Interior Design Commons^™

Coarse-Work: An Investigation Into The Impact Of Materiality In The Interior Educational Setting, Isabel G. Robb

Honors Theses

Education design in modern suburban America curates learning environments that are cold and impersonal, being used more as a place to keep youth during the day than as a place where they can truly learn about and understand the world around them. This learning environment does not suit all students, especially those with learning disabilities, and it leaves little room for flexibility in classroom usage.

Focusing on creating a learning environment where all students feel welcome and are able to effectively learn, this projective design research project aims to provide a comprehensive intervention through the built environment and interior design, …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Attitudes Of Experiential Designers Across Design Disciplines, Danielle Degarmo

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The expanded use of the term scenography is widening its understanding of the word to encompass many experiential design disciplines beyond its origin in theatre. At its essence, scenography is the culmination of a designer’s collaborative efforts to take a prompt, whether it be a client program, a script, or other, and produce a holistic assemblage of experiential design elements to spatially engage an end user. Many experts in across design fields have acknowledged that there is disciplinary cross over among those practicing in experiential design fields in terms of design output or intention. By means of designer surveys and …

Overlooked Modi Vivendi, Natalia Silva

Masters Theses

Traditional gender roles, performance of heterosexuality, marriage, parenthood, and a large variety of other societal expectations manifest themselves in the domestic realm, both intangibly and spatially. The design of domestic spaces has historically catered towards heteronormative living stereotypes, marginalizing people whose way of living challenges the norm. Even in the present day, designers with non-user clients — developers, investors, real estate firms, etc. — will design with heteronormative households in mind. The rise in feminist and LGBTQ+ rights movements has allowed for non-heteronormative modi vivendi (ways of living) to be more vocally and visibly present in the sociopolitical and cultural …

Manifesto Of Poor Images: Re-Imagine Guggenheim In The Post-Digital Age, Mengning He

Masters Theses

What is the role and value of low-resolution digital images, or "poor images," in a culture dominated by high-resolution and hyper-realistic digital media? This thesis investigates poor images from several perspectives: their technical characteristics, viewer’s experience, creative process, and artistic content.

With low-resolution as the defining characteristic of poor images, these pictures challenge the unceasing longing for ever-higher image resolution. While they seem unstable and untrustworthy, they challenge the obsession with higher resolution, offer an ambiguous visual experience, and provoke nostalgia. Poor images are open to appropriation, allowing users to become editors and co-authors. In the process of image-making, poor …

Moving Narration: A Journey Through History, Yincheng Zhu

Masters Theses

The Central Pacific, as the first transcontinental railroad, is a remarkable achievement in the history of the United States. However, the story of what happened during its construction, including the struggles of the first generation of immigrants from China who built the tracks, and the resistance of native Americans to cede their lands, is largely forgotten. The California Zephyr, as a long-trip train that currently runs on the Central Pacific tracks, is not only a means of transportation but should also tell the history of survival and resistance embodied by the landscape it moves through and tracks it travels over. …

Sanctuary, Harsha Kejriwal

Masters Theses

When I first arrived in New England, I was accustomed to thinking of winters as short but pleasant periods. For me, winter was a break from the strong and relentless sunlight of summer in Central India. But the contrast between my childhood winters and the same months in the Northeastern United States was dramatic. Statistically, Providence has an average of five hours of sunlight a day whereas Central India enjoys 9.5 hours during its coldest months. This pronounced change in light piqued my interest. I was struck by the various phenomena created by natural light during these cold months. Sunlight, …

A Part Apart, Spenser Atlas

Masters Theses

I am fascinated by connections. Things that click, snap, slide, and hold. I care about the ways in which objects meet, looking for answers in the space between. What binds one thing to another?

I believe the world is presented to us in pieces. It’s hard to say how it all comes together. It's easy to believe things are shapeless and detached from each other. Connection is a bridge, a way of linking one thing to another that reveals interdependence, and eventually moves outwards to express a correlation between pieces, once assumed to be discrete and isolated.

This work is …

Traveling With A Purpose: Sustainable Tourism, Nina Rossman

Honors Theses

The act of traveling is often seen as exciting for many travelers looking for adventure or to experience something different than their everyday routines. However, many current tourism trends force negative burdens onto local communities and environments. For instance, when development increases consumption in an area where natural resources are scarce to begin with, it can put pressure on those resources. There is a certain level of visitor use that an environment can manage; negative impacts occur when the changes in visitor use exceed this limit.[1]

While tourist destinations experience negative impacts from the tourism industry, tourism also supports …

Adaptive Reuse Of Frosty Morn, Veronika Kalugina, Rebecca Tonguis, Heidi Gabriel, Peyton Kauffman

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Frosty Morn, a former meat packing facility in Clarksville, TN, is now abandoned, dilapidated, and partially demolished. The site sits within the Red River District neighborhood, which consists of a diverse community of artists. The Red River District has been identified by the Clarksville Mayor’s Office as an area with potential for growth, catalyzed by repurposing the Frosty Morn building as an icon and beacon of the community. Highest and best use research, in addition to community voices, indicated programmatic needs of a farmer’s market, makerspaces, small business incubators, park space, and live/work units. Our presentation will describe how this …

Physical And Emotional Impact Of Lighting Conditions In Higher Education Classrooms, Robert P. Mcdonald, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2023

The literature review shows that researchers in different fields have long explored the impact of the physical classroom environments (e.g., lighting, temperature, classroom layout, and furniture) to identify the ideal classroom environments. When the lighting condition is poor (i.e., light levels below standards), it can cause drowsiness, leading to lower concentration and motivation, and elevated student stress. However, most studies focused on K-12 learning environments. Therefore, this study aims to specifically focus on the lighting conditions in educational facilities around a university campus in the Southeastern United States and to explore whether these lighting conditions impact students’ mental well-being, their …

Seeking Identity In The Built Environment The Impact Of Latinx Culture Centers On College Campuses, Nancy Munoz

Capstone Projects

When students move to college for the first time, they are faced with challenges of adjustment and acclimating to a new environment. For Latinx students, these challenges are amplified. Many Latinx students are first-generation college students, meaning neither of their parents attended or obtained a bachelor’s degree from a four-year institution. This causes a ripple in the experiences these students face as they were given little guidance on how to navigate college.

They are leaving behind a culture they shared with friends and family. This culture is full of cuisines, music, and cultural traditions. For many this is the first …

Traveling With A Purpose, Nina Rossman

Capstone Projects

The act of traveling is often seen as exciting for many travelers looking for adventure or to experience something different than their everyday routines. However, many current tourism trends force negative burdens onto local communities and environments. For instance, when development increases consumption in an area where natural resources are scarce to begin with, it can put pressure on those resources. There is a certain level of visitor use that an environment can manage; negative impacts occur when the changes in visitor use exceed this limit.

While tourist destinations experience negative impacts from the tourism industry, tourism also supports the …

Traumas Effect On Children’S Development, Spatial Design As Intervention: The Role Of Interior Design In Supporting Children With Trauma, Brooke Slater

Capstone Projects

After facing trauma, young children react emotionally, physically, and mentally in efforts to protect themselves from past or present trauma that they have faced. Young children may not always be able to recognize that the dangers they once went through are roots of trauma that have not been correctly addressed within their life. These roots may now be the result of uncontrollable behaviors, emotions, and reactions. After analyzing the lack of resources some families and children may have, a space that is uniquely catered to the children who are facing or have faced trauma that provides balanced schedules, particularly focused …

Making Nature Accessible: Building An Accessible Wellness Retreat Within Nature For People With Physical Disabilities And Their Communities, Jenna Morell

Capstone Projects

Nature impacts our lives in such a way that it can be incredibly detrimental to our health and wellbeing to be away from nature (1). Nature helps us heal faster, relax more, and just generally lead a more well-rounded life (2). It provides an opportunity to feel the sun on our face, breathe fresh air, and get the exercise we need. When deprived of these experiences, our bodies truly suffer (1). People with physical mobility limitations suffer from mental health issues at a much higher rate (3), this issue is often exacerbated by the fact that much of the built …

Connections Through Contrast The Built Environment Embracing Art Exhibition, Josilyn Welch

Capstone Projects

An emotionally immersive experience within a museum setting can foster feelings of belonging, engagement, exploration, understanding and connection. Providing an environment where empathetic immersion can be achieved through physical, psychological, and social enablers lead to transformative experiences for the visitor. To promote physical, psychological, and social enablers within the museum setting to promote empathetic immersion within its visitors, this museum will consider the following strategies:

Physical Enablers: The museum space will address physical enablers by including environmental features such as diverse opportunities for seating, immersive lighting techniques, and curated finish selections for individual exhibit spaces as well as interactive displays …

Inclusive/Exclusive, Sophia Shettler

Capstone Projects

Throughout history, inclusivity and exclusivity were both common in all areas of society. Inclusive civilizations like Mesopotamia laid the groundwork for an inclusive society where women and men were nearly equal, getting to own land, file for divorce, and own their own businesses¹. However, the societies within Mesopotamia soon broke off into smaller communities¹, the previous equality dwindled as civilizations formed across the world. As time went on, inclusion was revived. In the United States specifically, slavery was abolished², women were granted the right to vote³, same-sex marriage was legalized4, and so …

Patient Centered, Kiara Bartlett

Capstone Projects

It is inevitable to adapt uneasy feelings leading up to and during a doctor's appointment. The question is why do humans feel this? Research indicates that many medical offices and appointment spaces are designed for employee efficiency, rather that patient experience. This sheds light on the fact that there is a disconnect between provider needs and patient needs in this important, shared space.

Regardless of the type of offices, from general practice to dermatology, every physician office and appointment space have common spatial and operation needs. All healthcare offices need the same type of circulation that creates ease while moving …

"A Decorator In The Best Sense": Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Lilly Reich, The Fabric Curtain Partition, And The Articulation Of The German Modern Interior, Marianne E. Eggler-Gerozissis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Contributing to the burgeoning study of the domestic interior, a field of inquiry existing in the interstices of architecture, design, interior decoration, and material culture, this dissertation presents a thematic study of the modern domestic interiors of German/American architect/designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1965) designed in collaboration with fellow German architect/designer Lilly Reich (1885–1947) during the 1920s and early 1930s in Weimar Germany. Inspired by a revealing but hitherto overlooked statement by Philip Johnson in the catalogue for the influential 1932 International Style exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that referred to Mies as “a …

The Light Of The Revival: Stained-Glass Designs For Restituted Synagogues In Ukraine, Eugeny Kotylar, Magda Teter

Faculty Publications

The catalogue for the exhibition "The Light of the Revival: Stained-Glass Designs for Restituted Synagogues in Ukraine by Eugeny Kotlyar" held at Fordham University from September 10-December 10, 2023 offers a broad perspective on the revival of Ukrainian synagogues after Ukraine’s independence. It showcases three sets of stained-glass windows, which were designed by Eugeny Kotlyar and partially implemented in Ukrainian synagogues in the period from 1995 to 2005. Two early works shown here were the first samples of stained-glass designs for modern Ukrainian synagogues, which set a new trend. The first of them—the stained-glass windows for the Kharkiv Choral Synagogue …