Architecture Commons^™

Contradiction And Duality Within The City: The House Of Arts And Culture, Andrei Sdrula

Architecture Theses

This project aims to apply the concepts of contradiction and duality as described in the manifesto to reinvigorate and reconnect a portion of the city Bucharest: the capital of Romania. This city has a long history of architectural achievements and disasters, and this intervention gets to the heart of that legacy when it confronts the House of Parliament: a massive megalomaniacal building constructed under the Ceausescu regime in the 1980s. The project addresses the parliament, sector, city, country, and people with first: a master plan, and then a civic building within that master plan that is located in front of …

Adaptive Housing: Transformation And Growth In The Urban Environment, Kevin Mowatt

Architecture Theses

The proposal for an adaptive housing project and its chosen location arose from two obstacles that all modern cities and the world as a whole, face. The urban environment is revered for its cultural amalgam of people and wide range of demographics; however with this density and diversity comes a shortage of one type or another of commodious housing. Additionally and consequentially, the city must expand and build new buildings, leaving older, unsuitable building vacant. An adaptive architecture would allow families to grow and demographics to shift within the established community, all the while reinvigorating that second obstacle the city …

Community Infrastructure: A Transformation Of The New Orleans Industrial Canal, Nicholas Thornton

Architecture Theses

The city of New Orleans is in need of a symbol of stability and hope. The design proposal is for a New Orleans Water Treatment Facility that focuses on purification, reclamation and desalination processes. The facility will create a pure water supply that will be distributed into public circulation as well as be made readily available during natural disasters. A public works building such as this is important to the growth of the ever rebuilding city. In 2005, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina causing flooding and destruction to a great majority of the city. Once the hurricane subsided …

Quintessential Boise: An Architectural Journey, Charles Hummel, Tim Woodward, Jeanne Huff

University Books

Quintessential Boise considers how buildings, streets and landmarks meet the needs of people and make the city a livable place. Richly illustrated with art, maps and photography, the book offers a five-star system for rating architecture. Charles Hummel is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a recipient of the City of Boise's lifetime achievement award. Tim Woodward has been a columnist at the Idaho Statesman since 1975.

Roads: Leading Indicators Show Ramp-Up In Activity, Shishir Mathur, Kunal Katara

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Habitat For Humanity - Interlocking Bricks, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Conscientious housing projects have to perpetually choose between expensive eco-friendly building materials and existing low-cost options that dominate the market. Habitat For Humanity Singapore’s team hopes to set up a research centre to contribute to low-cost, eco-friendly construction and to implement a financially self-sustaining model that provides employment to the local population.

Building America Research Benchmark Definition: Updated December 2009, R. Hendron, C. Engebrecht

Publications (SD)

To track progress toward aggressive multi-year, whole-house energy savings goals of 40%–70% and on-site power production of up to 30%, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Residential Buildings Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed the Building America (BA) Research Benchmark in consultation with the Building America industry teams. The Benchmark is generally consistent with mid-1990s standard practice, as reflected in the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Technical Guidelines (RESNET 2002), with additional definitions that allow the analyst to evaluate all residential end uses, an extension of the traditional HERS rating approach that focuses on space conditioning and …

Design Collaboratory (Dc), Thomas Fowler

Architecture

The Design Collaboratory builds on the successful 46-year multi-disciplinary experience of this academic institution in developing an interdisciplinary design studio, which cultivates innovative models of practice. A team of professors, with over 40 years of collective cross disciplinary collaborative experience, and students from Architecture and Architectural (Structural) Engineering Departments with periodic involvement from the Construction Management Department (LEED workshop and student involvement on team) participate in a 20-week interdisciplinary design studio. This course has been taught since the 2007/08 academic year. This interdisciplinary team approach to building design has all disciplines involved from the inception of the building design project. …

Integrated Project Studio (Ips), Thomas Fowler

Architecture

A third year building design (BS) studio is integrated with a building environmental systems (BES) studio, which is referred to as the Integrated Project Studio. The same 18 students are in both the building design studio and the building environmental systems studio. The instructors for each studio, one an active practitioner who is a managing partner in a local firm and also a full time lecturer in the department and the second a full time academic (full professor) collaborate together on developing the content for both courses. The quarter starts of with a series of intense short workshops that used …

Challenging Computer Software Frontiers And The Human Resistance To Change, Jens Pohl

Architecture

This paper examines the driving and opposing forces that are governing the current paradigm shift from a data-processing information technology environment without software intelligence to an information-centric environment in which data changes are automatically interpreted withinthe context of the application domain. The driving forces are related to the large quantity of dataand the complexity of networked systems that both call for software intelligence. The opposing forces are non-technical and due to the natural human resistance to change.

Based on this background the paper describes current information-centric technology, proposes avision of intelligent software system capabilities, and identifies four areas of necessary …

The Space Of The Mask: From Stage To Ridotto, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

In this chapter, I consider the means of participation within the public sphere of eighteenth- century Venice. My interest is to flesh out the nature of discourse within interior institutional spaces, and I will do so through a discussion of two related phenomena. First, I will examine the role of the mask, which by the eighteenth century had become synonymous with Venetian carnival and debauchery. Indeed, Venice in the eighteenth century gained much of its naughty reputation due to the exploits of Sior Maschere. Masks, however, were not only worn for amusement or the possibility of anonymous pleasure. During …

Laurel Community Farmstand, Terje Johansen

Horticulture and Crop Science

The project was for us to come up with a temporary farmstand that would be set up to sell fruits and vegetables but mainly to draw people to the area to bring awareness that there were plans to build a development at that location. Our group, Dana Curtice, Robert Vasilieff and Terje Johansen met with the developers three times. New ideas and information were presented in the first two meetings. The third meeting was to present our final design.

Nourishing Urbanism: A Case For A New Urban Paradigm, Lewis Knight, William Riggs

City and Regional Planning

True sustainability demands that we seek to more than ‘prop up’ traditional approaches to our environment; rather, it requires that we redress current shortcomings in the planning and design of our urban environment at both bio-regional and local scales. Nourishing Urbanism proposes a shift in the urban and non-urban paradigm relating to energy, water and food; all face significant climate-related challenges—and are united by land-use policy, planning and design. We need a renewed planning and design framework for cities and regions that allows the retrofitting of today's urbanity, and prepares our cities for a new tomorrow. Nourishing Urbanism seeks to …

Going Home Again, William Riggs

City and Regional Planning

In Thomas Wolfe’s 1940 novel You Can’t Go Home Again, the main character, George Webber, writes a novel that depicts his hometown is part of his home community. More than simply a case of vigilante exclusion, Webber's severed connection with his hometown is part of his exploration of a changing America, about the relationship between city and country and the tensions that surround a rapidly urbanizing country. This nostalgic disconnect has entered our lexicon to refer to the line between those who have moved to the “sophisticated” metropolis from the rural backwater (or perhaps now the bucolic suburb or …

Post-Disaster Assessment Of The Performance Of Hazard Mitigation Projects: The California Smart Approach, Michael R. Boswell, William Siembieda, Kenneth Topping

City and Regional Planning

California's SMART (State Mitigation Assessment Review Team) program for assessing natural hazard mitigation project performance after a disaster is a method of integrating multiple state agencies' expertise into a working tool for assessing the value of public investments in risk reduction. The intent of the SMART program is to provide the California Emergency Management Agency with information about the performance of publicly financed mitigation projects so that it can better allocate future funding and improve the overall safety of California. A key aspect of the program is the mobilization of California State University faculty and staff from across the state …

Umass Amherst Framework Plan: Preliminary Observations Of Existing Conditions, Ayers Saint Gross, Wilson Architects, Ann Storer, Susan Personette, Andrew Soles

Campus Planning Master Plans

This report is the first step in the planning process for the development of a Framework Plan for the University of Massachusetts Amherst Campus Master Plan 2012. It provides preliminary observations of existing conditions by integrating information from existing studies and reports and collecting critical findings from many sources in one document, so that they can be reviewed comprehensively. The report provides insight regarding campus natural and built systems so that future planning decisions can be made with informed data revealing challenges and opportunities.

University Of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Master Plan, Shirley Dugdale, Gerald Jay Schafer, Bryan Harvey, James Cahill, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Leslie Horner Button, Theresa Warner, Pam Rooney, John Cunningham

Campus Planning Reports and Plans

Amherst Libraries, which is on the edge of significant change moving into a new era serving scholars, researchers and learners in the 21st Century. Over the last decade the Library has been a leader in many initiatives: increasing development of digital resources; collaborating with the Five Colleges Consortium, which was one of the first in the country to develop a shared book depository; developing a highly successful Learning Commons that engages partners in providing a broad range, of services and settings for learners; providing services through partners welcomed into library facilities, such the peer learning activities of the Learning Resources …

Ecological Networks: From Regional To Metropolitan Strategies. The Northern Region Of Portugal And Oporto Metropolitan Area, Teresa Andresen

Proceedings of the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning

Planning for change across landscape scales in Northern Portugal through the definition of ecological networks has proved to be a challenging exercise. The outputs produced between 2004 and 2009 by CIBIO, a research unit at the University of Porto, demonstrate the complementarities of landscape planning at the regional and metropolitan scales and between regional ecological networks for environmental protection and a metropolitan network of parks.

Through the five years of research, we were moved by the idea of providing solutions for better living in the ‘rural-urban compact’ where the Porto Metropolitan Area is embedded. Gutman (2007, pp. 385) defends that …

'Al-Mouled' As A Cultural Greenway: A New Developing Tool In The Egyptian Context, Hossam Fathy Ahmed, M.S.C. Hoda Salah Ismail

Proceedings of the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning

Egypt’s heritage is of worldwide interest and importance due to its continuity over a period of more than five thousand years. It encompasses various aspects of human civilization and represents a cultural as well as a natural heritage of national and international value. This wealth of archaeological sites, architecture, arts and folklore reflects the many stages of Egypt’s rich past, giving it the rich diversity that we see now. But, unfortunately, this context is deteriorating due to massive development trends, unplanned urban expansion, unclear planning strategies, lack of awareness of importance of landscape planning in conserving this context on both …

Greenways And The Urban Form: City Of Ankara, Turkey, Mukerrem Arslan, Emin Baris, Elmas Erdogan, Zuhal Dilaver

Proceedings of the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning

A greenway is a linear open space established along either a natural corridor, such as a riverfront, stream valley, or ridgeline, or overland along a railroad right-of-way converted to recreational use, a canal, scenic rood, or other route. It is any natural or landscaped course for pedestrian or bicycle passage. An open-space connector linking parks, nature reserves, cultural features, or historic sites with each other and with populated areas (Little, 1995; Miller et al., 1998; Viles and Rosier, 2001).

A greenway is a connector; a pattern of protected lands linking other protected lands such as natural features or historic sites …