is unsustainable, building materials left behind instead of disposed of properly, and systems that require upkeep without proper training, as well as many other cultural and economic negative impacts. Many times aid organizations …

Super Levee Breached: A New Infrastructure For Magangué, Nikole Cabrera

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis is an experiment meant to re-imagine fluvial edges as thickened places of habitation. These interventions must exist on land, on the edge, and in the water, acting as a system of infrastructure to spread excess water out, absorb it, and capture it to release it later when necessary. In order to reconcile the relationship between the built and natural environment, the proposed solution requires the integration of water into the overall design. The outcome is a community that can better withstand flooding, recover quickly, and continue on with their daily lives while maintaining their respectable livelihoods.

Informal Landscape Architecture: A Tool To Improve Water Quality For Informal Settlements Along Waterways In Bangkok, Jidapa Chayakul

LSU Master's Theses

The canals of Bangkok were a vital form of infrastructure from when the city was founded in 1782 until the 1850s, when the road system was introduced. Built for agricultural irrigation, the canals served as the primary means of transportation and significantly influenced the form and orientation of Bangkok’s early settlements and public institutions. With the implementation of roads, new buildings were constructed to be oriented towards the streets and away from the canals. The canals and their communities subsequently decreased in visibility. Today, most of the land along the waterways is publically owned. As a result, the land adjacent …

Working At The Water's Edge: Reconnecting The People Of Charleston With The Water, Maria Ann Fox

Masters Theses

Water is a chemical compound fundamental to life. When many people first think of water, it is the water used for everyday activities and drinking that may come to mind. What is frequently overlooked is the fact that 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water and 96.5% of Earth’s water is found in oceans and seas (U.S. Geological Survey). What may not be as clear is the importance of these bodies of water to the surrounding towns and cities.

Since it’s founding in 1670, Charleston, South Carolina has always had a strong relationship with the water. One could …

Water Water Everywhere: Analyzing Long Island's Water Issues And Finding Solutions For A Sustainable Future, Anthony T. Becker

2014 Student Theses

Over three million people call Long Island their home. With access to beautiful landscapes, world-renowned beaches, and proximity to New York City, it is no wonder that so many proudly call this geographic stretch of glacial till their home. However, throughout the years our actions do not necessarily reflect this affection we have to our home. Years of sprawl and human infestation across the island have resulted in widespread environmental degradation. Specifically, the water we drink and the beaches we enjoy have become endangered. I plan on studying the urban ecology of how intensified population growth led to the eutrophication …

Domestic Cisterns In Charleston, South Carolina: Public Health And Private Water In An Antebellum City, Brittany Mckee

All Theses

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of domestic cisterns in the antebellum United States. Cisterns, traditionally defined as catchment or storage facilities for rainwater collected by means of a drainage system, became a common domestic utility in Charleston, South Carolina during the nineteenth century. The earliest cisterns on the peninsula were constructed in the city's more affluent properties. By 1870 they were a household feature in all areas of the city. Two primary factors motivated Charlestonians to install domestic water collection systems. First, the city urbanized with little to no sanitation policy. As a result the city experienced frequent …

Borderline- Part 5, Francis Mckloskey

Architecture Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Borderline- Part 2, Francis Mckloskey

Architecture Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Borderline- Part 1, Francis Mckloskey

Architecture Senior Theses

A large transitional body of water shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland Sea on Earth, dried due to Soviet Irrigation practices.

Nine years ago, with the support of the World Bank, the Kazakh government finished the construction of a 14km dyke to raise the level of the sea in the North, restoring its ecology as a massive constructed landscape.

Since then, the water level, and therefore regional ecology, is regulated by a 50m concrete spillway.

As a currently inexistant interface between tourism and fishing industries on site, this project investigated the capacity …

Borderline- Part 4, Francis Mckloskey

Architecture Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Issue Brief: Auditing Your Town's Development Code For Barriers To Sustainable Water Management, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This issue brief is intended for town officials who want to understand how development regulations in their community affect local water resources. Municipal development codes – the set of regulations that control the built environment – can have a great influence on the availability of clean and healthy water for drinking, recreation, and commercial uses. This in turn affects the community’s social, environmental, and economic vitality.

Comprehensive plans, zoning codes, and building standards are just a few examples of regulations that intentionally or unintentionally regulate the way water is transported, collected and absorbed. Regulations that produce dispersed development or large …

Sourcing Scarcity, Muneerah Alrabe

Architecture Senior Theses

Water is an essential element to human development and urban vitality. As a response to future oil depletion in cities, a new appearance of water emerges in cities: Hydro-urbanism. Through rethinking the potential of water infrastructure in cities, HydroUrbanism situates itself as a spectacular functional event that aims to collect, purify, store, and generate energy within a city. The project reconsiders the production process of water on the periphery of the city and hypothesizes for an integrated process of the production of water to work within the city at an urban scale. Exposing the water infrastructure, fantasizing water, and re-connecting …

Revitalizing Waterfront: The Sinking City, Clifford Shih

Architecture Senior Theses

The existing waterfront condition presents a separation between the water and urban. I propose this separation between the water and urban is an interacted space of urban and water. Waterfront constructed in this way protects the city from floating, yet a solution of creating a public space, ports, and water filtration facility will blend the separated condition. Thus, architecture exemplifies a vehicle to constitute physical and visual connection for dichotomy edge created by the waterfront in a rapid stratified urbanization and industrialization.

Borderline- Part 3, Francis Mckloskey

Architecture Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Riverside Brewing Facility: The Sustenance Of Water Allocation, Ryan T. Luczkowiak

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Water is the most vital resource on Earth. We are facing a global water crisis and the time has come to investigate how we can cope with this issue at a local basis. We live in a culture that is facing economic recessions and is striving for a developmental change. In the advancement of our technological age we are looking for new innovative means of development. Our existing infrastructural conditions cannot handle the sort of social shift we are striving for. We have to become sustainable but the most important is the allocation of water. The issue I am addressing …

Drinking Water Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This document is intended to help local and regional planning agencies, and their constituent water utilities, integrate drinking water infrastructure planning and investments into plans for sustainable development. Resources listed here provide guidance on making land use decisions that protect water resources, setting adequate and sustainable drinking water rates, controlling water loss, funding water infrastructure projects, and managing water utilities.

The directory was developed by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. Through this program, EFCN is providing capacity …