Environmental Design Commons^™

Analysis Of Burning Wood In The Transient State And The Application To Structural Design, Roberta Veliz, Kimberly Guzman

Architectural Engineering

Determining the extent of the contribution of exposed timber on compartment fire dynamics in open floor plans is a complex process. Designers traditionally used compartmentalization design methods which create spaces where flashover is likely, given the fuel load and ventilation conditions. However, due to the large geometric dimensions and spread of fuel, fires in open floor plans are more likely to remain as localized or traveling fires. As such, an understanding of not only ignition potential but also flame spread is critical to characterizing the contribution of exposed timber. An integral step in characterizing the potential contribution is through an …

Campus Design And The Community College Experience: An Exploration Of Stress, Belonging And Scholarly Identity, Vanita Naidoo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This mixed methods research study examines factors that influence the development of scholarly identity at a community college campus. It uses survey methods and a focus group with undergraduate students at the Bronx Community College (BCC) campus to examine how campus design relates to a sense of belonging, the process of reflection, and the development of a scholarly identity. Academic attrition and low performance are challenges at urban community colleges. The study aims to address how campus design, specifically green space, impacts undergraduate students at a community college. It seeks to better understand the experience of the diverse student population …

Case Study: Google’S Unique Canopy Styled Construction, Ray A. Cuevas

Construction Management

In today’s rapidly changing world, builders are pushing to implement more sustainable practices and incorporate innovative techniques to integrate green practices into their structures. One of the latest examples of this push towards sustainability is seen in Google’s new headquarters, Charleston East located in Mountain View, California. Combining their widely known mission to provide a positive work environment for their employees with their passion to be more environmentally friendly, Google has set out to create a Living Building with LEED Platinum certification. In order to accomplish this Google has collaborated with Bjarke Ingels Group, Heatherwick Studio, and Hathaway Dinwiddie. The …

Young Children's Play In High-Rise Housing: A Window Into The Changing Lives Of Urban Middle-Class Families In Pune Metropolitan Area, Sruthi Atmakur-Javdekar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims to identify the combinations of spatial arrangements and physical features that influence young children’s access to play and the quality of their play opportunities in a heterogeneous sample of high-rise housing in India. Using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model of Human Development as a framework, the study examines two large umbrellas that contribute to young children’s play opportunities in high-rise housing developments: (1) The play environment that is made available for children by developers and design professionals; and (2) Parents’ and caregivers’ ways of using the designated and undesignated spaces based on their own play values and beliefs. A …

Hybrid Hospitality, John Gassaway

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

In order to understand the proposed coupled system, there must be an understanding of each component and how optimal performance of the system depends on sustainable architectural design. The basics of each component, a brief history and applicable case studies will be explained and presented starting with ground source thermal loops and then thermal mass (concrete walls). This will be followed by a more detailed explanation of how the components couple to form a functioning energy efficient system, how research can prove energy efficiency and how architectural design concepts can merge to influence sustainable hospitality design.

Testing Reliability Of Biophilic Design Matrix Within Urban Residential Playrooms, Ellen Marte

Theses and Dissertations

Biophilic interior design in urban playrooms has been greatly understudied. We measured inter-rater reliability of the Biophilic Interior Design Matrix (BID-M) and matrix items by quantitatively coding images of 45 New York City residential playrooms. Findings suggest that the BID-M needs to be modified to better assess urban playrooms.

The Future Of Cemetery Design, Landon Baker

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Traditional cemeteries defined as a place where the deceased are embalmed, placed in metal coffins and buried horizontally underground, are important places but have become outdated. Traditional cemeteries can be improved in terms of economic use of space, circulation, and visitor experience. Improving these aspects will make cemeteries more environmentally sustainable, more practical for people and cities, and overall improve the experience of the modern consumer.

An Alternative Approach To Food Market Design Strategies That Nurture Human Health And Well-Being, Kendall Marsh

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Access to food is being implemented in newer and more convenient forms now more than ever before. However, many of the methods that people utilize to purchase food may have substantial adverse health effects. Markets were once centered around a direct exchange of locally grown food and intimate social gatherings. Major developments like the industrialization of agriculture, rapid urbanization, and technological advancements introduced a shift in food market settings. Redefining the design of the market environment can transform a routine task into a valuable experience that nurtures human health and well-being.

The Importance Of Daylighting In Guest Rooms And The Fundamental Flaws Of Hotel Design, Jairo Garcia

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Analysis of the hotel buildings reveals greater than 50% of rooms have inadequate day lighting. This topic is especially important here in Las Vegas because 15 of the 20 largest hotels in the world are located in our city. With a total of about 150,000 hotel rooms. An average of about 31% of all rooms in the strip are in the shadows, and have no exposure to sunlight over the year. Studies reveal that being in rooms facing north or with poor lighting brings negative effects to its inhabitants like depression, increased stress, gives people little energy and buildings spend …

Designing A Non Conventional Philosophy Of Punishment: Rehabilitation And Reintegration Of Young Offenders, Paola Ortiz

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Architecture is one of the few disciplines that sends a silent message to everyone walking into any space. Design is crucial to create specific environments, but when it comes to a prison design, the concept is restricted. Design for prisons, jails, and juvenile corrections are more focused on cost and security, than humanity and hospitality related principles. Access to natural light is a luxury, windows are expensive, and the standardized colors used on their walls are far too depressing.

Connecting The Built And External Environments Through Architectural Compositions, Jacob Ellerbrock

Honors Projects

A study regarding architectures' potential to address the separation of humanity and nature.

Heimat Im Wartezimmer: Architecture, Identity, And Migration In A Socialist Model City, Holly Bushman

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

Eisenhüttenstadt, the first “socialist model city” designed and constructed in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), provides an opportunity to scrutinize the relationship between state conceptions of architectural design and national identity in the early 1950s. Known as Stalinstadt until 1961, the community was founded in eastern Brandenburg in 1950 as housing for workers at the nearby ironworks Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost “J. W. Stalin.” While its original masterplan by the architect Kurt Leucht indicates the stylistic preferences of the ruling Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany or SED), the city’s subsequent developments trace the changing economic and social conditions of …

Ten Questions Concerning Well-Being In The Built Environment, Sergio Altomonte, Joseph Allen, Philomena M. Bluyssen, Gail Brager, Lisa Heschong, Angela Loder, Stefano Schiavon, Jennifer A. Veitch, Lily M. Wang, Pawel Wargocki

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Well-being in the built environment is a topic that features frequently in building standards and certification schemes, in scholarly articles and in the general press. However, despite this surge in attention, there are still many questions on how to effectively design, measure, and nurture well-being in the built environment. Bringing together experts from academia and the building industry, this paper aims to demonstrate that the promotion of well-being requires a departure from conventional agendas. The ten questions and answers have been arranged to offer a range of perspectives on the principles and strategies that can better sustain the consideration of …

Potential Of Existing And Proposed Bicycle Facilities To Link Multiple Origin And Destination Needs For Non-Motorized Travel In San Luis Obispo, Sheridan Nansen

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of linking multiple origins and destinations for efficient non-motorized travel in San Luis Obispo, California. The city currently has seventy-five miles of bicycle infrastructure with the intention to add thirty-five more miles to create a more functional bicycle network and foster an increase in bicycle trips taken.

Many cities in the United States are following their European counterparts in the push towards more sustainable forms of transportation by promoting bicycling, walking, and the use of public transit. Recently, we have seen an increase in both local and national legislative efforts …

Bike And Pedestrian Safety Planning: Excelsior/Outer Mission District, Alexandra Lee-Gardner

City and Regional Planning

San Francisco’s Outer Mission and Excelsior districts host a vibrant community of small business owners and residents from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The neighborhood is known for its diversity and sense of community. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and high-speed roadways has created great safety concerns within the community. In the last five years, the Excelsior/Outer Mission area had 828 collisions, nine of which were fatal (Transbase, n.d.). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has identified nearly 14 miles of streets in the project area that are on the City’s high injury network, meaning collisions there are highly …

Walkability Of Suburban Retrofits Of The Washington Dc Area: Immersion Into Qualitative Constructs, David Sweere

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The majority of the United States population is living in the suburbs, and yet the suburban built fabric has developed with spatial conditions that have failed to prove their efficacy on environmental, social or economic terms. Most contemporary architectural and urban theorists agree that the suburban condition is inherently problematic. In a 2010 Ted Talk, architect and urban designer Ellen Dunham-Jones discusses the problematic state of the suburban built condition, citing dependence on the vehicle, sparseness of built form, environmental costs, transportation costs, and even increased obesity rates (Dunham-Jones 2010). Because the suburbs comprise the majority of our “urbanized” areas …

A Functional Escape, Zachary Spero

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the past two decades, the tree house has outgrown its more recent traditional role as a child’s place to play and has served many new functions. I intend to conduct research that questions how the tree house has evolved over the last twenty years based upon changes in program, technology, and relation to the tree itself. As a result of this research, I will deliver a clear understanding of tree house design best practices in the form of a manual.

The City Aetherus An Urban Design Methodology For Energy Use, Anthony Yan, Ermal Shpuza Phd

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In the last few decades, there has been a growing awareness about the relationship between building design and energy use, environmental impact, and sustainability in general. Now, environmental design is a well-established field of architectural studies and practices. By contrast, it is only recently that the relationship between urban design and energy use has started to get due attention by the designer and planning communities. Due to our increasing energy needs and imminent global urbanization, humanity needs a solution to tackle the largest energy consumer: the city. This thesis is situated within the newly emerging discourse on the relationship between …

The Model Holistic : The Application Of The Adaptive Cycle To Rust-Belt Cities, Marysia Larosa

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

For too long, the relationship between the natural and built environment have been ignored, resulting in a disconnect between humanity, nature, and architecture. Can enforcing this relationship change the way we think about urban design and resiliency? Like ecology, cities act much like an ecosystem, going through four phases; exploitation, conservation, release, and reorganization. Over a slow period, these resources are conserved and protected rather than used for innovation. In the case of a disturbance, the vulnerability of the system at this point leads to eventual collapse and release of resources. Finally, as a result of this release, the system …

Eco-Hub, Diego Vazquez De Santos

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have generated waste. With the age of industrialization came urbanization, and as a result, large populations quickly multiplied within cities. In 1842, a report entitled The Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population, Edwin Chadwick argued for the need for proper removal and management facilities of waste. This report played an important role in securing the first law addressing waste collection. Today, only 26% of the estimated 75% of recyclable goods get recycled. This problem is more eminent within New York city which currently is the topmost wasteful city. New York City residents throw out …