Other Architecture Commons^™

Norteada- En Busca De Un Nuevo Norte. Cocoon Portals And The Negotiation Of Space., Kimberly Ayala Najera

Masters Theses

ACT 1

The symbiotic relationship between the turtle and butterfly through lachryphagy, where the butterfly gathers nutrients through drinking the tears of the turtle, brings us to an abandoned turtle shell, our site of exploration. Our turtle friend has long since passed, leaving behind an empty shell that’s become developed and inhabited.

En nuestro analisis de border, to borderland, we arrive at border creep. Border creep, o la fluencia de la frontera, perpetua la tierra fronteriza mas alla y se convierte en una experiencia encarnada.

“Soy una tortuga donde quiera que vaya llevo a casa en mi espalda.”

-Gloria Anzaldua, …

Sustainable Seismic Architecture: Exploring The Synergy Of Mortise-And-Tenon Joinery And Modern Timber Construction For Reducing Embodied Carbon, Cong Li

Masters Theses

Abstract

This design thesis explores the potential of combining ancient Mortise-and-Tenon joinery techniques with modern timber construction to create sustainable seismic architecture that simultaneously reduces embodied carbon. By studying the enduring qualities of Mortise-and-Tenon structures and their ability to withstand earthquakes, this research uncovers a synergistic relationship between traditional joinery methods and contemporary building materials, unlocking significant opportunities for embodied carbon reduction ranging from 7 to 40% compared to other modern architecture construction.

The research reveals that Mortise-and-Tenon structures commonly incorporate large roof systems, acting as mass dampers that provide flexibility and distribute weight evenly to columns. By transferring the …

Soft City: Reclaiming Urban Public Spaces For Play, Jennifer Pham

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between children’s play and urban public spaces. What kinds of play are prioritized, and consequently, what ways of learning are celebrated above others? How are public spaces serving or not serving to nurture children’s development and joy?

The thesis design project is a strategic plan for spatial activism. Using a “guerilla architecture” approach, I am developing a series of workshops with the local community that culminate in collectively designed urban installations. This participatory design process enables people to perceive public spaces in new ways, and it invites community members and children to become active parts …

Reintroducing Hemp (Rongony) In The Material Palette Of Madagascar: A Study On The Potential Of Hemp Clay Components And Its Impact On Social And Ecological Communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Masters Theses

When mentioning the word hemp, especially in the local language of Madagascar, the literal translation does not set it apart from marijuana, as they are both called “rongony” - creating the stigma around hemp as the negative stereotype of marijuana. However, the material has been used by the ancestors of Madagascar, as well as across cultures, in its fibrous form to produce fabrication like textile goods and packaging. During colonization, the prohibition of hemp intensified, and since then, any activity related to either of these plants is prohibited and will end in severe punitive measures. This thesis explores the strengths …

Glowing Under The Bridge—A Healing Space For Wounded Souls, Ruier Zhao

Masters Theses

The suicide rate among Chinese adolescents is significantly higher than the world average, with academic stress and family relationships being the major causes. This thesis focuses on building a place for Chinese students from upper elementary school to high school, where they can regulate their psychology, relax, and ideally reduce the rate of impulsive suicides.

In Chongqing, the percentage of students who attempt or commit suicide is close to 25%. The proposed site for this place of rest is under the bridge of one of Chongqing’s most crowded monorail stations, which is a semi-abandoned park with a beautiful view of …

From Vault To Platform （Democratizing Museums Through The Lens Of The Metaverse））, Zhaoyang Cui

Masters Theses

The modern history of art viewing moves from private collections to public museums, and the modern museum arises with an intention to encourage a broad range of visitors. However, if we look at the reality of museum access, especially in the digital era, when the methods of attaining knowledge and information have grown ever stronger, it is easy to notice the single-direction circuit of information in the operation of museums from curators to the public, which seems outdated in the times of social media, AI and metaverse. Even if a broad range of visitors enter the museum, the information they …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

The Incremental Ecosystem: Hybridizing Self-Built + Conventional Processes As A Solution To Urban Expansion, Shayne Serrano

Masters Theses

Already dense urban areas will inevitably require further densification and sprawl. Given the United Nations projection of 68% of the World’s population living in cities by 2050, there is an urgency to resolve matters of urban expansion. At this time, it is estimated that 25% of the world’s urban population reside within the construct of a self-built settlement. Undoubtedly, these communities face a wide range of challenges including, but not limited to, a lack of urban infrastructure necessary to support their health and wellness, a lack of transportation to the inner city, a lack of access to healthcare and educational …

Myths, Legends, And Landscapes, Oromia Jula

Masters Theses

The concept of myth-making in architecture involves the use of narratives, symbolism, and cultural references to shape the meaning and experience of built spaces. These myths hold significance beyond the distinction between fiction and reality; they exist to provide explanations and hold great influence over our lives. Understanding a place and its identity requires an exploration of the narratives and beliefs associated with it, as they directly shape the physical environment. By embracing and incorporating these mythologies, designers and planners can create meaningful and authentic spaces that resonate deeply with people.

Communities, being socially constructed, rely on unifying narratives that …

Ghost Hotel, George Acosta

Masters Theses

The home, once a private space, now serves as a site of representation and consumerist consumption in the digital age. The thesis investigates the current public sphere surrounding home sharing - a development in the commodification of the home.

The thesis explores a housing typology in New York City - where impermanence and tourism have contributed to hyper-generic conditions of commodified spaces dictated and influenced by media, trends, and ideals. The project narrative presents the uncanny and generic qualities of the home through the rendered image. The satirical images reveal the difference between the illusion and reality of housing imagery …

Phantom Spaces, Craytonia Williams Ii

Masters Theses

The world is built on ‘what-ifs’ and ‘I hopes.’ The more one can dream, the further development goes in design. We are told anything is possible if you put your mind to it, and as we have lived through many different eras, the limit in which we extend our mind has expanded. Research shows that emotional and mental instability has risen over 50% in the past decade in people under 30. How does the understanding of emotions and trauma impact the understanding and the feelings attached to designed spaces for rest and rehabilitation. We are constantly observing and adapting to …

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 …

Old And New: Intervention In Space And Material, Yoonji Kang

Masters Theses

Hanok is a traditional Korean architecture built with Korea’s unique technology and style. Most Korean people have a positive impression of the Hanok but Hanok is acknowledged as an obsolete form of living these days. The reasons why the Hanok is not widely used are an inconvenience in living due to facilities, difficulty in maintenance, the high cost required for renovation, and its prone to coldness. Therefore, it is essential to modernize the design and construction of the Hanok by reflecting modern needs in a new Hanok. This study investigates the characteristics of the Hanok, the typologies, and how it …

Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories Of Water And Earth, Alexis Violet

Masters Theses

Unearthing Complexity investigates conceptions of time and surface through geological stories of the water and earth. Building on theories of deep time, hydrofeminism, critical zones, and grounding, I hope to foster a deeper awareness of time scales other than our own and a more tangible understanding of the embodied experience of matter in the universe. Working toward a new literacy of the water and earth in which they are recognized as living, changing bodies to which we are inherently tied at a molecular level, the site of this multiscalar inquiry occurs in the coastal zones of the Narragansett Bay where …

Cohabitation X Adaptation, 2100: A Climate Change Epoch, Kyle Andrews

Masters Theses

Some seventy-seven odd years in the future, the world as we know it will only be recognizable by those who are willing to accept it. The bustling metropolis of Boston Massachusetts has been transformed to appease the tides of Mother Nature as a consequence of human intervention. In the decades prior, humanity viciously fought to contain the effects of climate change, until many realized the colossal undertaking of such a battle. Municipalities across the globe had begun to accept that fighting the earth was no longer an option. Instead, the only hope forward was to adapt to a reality in …

Spatial Reveries, Alexander Wenstrup

Masters Theses

We live in a hazy existence marked by rapid pace, development, digital consumption, and a deteriorating environment. Spatial Reveries hopes to counter the current trajectory and offer an alternative perspective by presenting one with moments of awe, discovery, and wonder to improve the disconnect between society and their surroundings. The work refers to a history of anamorphic art, cubism, deception, and optical phenomena in Western society. It operates on the urges and instincts of the artist, utilizing massing, light, transparency, horizons, and vastness, to challenge perceptions of space, time, and memory. Through the play of perspective and projection the work …

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 …

Country Tech: The Adaptive Reuse Of A Former Theatre In The Catskill Mountains, Isimamwen Imarhiagbe, Calvin O. Walters Jr., Cheriyah Wilmot

Publications and Research

Our research centers on the birth, life, abandonment, and a proposed adaptive reuse of an early 20th-century former social hall theatre in Shandaken, a former company town for manufacturing furniture, within the Catskill Mountains. Adaptive reuse involves renovating a building or space by repurposing the existing structure and inserting a contemporary design/function. The building housed a variety of purposes throughout its lifetime: a theater, social hall, bowling alley, artist studios, and residential apartments. Our proposal is to return the building to its original purpose as a social hall, performance space, and a flex space for year-round use for art exhibits, …

Recipes For Building Relationships, Adriana Lintz

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the history of women's access to education and the issues of gender disparity in education. I focus on single-gendered schools as I write from personal experience to describe the benefits for individuals in single-gender educational systems. I cite conflicting research on how men and women learn regarding biological, cognitive, and developmental differences. I illuminate some of the benefits of single-gendered education through research, experience, and personal communications. I write about the controversies and disparities regarding education and single-gender schools. I document research on the issues women face in education and the politics of women’s bodies and minds …

To Open A Clearing: Cultivating Spaces Of Endurance In The Upper Amazon, Brunno De Melo Meirelles Douat

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

To effectively challenge the policies of extraction implemented by late liberal regimes, the Waorani communities from Upper Amazon have devised spatial strategies to defend their traditional territory. By re-examining the concept of the contact zone and unfolding settler and Indigenous literature, spatialities, and worldviews, this thesis suggests the concept of forest Clearings as a means to explore spatial forms of endurance.

Clearings emerge within the Amazon in sites where encounters between divergent worldviews embody otherwise modes of existence. Through a series of fieldwork reflections, these Clearings are perceived as spaces where ontological negotiations are more likely to occur, strategies of …

Using Bim To Increase The Efficiency Of Energy-Driven Retrofitting Projects, Anne Grego, Shannon Chance, Barry Mcauley

Conference Papers

The building sector is responsible for nearly 40% of global energy consumption. Many existing buildings have poor thermal insulation and low energy performance, hindering sustainability goals. Energy-driven building retrofitting could address this issue and implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) in retrofitting can reduce process time, costs, and waste associated with such undertakings. Yet, there is a lack of research and insufficient guidance for implementing BIM in energy-driven retrofitting. A BIM framework is presented to enhance decision-making processes during retrofitting. The aims of this study were to (1) identify BIM technologies and methodologies that could address existing barriers and improve efficiency …

The Dwelling And The Shed: Redefining The Homestead, Ryan Mattox

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The homestead is the frontier of exploration. It is the place that shows people can take care of themselves through self-sufficient means. This place also looks at making a more sustainable population. That is partly due to the individual needing to take care of the environment around themselves so that the environment can provide for them.

My thesis project will look to create a technological and sustainable residential module that can be replicated and modified to create community based on self-sufficiency by means of sustainability. To achieve this goal, my thesis will look at combining the architectural elements of the …

Modular Adaptivity : The Plug-In Apartment, Bryce Stegmayer

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Within current architecture, many buildings are seemingly just copies of an original design that hasn’t changed in the slightest in ages. It will be placed on a site and left there to fulfill its single purpose. When this purpose is done, the building will become vacant and will be an everlasting mark of how we don’t think ahead. I’ve come to know these buildings as “one and done” architecture. They are a contradiction to the concept of sustainability and lack any foresight for their future impact. This thesis is an approach to make a change to this previous way of …

The Other Place, Simona Floyd

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

­­­­­­­In an abundance of cities across the US, there are not plentiful amounts of favorable architectural experiences that assist to benefit the mindset of many. This is especially needed as one examines the human experience and mindset of one in the context of the worldly pressures and everyday cycles for all individuals. Societal expectations, self-preservation, and difficult times can all lead one to a need to escape from this “place”. What is this place? Why are many in need to escape? What even is the new world people are in need to escape to? The common goal of the architect …

10 Minute City -Reinventing Ways To Move Around The City Via Scooter, Emily Melchor

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Urban sprawl is an issue that many major cities in the United States are experiencing. The population rise in cities has contributed to their rapid growth, increased traffic, pollution, and the reliability on cars. These issues can slowly be tackled by addressing them in areas that are on their way to reaching the height of urban sprawl. An example of such an area is Gwinnett County located northeast of Atlanta. Gwinnett County is on its way to becoming one of Georgia’s most populated counties, according to MARTA Transit System. MARTA did such studies on Gwinnett because in 2018, MARTA along …

Reverence For Life And Death: A New Cemetery Typology, Ashlyn Olmstead

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The current methods and traditions of burial practices and cemetery design are to be examined for architectural opportunities within this thesis study. The current practices of cemetery design and burial methodologies in the United States have shown signs of instability and lack of longevity due to the decreasing availability of land in dense city environments. Additional climatic factors such as rising sea levels also threaten below ground burial. In other countries, cities such as Hong Kong and Tokyo have already begun to research new methodologies surrounding burial due to this concern and the need for US cities to follow suit …

Origami In Design : How Can Origami Inform The Design Of The Kinetic Façade System?, Nicolas Ackerman

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The present goal as a designer is to create a very thoughtful building that presents itself as a visual identity for our built environment. One of the intentions of the design is to not impact more into the co2 emissions. With 40 percent of the 75 percent annual global Greenhouse emissions coming from building operations, (Architecture 2030), we as designers must shift from a formal to a performance-based architecture. An architecture that instinctively addresses reduced energy consumption and therefore lower CO2 emissions through the integration of passive design strategies. In order to compete in a future with CO2 reduction, we …

A Ludic Generation: Bridging Architecture, Games, And Technology For More Playful Spaces, Jade Lefebvre

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In a world dominated by mundane environments, this thesis proposes a novel approach to designing public spaces that integrate game design principles and extended reality technology. By embracing the inherent ludic behavior found in human nature and games, I aim to elevate everyday experiences.

This research delves into the capabilities of extended reality technology, psychology of play and its cultural and societal background, psychology of human archetypes, and game design components as an extraction for architectural typologies. Key findings reveal that by analyzing game components, design languages are formed and can be used to develop feasible architectural typologies.

The significance …

Archi-Comics, Timothy Gatto

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Humor in architecture is not at the forefront of architect’s minds, this comes from architects need to be deemed serious. This way of thinking is what has backed architects up into a corner banal and stagnant architecture. Architecture is the art of context, everything in architecture is referential. Humor is foundationally the exact same way, the incongruity theory makes humor possible by putting a concept into context with things and finding contradictions in the process, thus developing a joke. Each of these arts, humor and architecture, are that of context and when architecture is delivered like humor, it points out …

Bench – A Design Process To Make A Digitally Manufactured Furniture System Using The Spirit Of Japanese Joinery, Myles Richter

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone identifies and implements the spirit of Japanese joinery into a contemporary design process to develop a component based piece of furniture through means of digital manufacturing, namely CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machining. Through the aesthetic, functional, and structural results of this design process, the impact of applying the spirit of Japanese joinery as a guide for the development of the tectonic language of an object are revealed. The structure of this project will discuss an overview of the design process of an object which was designed in the spirit of Japanese joinery, and an assessment of the success …