Architecture Commons^™

Architectural Solutions To A Better Quality Of Life For The Nycha Queensbridge Houses Community, Cheriyah Wilmot, Sofia Bilbao, Kaylynn Daoud, Kevin Valencia

Publications and Research

Who are we?

We are a diverse group of scholars ranging in age, gender, and background from all over New York City. We share a common interest in solving our urban challenges through studying and proposing improvements to the built environment. From professors at CUNY City Tech to NYCHA Design & Implementation specialists and NYCHA residents, we encompass a group of scholars united by this common purpose.

What are we here to accomplish?

This team of ARCscholars is working collaboratively, sharing lived experiences, creatively thinking & planning and applying our research discoveries to the proposed design interventions. We seek to …

Straw Bale Net Zero: Sustainable Building Solutions, Nick Antoine, Michael Ray Malonjao, Mohamed Hassan, Fareda Elsherif, Brailyn Ventura

Publications and Research

Our primary building material will be rice straw bale, which has a high thermal mass and is bio based. Straw bale, a natural byproduct derived from the dried stems of cereal plants, serves as a carbon sequester. When a straw bale decomposes, it releases its stored carbon; however, by utilizing it as a building material, we effectively retain carbon within the bales throughout the building's life cycle, thereby keeping it from being released into the atmosphere. By using bio-based materials with high thermal mass, we effectively reduce the energy demand for heating. Our building also has renewable energy sources and …

Cover, Uncover: The Changing Face Of Architecture On Locust Street, Cora Trout

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Locust Street was once a vibrant banking and commercial district in downtown St. Louis. Today, it is an untidy collection of new, old, dilapidated, semi-intact, restored, and vacant buildings punctuated by crumbling parking lots and garages threatening imminent collapse. To understand why, we must reassemble Locust Street. As St. Louis watched its wealthy, white population flock to the suburbs at mid-century, the revitalization of the decaying urban center became one of the city’s primary preoccupations. Beginning in the early 1950s, a calculated and conscious physical transformation of the central business district began, lasting through the 1960s. This essay, which integrates …

Humanizing Affordable Housing: A Public Health Centered Approach To Affordable Housing, Eiman Mohamed

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

This thesis focuses on exploring housing as a determinant of health; thus, the aim is to investigate the historical and current influence of housing design and city planning on occupant health and population health in metropolitan cities. The thesis will primarily examine how housing affects the health of low-income individuals. Historically and presently, this demographic has been disproportionately affected by health issues stemming from overcrowding, substandard housing design, declining neighborhood conditions, and environmental inequities. The goal is to discern the dimensions and standards for healthy housing against which designers and planners can define health outcomes. By acknowledging the factors that …

Chaos And Order: Translating War Into Spatial Design, Falak Alam

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Wars and occupations happened all over the world throughout history. As Eyal Weizman has demonstrated in “Hollow Land,” architecture actually partakes in wars and occupations (Weizman 11). Architecture facilitates the occupation’s goals of control and dispossession through spatial and formal means. Weizman breaks architecture’s effects on the political environment down into six main categories: anchor point settlements, vertical architecture, uniform design, the dynamic battlefield, the spatial arrangements of settlements, and threshold spaces. These strategies exemplify the way design has been used in an effort to instill fear and erase identities of cultures.

Weizman’s book, along with Lebbeus Woods’ writings and …

Interprofessional Education Through Home Modification, Cathey P. Norton, Kelly R. Gore

Faculty Scholarship Symposium

Creating safe and accessible environments for all people, including physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities is an important part of training students in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and interior design. Approximately 125 students from these disciplines worked together during a unique interprofessional experience, to perform everyday tasks with a simulated disability, then collaborated as interprofessional teams to make recommendations for home environment modifications to improve safety and accessibility for individuals with physical challenges. This was a unique opportunity for all the students to learn about other disciplines and the expertise that each brings to the table to help our clients.

Spatial Autonomy: Exploring Industry 4.0/5.0 Trends On Architectural Design, Diana Salamaga

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The rise of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 presents significant opportunities for the architecture industry to incorporate advanced technologies into its design and construction processes. However, the full potential of these technologies in architectural design has yet to be fully explored. This thesis, ‘Spatial Autonomy: Exploring Industry 4.0 and 5.0 Trends in Architectural Design,’ aims to investigate the ability of buildings to function autonomously through the integration of smart technologies. This exploration focuses on how Industry 4.0 and 5.0 trends can optimize building performance, creating more comfortable and enjoyable experiences for users, while also enhancing efficiency and sustainability. It examines the …

Natural Reflection: Reducing The Environmental Impact Of Architecture Through Biomimetic Design, Keenan Doricent

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This project studies how typical building projects contribute to our environmental issues today and possible ways to reduce that contribution moving forward. In my literature review, I discuss the potential of biomimetic design as a possible solution for more environmentally considerate architecture techniques. Building operations and the construction process are two of the leading contributors to energy consumption and our growing ecological footprint as an industry. Everything from sourcing materials, to site preparation, and ultimately building occupation, factor into the effect of a structure’s life on the environment. The embodied and operational energy use of our expanding infrastructure continues to …

Architronics: Utilizing Virtual Reality In Architectural Pedagogy, Constantine Lambros

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This research is about integrating the recent advancements in VR technology as a way to ‘playtest’ and design in architectural pedagogy. To better gauge the interest in VR and prove the need for VR integration, surveys were conducted among students and faculty within KSU’s College of Architecture and Construction Management (CACM).

A ‘site analysis’ was then conducted within surrounding firms in the greater Atlanta area, leading to precedent studies of local firms that use VR in their practice. By utilizing the firms advancements, this shed new light into how VR could be implemented into architectural pedagogy, and why it hasn’t …

Rehabilitation Of The Street: Design Strategies To Increase Diversity In Downtown, Atlanta, Abigail Akridge

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Streets in Atlanta have become exclusionary to one or more functions, uses, and communities. Streets dominated by a single demographic or function contribute to urban decline. Such streets lack diversity in activities and uses, leading to increased crime, decreased engagement, and a dying urban fabric. Architects play a crucial role in reversing this trend by designing with a focus on streets’ implications and the needs of diverse communities. By prioritizing diversity and inclusivity in street design, architects can foster a thriving urban environment. The goal of my thesis is to propose an urban design process centered on the street section, …

Sculpting The Senses: Architecture For The Body In Place, Trammel Crowley

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

True architecture has the ability to engage the human body and its senses from a holistic standpoint. However, there is a growing presence of architecture that is created with a bias toward the visual sense, lacking sensuality, and leaving the other senses unstimulated. Negative emotions, like anxiety, experienced by individuals within a particular space can be attributed to various factors, including the sensorial qualities encountered and the memories associated with that space. Within the field of this study, there have been architects who have confronted the issues of contemporary architecture, neglecting the holistic experience of the body within space. An …

Rethinking Shelter: Designing A Home For Atlanta's Homeless Families And Youth, Maddi Dutton

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Homelessness is a devastating experience, and its impacts are suffered by Atlanta’s families and youth who find themselves without stable housing. Family homelessness often results in the separation of families, leading to unaccompanied youth living on the streets or in uncomfortable shelters. Existing shelters do not provide family accommodations. They offer basic services and mostly lack a sense of community and personalized private spaces that are essential for fostering a sense of dignity. As emphasized in House as a Mirror of Self by Clare Cooper Marcus, humans need a ‘home’ not just a dwelling. A physical space becomes a home …

From Pasture To Pavement: Urban Expansion And Its Environmental Consequences In Perth, Anastasia Charelishvili

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis addresses the pressing issue of ecological problems of urban sprawl and its intricate impacts on urban health, with a particular focus on vulnerable communities in Perth, Australia. Chapter 1 presents the city's historical background and emphasizes the depletion of ecosystem services, underscoring the need for environmental justice. It also introduces the causes and effects of the sprawl in Perth and draws upon a diverse range of environmental problems created by suburbia, such as air pollution, biodiversity loss, water pollution, and runoff. As these threats translate into urban health declines, such as respiratory problems and increased healthcare issues, Chapter …

Exploring The Relationship Between Intraurban Heat, Lower Income Communities And Urban Governance In Arlington, Texas, Brian Campbell

Planning Masters Professional Reports - Archive

The climate is warming at an alarming rate. This has brought many challenges to daily life in cities across the world. One of the most significant of these is intraurban heat and the Urban Heat Island Effect. Per The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, urban heat islands are those urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures versus other outlying areas. As cities become more populated, this and resulting increased infrastructure will enhance the phenomenon. This in turn will exacerbate the negative consequences of this phenomenon to people as well as both the built and natural environments. As cities work …

The Revitalization Of Lalibela’S Heritage Site Through The Establishment Of A New Visitor Center, Endale Tesfay

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

ABSTRACT

Revitalizing the heritage site of the rock-hewn church of Lalibela is counted as revitalizing a city because the site is the biggest heritage site. It is found in the Amhara region of north Ethiopia, and the properties were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978. Eleven churches were found at the site, and all of them were carved out of the living rock in the 12th century, not constructed traditionally. The churches are grouped into three and connected by a walking trail, tunnel, and trench. Groups of churches have interior and exterior spaces, and their floors, roofs, walls, …

Dynamic Dwellings: A Study In Transformative Spaces, Donovan Mitchell

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis research explores the transformative potential of kinetic architecture in the realm of residential living, focusing on the integration of adaptable interiors and dynamic facades through the use of kinetic elements. In a world with ever-shifting lifestyles and environmental changes, architecture's role in enhancing human experience is paramount. This study will argue that architecture should not remain static; instead, it should evolve, respond, and cater to the changing needs of users and environmental conditions. This research aims to propose solutions that fundamentally redefine the way we inhabit and interact with our built environments.

Decarbonized Design: Investigating Decarbonization Through The Design Of A Mass Timber Campus, Sophie Cronin

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The rise of carbon in our atmosphere is a leading cause of climate change, and one of the biggest threats to our planet. Though not the most toxic greenhouse gas, it is the most durable, therefore lingers much longer in our atmosphere. This leads to higher atmospheric temperatures, causing natural disasters such as melting ice caps, and rising sea levels which leads to displacement of people and loss of biodiversity. According to Architecture 2030 The global building industry emits 42% of the annual carbon emissions. I believe we need to take action as a part of the building industry to …

[Re]Mapping Resilience: Reimagining Urban Waterfronts In The Face Of Climate Change, Brandon Bernard

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

By the year 2100, southern-Florida is projected to experience a 1-2 meter rise in sea level, resulting in the lower portion of the state becoming almost completely submerged under a new watertable.[14] During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city of Miami developed rapidly and the community and economy inevitably became intertwined with the water and its ecology. Due to the growing population and economy, urban developments soared and led to low-lying areas being filled in, open space along waterways were claimed for commercial and residential buildings, and man-made islands such as the venetian islands were constructed. As a result, …

Modulating Recycled Plastic: A Sustainable Solution To Plastic Pollution Through Innovative Recycling, Galo Cruz

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Initially celebrated as a miracle material, modern society’s dependence on plastics has resulted in urgent environmental challenges. The consequences of this dependence are: widespread plastic pollution, an environment grappling with near-indestructible waste, and a health crisis fueled by malignant microplastics. In response to this urgent junction of environmental challenges, this research sets forth to further the transformative approach explored by Janel Sitt’s 2020 thesis and aims to answer the following questions:

1. Why does our dependence on single-use plastic jeopardize our environment, severely impacting food supplies, marine life, and overall quality of life?

2. As designers, are there opportunities for …

Closed For Storm: Open For Opportunity Revitalizing New Orleans At The Six Flags Site, Jackson Crow

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

New Orleans, a city known for its rich culture and historical significance, has faced its fair share of challenges, including natural disasters and economic struggles. One notable symbol of these struggles is the abandoned Six Flags theme park. This thesis proposal aims to explore the potential of revitalizing the old Six Flags site as a means to revive the city, while at the same time giving back to the community by enhancing its economic, cultural, and recreational offerings. The site will also double down as a safe center if another catastrophic hurricane hits the city.