Architectural Technology Commons^™

Toward Design-To-Fabrication Continuum For Open-Source Computational Robotic Ecologies In The Post-Anthropogenic Era, Celso Urroz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Computational design and robotic fabrication have expanded architecture’s capacity to coordinate geometry, material behavior, machine operation, and environmental performance. Yet many design-to-fabrication workflows remain structured by industrial logics of separation, standardization, and control. Design is often abstracted from material execution, fabrication is treated as a downstream phase, and robotic systems remain concentrated within specialized or proprietary infrastructures. This dissertation addresses this problem by proposing the design-to-fabrication continuum as an open, transferable, and ecologically situated framework in which computation mediates among design intent, matter, machine, environment, and shared technical knowledge.

The research uses a practice-based methodology combining computational workflow development, material …

Modern Instructional Science, Ai Integrated Pedagogy & Innovation In Higher Education, Yasmeen Ahmed

Presentations and Posters

The rapid evolution of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping teaching, learning, and knowledge production across higher education. This one-day faculty development workshop, Modern Instructional Science, AI-Integrated Pedagogy & Innovation in Higher Education, explores contemporary approaches to designing, delivering, and enhancing student-centered learning experiences in both face-to-face and online environments. The workshop introduces key principles of instructional science, course design, active learning, formative assessment, and learner engagement, supported by established educational theories and evidence-based best practices. Participants examine strategies for developing well-organized, outcome-aligned courses; fostering collaboration and meaningful interaction; and enhancing student success through effective instructional planning …

Past Present, & Future: Bushwick Inlet Redevelopment, Aaryan Nair

Publications and Research

This report examines how ecosystem structure, hydrology, and material flows in Williamsburg, Brooklyn have changed from pre-colonial conditions to the present and how they are expected to evolve under future climate change. Prior to European colonization, the landscape functioned as a forest–wetland mosaic with high infiltration capacity, slow water movement, and strong nutrient retention. These conditions supported stable aquatic ecosystems and minimized pollutant transport to the East River.

Modern urbanization has fundamentally altered this system. Impervious surfaces and engineered drainage systems have shifted hydrology from infiltration-dominated to runoff-dominated pathways, producing rapid “flashy” flows and reducing water residence time.

Storm events …

Design And Implementation Of A Honeycomb Damping System For The 2026 Eeri Seismic Design Competition, Vera Nguyen, Lauryn Wojcik

Architectural Engineering

The authors of this report were a part of the 2026 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) chapter at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In July 2026, they will travel to Portland, Oregon with 12 students to compete in the Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition hosted by EERI. The competition required teams to develop a comprehensive structural design proposal that included computer-based modeling and analysis, construction of three physical models, and the preparation of both a technical poster and oral presentation for a proposed high-rise building located in Portland, Oregon. Cal Poly’s “Illahee Tower” was designed with an emphasis on …

Growing Pains Inc., Abigail B. Jarvis

Masters Theses

In Mierle Laderman Ukeles' "Manifesto for Maintenance Art”, Ukeles describes an art practice that reveals the invisible labor of daily upkeep and care, describing development as “pure individual creation; progress; advance,” and maintenance as “keep the dust off the pure individual creation, preserve the new; sustain the change”.

Growing Pains Inc. is embodied in a collection of patterns that dresses and addresses the changes buildings of New Bedford Massachusetts have experienced. It is driven by an attention to stewardship and care for our buildings that have been with us through generations. This thesis is about Growing Pains Incorporated. It speculates …

Productive Armature, Gabriel Ofem Peter

Masters Theses

What if water was all you had, what if your only source of survival was a body of water? I shudder to think that some people get to be put in this situation in the world we live in. As I understand the importance of water to survival, it is obvious that water can be the only lifeline of survival for a community. This is the experience for residents of Makoko, Lagos. Their survival depends on the Lagos Lagoon, a large body of water flowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. This research looks beyond the surface of what this community …

The Wall As Commons, Raveena Deshpande

Masters Theses

Collective infrastructures for informal domesticity 

As urban populations grow, access to affordable housing declines, pushing certain sections of the population to build informal settlements outside legal and formal construction systems. These settlements often lack access to basic living infrastructures - water, sanitation, and electricity- even as they house a large share of the population in developing countries.

Current models of designing for informality exist as top down planning approaches, that ignore lived realities at the scale of the home. These design models are incongruent with informal lifestyles, and undermine the sense of belonging that comes with rituals of self-authorship in …

Hidden Systems, Samuel Choi

Masters Theses

Across buildings and cities, moisture is managed, concealed, and discharged through convoluted systems of containment. Still, water ultimately resists this framework. It reveals itself as leaks, puddles, condensation—moments typically understood as technical failure. Hidden Systems reframes these conditions as architectural knowledge, one that becomes evidence of water’s material capacity, limits of infrastructure, and a record of time.

NYC is constructed on, powered by, and profiting from water. Although it hosts a robust network, seepages disrupt control, allowing systems to be traced across scales. As pipes expand, contract, and freeze, the project unfolds seasonally, moving through water’s three states: solid, liquid, …

Deployable Shelter Systems For Emergency Response Using Scissor Mechanism, Farzad Saeidi

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

This thesis investigates the architectural potential of deployable scissor-based structures as rapid-response shelter systems for emergency, post-disaster, and transitional recovery contexts. While deployable systems are often valued for speed and compactness, this research frames deployability as a broader architectural capacity that integrates structural performance, transportability, constructability, habitability, and adaptability to uncertain environmental and social conditions.

Shelters In Motion, Erin Nicole Vallido Trasmano

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Shelters in Motion is a modular temporary shelter system for festival and outdoor events that replaces disposable tents with reusable, durable design. Overall reducing environmental impact while significantly improving comfort and user experience.

Climate Responsive Design For Airport Terminals In Hot Arid Climates, Zahra Salmizadeh

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

This thesis argues that the roof of an airport terminal can be transformed from a neutral cover into an operational design tool that actively shapes passenger experience in hot arid environments. Drawing from observed challenges in contemporary airport concourses, including those identified through the D Gates concourse at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas as an example, the study examines roof structure, envelope, and form as distinct but interrelated design fields. It investigates how these components influence wayfinding clarity, thermal and visual comfort, acoustic performance, and spatial identity in large scale airport interiors.

Lightness Shaped By Stone, Jared Arredondo

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In a period defined by industrial standardization, automation, and increasing distance from material reality, architecture has become increasingly detached from the physical knowledge of making. Processes once grounded in time, touch, and material consequence are often replaced by speed, abstraction, and systems of production that conceal labor. This thesis begins from that condition and examines stone as a material through which architecture can recover a deeper relationship to time, craft, structure, and responsibility.

Stone resists speed. Its weight, density, and permanence demand precision, patience, and consequence. Each cut, joint, and surface operation requires an understanding of the material’s limits and …

Virtual Matter: Architecture As A Critical Turning Point, Aden Sterchi

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The materialization of AI infrastructure has outpaced all regulatory frameworks, allowing data centers to proliferate with limited oversight despite their growing environmental and social impacts. Through a review of artificial intelligence’s technological development, the rise of big tech, and contemporary data center expansion, this thesis situates AI infrastructure within a broader pattern of deregulation, delayed accountability, and market-driven governance. Using a qualitative mixed-method approach combining historical analysis, policy critique, regional case studies, and research-through-design, the study examines how existing land use, utility, and environmental frameworks have failed to keep pace with the scale of data center sprawl; The study also …

The Patina Of Care, Jose Alejandro Carpio

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis aims to address the urgent need for adaptable, socially responsive housing in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The area currently faces a crisis in rapidly aging populations, youth out-migration, housing insecurity, and high rates of domestic violence. These problems are intensified by economic strain, harsh winter conditions, and periods when cultural stigma limits access to safety and community support. As it stands, current housing systems cannot evolve with the rapidly shifting demographics and social needs of the city.

Confront these challenges. The thesis proposes a megastructure-framework grounded in the metabolism movement and the works of Metabolist architects such as Fumihiko Maki, …

The Density Dilemma: Reconciling Energy Efficiency And Social Well-Being In Compact Housing, Adeb Ebrahim

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

This study examines compact housing not only in terms of urban design. From a sequential exploratory mixed-methods approach study on 120 residential units in Sana’a, we observed that there is a paradox where energy modular housing consumes 28% less energy, but social isolation increases 22%. However, this paradox is countered by the design of biophilic shared spaces (β = -0.34). This research establishes a case for more equitably accessible policies on density and proposes that high-density urban fabrics must have a “social connector” code. This study integrates Fainstein's (2020) concept of the 'just city' and contemporary housing innovations into the …

Machine Learning In Architecture: A Bibliometric Analysis Approach Of Trends, Influential Authorship, And Research Gaps From 2020 To 2024, Emokpae Erebor, Damilola Adesina, Benjamin Moral, Modi Zango

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

This paper presents the findings of the bibliometric analysis investigating how the current research landscape of machine learning in the discipline of architecture has evolved between 2020 and 2024. This study employs a bibliometric methodology, drawing insights from peer-reviewed journal articles from 2020 to 2024, which were sourced from databases such as Web of Science, Scopus and Science Direct. Keywords were refined using Boolean operators to identify dominant trends, key application areas and ongoing research gaps. The goal of this paper is to provide a structured knowledge base that can guide future research by highlighting emerging directions. This study serves …

Edra 57: Bibliography, Tamara Karr

Bibliographies

edra 57: Embracing Regional Sustainability: Networks for People and Places

Analysis Of The Potential Of Urban Surfaces For Energy Use By Applying Solar Energy Or Green Roofs, Kristin Dietrich, Jose Ambrosini, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro, Juan Raul Massipe Hernandez, Alberto Tama Franco, Fernando Mayor-Vitoria

Faculty Publications

Renewable energy is rapidly increasing in importance in the energy mix in many countries worlwide. They are a key part of the energy transition to more sustainable energy systems. Green roofs are multi-layered systems covered with plants, grasses or turf that are placed on terraces and roofs of different types. Energy savings and reduced urban heat-island effects are among the most notable benefits of green roofs. Traditionally, green roofs and photovoltaic (PV) or solar-thermal installations have been competing systems, but several studies and actual installations have shown that synergistic effects predominate. For example, vegetation has a cooling effect on green …

Optimizing Energy Efficiency In Educational Buildings Through Facade Material Selection, Rania Rushdy Moussa, Malak Ayman, Khloud Khalid

Architectural Engineering

Facade material selection is crucial for improving building performance and reducing environmental effect, as evidenced by the growing demand for sustainable architectural solutions, especially in educational institutions. The use of typical, non-sustainable facade materials in Egyptian educational buildings is a major cause of the country's high energy consumption, poor indoor air quality, and rising carbon emissions. This research explores the possibility of using cuttingedge facade materials to promote sustainability in Egyptian university buildings in order to close this crucial gap. The study incorporates a mixed-methods approach and begins with a qualitative theoretical review that includes a thorough literature analysis. A …

A Novel Federated Llm Framework For Distributed Traffic Modelling In Intelligent Transportation Systems, Seerat Kaur

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) depend on accurate traffic prediction to support congestion management, infrastructure planning, and real-time operational decisions. Despite substantial progress in data-driven forecasting, several challenges continue to limit practical deployment: traffic data is distributed across independent regional authorities, making centralized aggregation infeasible, standard federated aggregation strategies ignore traffic-specific characteristics that meaningfully affect model quality, and existing models produce only numerical outputs without interpretable reasoning that urban planners can act upon. This thesis addresses these challenges through four contributions that collectively advance privacy-preserving, explainable, and scalable traffic forecasting.

The first contribution provides a systematic review of 129 peer-reviewed publications, …