Architectural Technology Commons^™

The Center For Centering Dome, Olek Piechaczek, Ryan M. Scharf

Architectural Engineering

The Center for Centering seeks to create a large-scale healing center, conducive to individual centering of the mind and body. This mobile installation provides a relaxing, enclosed space while still maintaining a connection to the outdoors. The clients liked the idea of having a pop-up installation that could be easily set up as a touring display. With a deadline for installation looming in June 2022, a team of students had five months to design and manufacture the structure.

In winter 2022, the students developed custom geometry to minimize the number of individual parts and built a ¼ scale model of …

Attainable And Sustainable Home Building Solutions, Katrina Matthews

Construction Management

Sustainability has fortunately been a recent concern in the construction industry as climate change continues to impose potentially insurmountable threats to the global environment. Although many new methods have been adopted in efforts to lessen the adverse environmental effects of construction-related activities, as a society, we still have much room for growth as the built environment accounts for almost 50% of global emissions. Many changes and standards must be adopted to make these solutions efficiently beneficial. To set industry standards, we must start with the most basic form of construction- residential building. This report covers two attainable framing solutions for …

Sage Garden Pavilion Shade Structure, Anthony Razouk Karroum, Manuel Bermudez, Matthew Kilbride, Sarah Holt, Marisa Martineau

Architectural Engineering

Form finding, testing, and construction of funicular double-layered shells in an interdisciplinary format with a focus on designing a shade structure for the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden Children’s Pavilion. In the process, challenges such as connection design, materiality, storage, and more are explored and refined in relation to shell structures.

Caed Hasslein Student Competition, Greta R. Stout

Construction Management

This paper outlines the development of the first CAED Hasslein Student Competition at Cal Poly, SLO. The College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly, SLO has not yet been successful in creating a platform to engage students of all five majors to collaborate in an educational atmosphere. This project aims to challenge students to work in teams made up of all five disciplines in a Request for Proposal-style competition. This paper focuses on how the idea of this competition came to be and the steps that were taken to successfully write the competition problem statement. These steps included …

Electrochromic Windows: Return On Investment Analysis, Thomas Michael Caprio

Construction Management

In recent years, sustainability in construction has become a topic of undeniable interest. With sustainability certifications becoming more prominent and desirable, members of the construction industry have begun to seek alternatives for standard systems to keep up with market trends. One of the main issues that the construction industry faces is accessibility of technology. While there are new products and technologies being released frequently, members of the construction industry lack knowledge on the specific details and implications of working with newer systems. One piece of technology that was recently introduced is electrochromic glass, or smart glass. Electrochromic windows analyze sunlight …

The Integration Of Virtual Reality In The Commercial Construction Industry, Justin T. Gin

Construction Management

Virtual reality has recently been spreading throughout the commercial construction industry rapidly. Some of its capabilities are safety training, helping spot Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) issues, logistics planning, and virtual walkthroughs. Many construction companies were starting to utilize virtual reality's advantages until COVID-19 hit. The initial wave of COVID slowed down construction in general as well as the need or use of virtual reality. Now, some companies are worried about the health risks and implementation issues that virtual reality headsets might bring while other companies are optimistic about the future of virtual reality. This report will explore the different …

Proposal For Adobe Earthbag Disaster-Relief Structure, John Camacho

Construction Management

The science behind creating an adobe house has been around for thousands of years; the primitive mixture contains only dirt, water, and straw. Left to cure in bricks or as a single cast-in-place system, the structure will provide long-lasting protection from the elements. Science has taken this a step further with the introduction of cementitious admixtures and reinforcement. The result is an adobe structure with exemplary thermo-retentive properties and load-bearing capabilities. This project provides an analysis on the “SuperAdobe” earthbag system that has been put into practice by independent contractors and housing-relief initiatives. The goal of the project was to …

A Case Study On How Insulated Concrete Forms Can Prevent Structure Loss During Wildfires, Charles Myron Ackley

Construction Management

ICFs are a building material with unique thermal insulating and non-combustible properties that have shown great potential at protecting a structure during a wildfire. To prove the hypothesis that ICFs can effectively prevent structure damage or loss during a wildfire, an analytical case study on an ICF home that survived the Camp Fire was conducted. The goal was to understand how ICFs unique thermal insulating and non-combustible properties protect structures from wildfires and how this assembly system can be a lot more effective than a traditional frame structure. Additional objectives for the project included highlighting the growing threat of wildfires …

Revision Of The Archicad Manual For Cm 115, Emma Wagner

Construction Management

Each CM 115: Fundamentals of Construction Management section contains a quarter long project, the goal of which is to familiarize the students with a modeling software. More so, the goal of the project is to introduce them to a set of construction documents- how to get started, what is included, what they need to pay attention to as a construction manager, and most importantly, to implement what they learn from their written coursework completed during class. This manual was written to help students complete this assignment to the best of their ability, producing a piece of work that shows they …

Documentation Of Concrete Slabs Prior To Pours, Peter D. Riley

Construction Management

Concrete slabs in multi-level commercial building projects contain many components that become no longer visible once concrete has been poured. As building designs advance and continue to locate components in concrete, it is important to document what these slabs contain in order to verify accurate craftsmanship and allow for improved future construction workflows and building modernizations. This paper explores current industry needs for proficient documentation as well as practices to achieve this. A case study was conducted, testing four devices that analyzed feasibility factors for realistic implementation by a contractor such as cost, interoperability, and level of skill required for …

Unexpected Setbacks When Excavating – Using Gpr For Mitigating Risk: A Case Study, Samuel L. Marcum

Construction Management

Whether constructing on undeveloped land or on an existing developed site, there is a risk of encountering unexpected objects when excavating. With today’s technology in Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), this risk can generally be mitigated. Using Whiting-Turner’s construction of Stanford University’s new ChEM-H & SNI Building as an example, this case study discusses the use of GPR for underground mapping, as well as various ways to implement GPR technology. The ChEM-H & SNI site had many underground utilities that required precise pot-holing to verify locations. Although pot-holing is widely used, it is a destructive method, it is time and labor …

Moor Movement: Automated Docking On Drought-Stricken Reservoirs, Daniel Beck

Landscape Architecture

Moor Movement establishes a mechanized docking system for unpredictable shoreline fluctuations on inland lakes and reservoirs. Due to climate change and warmer global temperatures, the threat of ocean level rise has initiated massive proposals to address the interface between ocean and man-made infrastructure. While this is a monumental problem, ocean level rise is not the only immediate threat. The recently declared emergency drought conditions in California are finally bringing attention to inland lakes and reservoirs. While ocean levels might rise 2-7 feet in 100 years, a lake could drop 100 feet in 5 years. What happens to access roads, marinas, …

Seismic Performance Comparison Of A Fixed-Base Versus A Base-Isolated Office Building, Nicholas Reidar Marrs

Master's Theses

The topic of this thesis is base isolation. The purpose of this thesis is to offer a relative understanding of the seismic performance enhancements that a typical 12-story steel office building can achieve through the implementation of base isolation technology. To reach this understanding, the structures of a fixed-base office building and a base-isolated office building of similar size and layout are designed, their seismic performance is compared, and a cost-benefit analysis is completed. The base isolation system that is utilized is composed of Triple Friction Pendulum (TFP) bearings.

The work of this thesis is divided into four phases. First, …