Environmental Design Commons^™

Flourishing Foliage: Exploring Hail City's Diverse Botanical Landscape, Asmaa Elantary Dr.

Journal of Engineering Research

This research explores the role of native plants in enhancing the distinctiveness of cities in Saudi Arabia, focusing on a specific case study of Al-Samra Park. The study aims to investigate the prevalence and effects of non-native and native plants in the park and their contribution to the uniqueness of the landscape. A questionnaire was designed and implemented to gather data, and the park's plant composition was examined.

The findings indicate that non-native plants dominate Al-Samra Park, while native plants are scarce. However, the abundance of non-native plants offers various benefits to park visitors. Some non-native plants possess medicinal properties, …

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 …

Mojave Unnerved, Rachel Scarnaty

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

phenomenology is rich in the preserved land of the mojave desert with only a light human touch interfering.

observed through admiration and mainly scientific analysis, it is easy to believe the ethereal qualities of the land are at their peak.

i challenge that architecture may exist within the mojave national preserve to intensify the unique sensory experiences.

tectonics form to measure and analyze the climate components that create the fantastical qualities. the architecture learns from the environmental and social history and future of each site.

i have chose four of nine main sites within the preserve: soda lake, barber peak, …

The Role Of The Landscape In The Socialization Of Cohousing Communities: A Study In Western Massachusetts, Emilie Marques Jordao

Masters Theses

The cohousing movement started in the United States in the 1990’s and since then has spread to over 160 communities throughout the country. This type of community is characterized by small dwelling units, high housing density, shared facilities such as a common house, shared commons and grouped parking. These are pedestrian-oriented communities with car circulation restricted to the outskirts of the neighborhood. Cohousing settlements have the goal of promoting social interaction and sustainable living through design, programming, and shared ideals. Many design characteristics, such as house proximity, density, building height and size, the location of parking, the availability of common …

Sustainable Architecture Design: Environmental And Economic Benefits, Michael Babcock

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines the movement of environmentalism, and its impact on architecture and construction. During an interview with a professional architect, a basis for research of sustainable design was devised, when he explained that “good” architecture attempts to holistically integrate the external and built environment. Presently, the main measurement for sustainability is energy efficiency. Therefore, architects constantly implement new technology in an attempt to unify both the external and built environment in an energy efficient manner. Furthermore, this thesis provides an environmental and financial cost analysis of implementing sustainable design and build. Research shows that the life cycle and up-front …

Darndale Park Report, Ciaran Cuffe, Daniel Blanchfield, Andrea Culjak, Meadhbh Ní Lochlainn, Orla Gilleece, Lin Zhao, Niall Thomas, John Lucey, Zainab Mansary

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Designing For A Resilient Waterfront, Laura Festa

Architecture Thesis Prep

The project will use soft infrastructure systems to create a more environmental, technical, and economically resilient waterfront development. The threat of rising sea level will become the framework for a flexible and holistic design between architecture, landscape, and soft infrastructure. By arraying the activities of recreation, ecology, and urban development along the waterfront and combining these design strategies with a soft infrastructure system, the coastline of East Boston has the potential to become a precedent for other urban waterfronts vulnerable to sea level rise. By rethinking the division between landscape and infrastructure to form a soft infrastructure system, solutions can …

The Green Factor, Hillary Tung

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Agri[Culture]: An Alternate Paradigm For The American Landscape, Melissa Erin Morris

Masters Theses

Throughout the Appalachian region, one can experience the vast disappearance of the American landscape as we know it. Whether driving through the rugged coal mining towns of Virginia, or the suburban sprawl taking over the rural farmland of Tennessee, it becomes clear that this is a spreading epidemic. Without an appropriate balance of urban, suburban, and rural areas, we begin to loose the landscape which has always been so closely linked to this country’s cultural and physical identity.

This thesis focuses on the agrarian Appalachian culture with a proposal for a project rooted heavily in cultural identity. With programs based …

[Re]Connection, Taylor Hahn

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I argue for a place where people can go to regain perspective, and to reevaluate their interactions, both with other people and their environment. This proposal explores ways in which architectural design creates a setting where the built environment is intrinsically connected to systems and forms of the natural environment. The design project consists of a facility in McLean, Virginia, just west of Washington, DC, on the southern bank of the Potomac River, for the temporary stay of people suffering from depression: who feel alienated in a world full of connections. Cases of depression are higher than …

Synergistic Green Networks To Transform Lonsdale Suburbia, Archana Sharma

Archana Sharma

No abstract provided.

A Sacred And Secular Landscape: Empowering Social Agency, Shreya Shah

Architecture Senior Theses

"I contend that landscape can provoke an idea for a productive, public space using the people of the city as social agents to create a sensitive rather than oppressive water remediation system. By inventing a program that uses landscape as a water remediation space as well as landscape as a religious and social space, the project will exhibit the idea that social agents can inform a change in the water pollution crisis."

Umass Amherst Campus Master Plan, Sustainability Reports & Plans, Dennis Swinford, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Alexander Stepanov, Lukasz Czarniecki, Niels La Cour, Simon Raine

Ludmilla D Pavlova

The University of Massachusetts Amherst has a long tradition of campus planning that dates back to 1866 and the first plan for the campus by Frederick Law Olmsted. Successive planning efforts in the modern era have documented strategies for continued development of the campus. Despite this long tradition of planning, development of the campus has at times diverged from the recommendations of successive master plans. The last plan was adopted in 1993 and updated in 2007. The campus is once again growing: UMass is in the midst of a ten-year, billion-dollar capital improvement program that started in 2004. The University …

Rethinking Greenways Design In Context Of Sustainable Development: Towards Landscape Synergism, Archana Sharma

Architecture Publications and Other Works

Greenways design and planning has been largely framed as a multi-functional, multi-objective approach to address socio-cultural and ecological concerns (Fabos,2004; Hough 2004, Steiner, 2002; Fabos, 1995, Ahern, 1995; Ndubisi, 1995; Forman,1995). Social well-being, identity and memory have been predominant socio-cultural concerns while biodiversity preservation and natural resources conservation have been key ecological concerns. These concerns have now been superseded by the more urgent concerns of sustainable development such as availability of energy resources, both food and fuel. Whether and how the design and practice of greenways meets these sustainable development challenges is the primary question raised through this paper.

The …

Backyard Landscaping Design And Irrigation, Diana Eckert, Lauren Eckert

Horticulture and Crop Science

This project will involve designing and installing a drought friendly landscape in Los Angeles County, specifically in the San Fernando Valley where water restrictions are among the harshest. Along with being a landscape that needs little water, the design also needs to be safe for small children and pets. The backyard that will be designed has a large pool and a small rock garden area with a few succulent plants and some dying groundcover chaotically tossed in. The aim of this project is to design and install a landscape that is easily maintained, safe, and visually appealing while still following …

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 …

Greenways As Instrument Of Landscape Synergism_Chinese Translation, Archana Sharma, Hui-Cheng Zhong

Architecture Publications and Other Works

This paper explores whether and how the design and practice of greenways meets the sustainable development needs of food and fuel. It outlines three predominant design typologies of greenways: connector design, containment design and composite network design. It also advocates for composite network design typology of greenways for its scalar versatility enabling neighbourhood to city level applications and illustrates the sustainable development outcomes related to socio-cultural, ecological and economic wellbeing as generated through green network design at neighbourhood scale, and. It articulates greenways as synergistic landscapes that create harmony amongst the urban system with broader biophysical system. Essentially, the paper …

Green-Switch: Reducing The Conflict Between The Industrial And The Residential Interface, Archana Sharma

Architecture Publications and Other Works

The dilemma of co-existence of human-industry has been a constant topic of debate among the realms of landscape planning, many times without being clearly articulated as such. This paper examines the conflict through the study of industrial-residential domain. Natural resources such as water and land are primary reasons of conflict. The paper explores the potential of landscape design to address this conflict. The proposed landscape design strategy green-switch combines the landscape planning concept of “greenways” and applied ecological engineering concept of “constructed wetland” to address the conflict.

Green-Switch: Reducing The Conflict Between The Industrial And The Residential Interface, Archana Sharma

Archana Sharma

The dilemma of co-existence of human-industry has been a constant topic of debate among the realms of landscape planning, many times without being clearly articulated as such. This paper examines the conflict through the study of industrial-residential domain. Natural resources such as water and land are primary reasons of conflict. The paper explores the potential of landscape design to address this conflict. The proposed landscape design strategy green-switch combines the landscape planning concept of “greenways” and applied ecological engineering concept of “constructed wetland” to address the conflict.