Architecture Commons^™

Architecture As Political Symbolism: Power, Authority, & The Built Form, Naomi Minwalla

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This study examines how architecture functions as a medium of political symbolism, exploring the ways in which built environments communicate authority, ideology, and collective identity. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Murray Edelman, the research first establishes how political symbols shape social cohesion, legitimize authority, and construct political meaning. The study then applies architectural interpretation frameworks developed by Martin Warnke, Erwin Panofsky, and Alois Riegl to analyze how symbolic meaning is embedded within architectural form, spatial organization, and ornamentation.

Using a qualitative comparative case study design, the research analyzes two major religious structures: the Seville Cathedral …

Between Tents And Concrete: Rethinking Displacement Space In Haiti, Korine Dorval

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Haiti is not an anomaly; it is a case study. Since the 2010 earthquake, displacement has not resolved but compounded, layered beneath successive crises of political instability, gang violence, and natural disaster. As of 2025, 1.4 million people remain without homes, many of them inheriting a life between tents and concrete that was never meant to last this long. Yet responses remain trapped in the logic of emergency. To live between tents and concrete is to exist in suspended uncertainty where children grow up without an address and community forms despite the design, not because of it. These camps were …

Architecture Of Sobriety: Redesigning Rehabilitation Centers Beyond The Institutional Framework, Coraima Perez-Portillo

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

What if alcohol relapse is not only a weakness of will, but a failure of the environment? Addiction recovery is often understood as a clinical process, yet sustained sobriety depends equally on the reorganization of daily habits. Research on alcohol use disorders demonstrates that addictive behaviors are reinforced through spatial triggers and embodied routine. Post-detox recovery is particularly fragile: the body is sober, but the triggers that sustained addiction remain. The question is not only how to treat addiction, but how to design the spaces in which people learn to live without it.

This thesis investigates how architecture can combat …

Anti-Gang Architecture: Youth, Labor, And Spatial Agency In Mexico, Arturo Resendiz

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Anti-Gang Architecture: Youth Labor, & Spatial Agency in Mexico

In many parts of the world, teenagers face environments shaped by violence, drug abuse, and limited opportunity. The absence of inclusive communities deepens youth disconnection, leaving them vulnerable to harmful influences. This research explores how architectural qualities can create spaces that protect, inspire, and connect with Mexican youth, specifically in cities like Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where public space has lost its capacity to support safe youth development.

The central question guiding this research is: How can architecture create environments that inspire youth identity, develop creativity, and offer alternatives to violence and drug …

Addressing The Abandoned Typology Of Mills, Terra M. Castresana

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

As anthropologists have shown, rivers are foundational to the creation of human settlement, and many cities design their urban fabric to interact with their respective rivers. Despite the scale of the Chattahoochee River, however, a typical visitor of Atlanta might not see the river as it is covered with highways and other infrastructures. Since the inception of colonial Atlanta as a railroad town in the nineteenth century, the urban design deviated from having the rivers be central to the city’s evolution as scholarship shows. Despite this structural arrangement, there was still an existing relationship with its rivers when waterways, most …

Re-Imagining The Rimac River: Designing With Mythology, Ecology, And Community, Rodrigo Carbajal

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The Rímac River sustains Lima, yet the city has treated it more like an edge condition than a living system. Its water moves through the metropolis as a source of life, but its presence is buried behind concrete walls, traffic corridors, pollution, and fragmented access. Over time, the river has been reduced to a controlled channel, stripped of the cultural and spatial relationships that once connected it to everyday life. This thesis begins with that contradiction: the Rímac remains vital to Lima’s survival, but has been pushed out of the city’s public imagination. This project argues that the river’s current …

Spatializing Hybrid Identities: Creating A Third Space For East-Asian Americans, Tina Wong

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Hyper-globalization transformed cultural boundaries and experiences. Identities are

no longer bound to a single construct—but forged at the intersection of complex and

layered vectors of belonging, especially those with multi-cultural backgrounds.

For many Americans with ethnic backgrounds, a sense of belonging is

fragmented, as their identities are stretched across multiple cultural frameworks. The

built environment of the American cities rarely reflect hybrid identities or collective

narratives- leading to misrepresentation and cultural invisibility. How can architecture create a space representative of such hybrid identities? How can design help foster a sense of belonging for hyphenated identities, particularly for East-Asian Americans? This …

From Spectator To Actor: The Drive-In Cinema As Movement On The Blue Ridge Parkway, Jacob Gonzalez

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis argues that architecture is not experienced as static form, but as something constructed through movement. It reconsiders the declining drive-in cinema typology not as a destination for passive viewing, but as a spatial system where movement and perception are actively choreographed.

The project asks: how can architectural movement transform the drive-in from a static act of viewing into a dynamic, cinematic experience?

Drawing from montage theory in film, particularly the work of Sergei Eisenstein, this thesis understands meaning as something constructed through sequence (through order, duration, repetition, and rhythm). Bernard Tschumi’s translation of these ideas into architecture informs …

From Passage To Place: Reimagining The Transit Hub, Amber Henry

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Transit hubs are a vital backbone for commuters in major US cities. Despite this backbone, the design priority of the transit hubs is not given the same commitment. When designing transit hubs, there is a focus on the circulation of the hub, often neglecting community engagement and the opportunity to design the space for more than just a transit center. This hyper fixation on circulation just exacerbates the problem of lost space within the urban city. Lost space is the space that is left over and unused due to urban blight. Urban blight occurred in the mid-20th century with people …

A Place To Return: Reimagining Rehabilitation Through Architecture In Tijuana, Mexico, Karen J. Reyes

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Addiction in Mexico is often associated with stigma, isolation, and institutional models of rehabilitation that reinforce punishment rather than healing. Many rehabilitation centers remain socially invisible, poorly maintained, and disconnected from the communities they aim to serve, particularly in border cities such as Tijuana, where displacement, instability, and addiction frequently intersect. The project responds to these conditions by exploring how architecture can redefine rehabilitation as a process rooted in dignity, belonging, and renewal rather than shame and confinement.

Grounded in Aaron Antonovsky’s Salutogenic Model and theories of community-centered healing, the proposal reimagines recovery through the concept of work as therapy. …

Comparing Carbon Emissions Across Transportation Mode For A 5-Mile Urban Trip In Spokane, Washington, Christian Agyei

2026 Symposium

Transportation plays a significant role in shaping local greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly in mid-sized cities where automobile use remains dominant. This project examines how carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions differ across transportation modes for a standardized five-mile urban trip in Spokane, Washington. Using emission factors from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the study estimates grams of CO₂ per passenger-mile and total CO₂ emissions per trip for four transportation modes, including single-occupancy vehicles, public transit, cycling, and walking. Commute pattern data from American Community Survey (ACS) provided local context on travel behavior in Spokane. This analysis …

Space For Life Below, Anthony J. Iadevaio

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture is traditionally understood as the design of spaces for people. Buildings, cities, and landscapes are typically evaluated through how humans move through them, occupy them, and experience them. My thesis begins by asking a simple shift in perspective: what happens when architecture is designed not for humans, but for other living beings, specifically aquatic life?

My research focuses on understanding how spatial design principles can be used to create better environments for fish and aquatic ecosystems. Rather than treating aquariums as decorative objects or displays for human enjoyment, I approach them as lived-in spaces where fish are the primary …

Designing Through Perception: Testing Spatial Regulation Using Virtual Reality, Denisse Rosa

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

College students across the United States are experiencing high levels of stress, sensory fatigue, and burnout, yet most academic environments are not designed to support mental well-being. Research in biophilic design and environmental psychology shows that warm materials, natural light, and intentionally organized sensory zones can reduce academic stress and create conditions for calm and focus. This thesis explores how neuro-inclusive and biophilic design principles can reshape learning spaces into environments that actively support student wellness. The framework development and virtual reality testing documented here represent the completed phase of this research; formal data collection with human participants constitutes the …

In Search Of Design Process : A Computational Framework For Meaningful Form, Mario A. Vaquiz

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In Search of Design Process : A Computational Framework for Meaningful Form

Imagine walking through your hometown, a place where identity, culture, memory, and collective resilience should be visible within the built environment. As cities continue to develop, new buildings rise from the ground, yet many remain indistinguishable glass boxes. They are efficient and visually neutral, but they fail to reflect the depth of culture, the struggles of communities, or the meaning embedded within place. These buildings fulfill functional requirements, but they often lack intentional expression. They exist, but they do not speak.

In Search of the Design Process begins …

Built For The Moment: Creating Temporary Hotel Architecture With Prefabrication For Transit-Oriented Development Along Marta Stations, Joshua D. Aicher

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis explores an architectural approach to addressing temporary population increases caused by large sporting events through flexible, prefabricated structures that adapt to varying sites and programmatic needs. The project is situated in the context of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, where host cities face significant pressure to accommodate short-term population surges. Typically, cities invest heavily in roads, transit, and hotels to support these events which are then abandoned or underutilized after events. While cities such as London 2012 Olympic Games and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games leveraged existing, mature transit networks to absorb this increased demand, …

Placemaking On Peachtree: Breathing Life In To Downtown Atlanta’S Outdoor Environment Through Wellbeing-Centric Design, Rachel Pickert

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Why do outdoor public spaces in Atlanta not prioritize pedestrian well-being by providing comfort, safety, and service to their daily life? The built environment is a key determinant of overall well-being through the opportunity for social interaction, stimulation, safety, comfort, and a sense of belonging. The vehicular-centric design of Downtown Atlanta has resulted in pedestrians seeking comfort away from the ground level using viaducts, subterrain transit, and sky bridges. This historic removal of pedestrians from the streets of Atlanta has resulted in un-activated outdoor public spaces which do not fulfill the basic needs for pedestrian wellbeing. This thesis uses existing …

Cohabitation As Care: A Campus For Intergenerational Living And Experience Of The Elderly And Orphan Children, Rachel Ayers

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

15 Cigarettes per day. Loneliness and social isolation can increase the risk of premature death just as much as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Research shows loneliness and social isolation can be so serious that for some the only way out is to resort to addictive behaviors. This is becoming a widespread public health concern. Social science research links the risk of social isolation and loneliness to two of our society’s most vulnerable age groups: the elderly and children. Orphans are among the ones who miss out on the opportunity to form these connections. Similarly, retired adults, especially those who …

Found & Forged: Rediscovering What Was Lost & Reshaping What Will Be., Christopher Dennis

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The decline of heavy industry across the American Rust Belt has left behind expansive, fragmented landscapes that are often treated as voids awaiting replacement. This thesis, Found & Forged challenges that assumption by repositioning the former U.S. Steel site in Lorain, Ohio, not as an absence, but as a layered urban condition with embedded cultural and spatial value. Found & Forged proposes a regenerative urban design framework guided by three interdependent pillars: Memory, Reconnection, and Resilience. Rather than erasing the industrial past, the project selectively preserves and reinterprets existing structures and artifacts to construct a living narrative of place. At …

Nurtur-Her, Azizi Ivey

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The Vine City Wellness Campus will transform the abandoned Morris Brown College Student Center—a symbol of the neighborhood's rich HBCU heritage—into a beacon of community health, honoring the past while addressing present health crises. By integrating clinical care, maternal health services, wellness programming, and community gathering spaces within a historic structure supplemented by sensitive new construction, this project will demonstrate how architecture can heal both bodies and communities, addressing generations of health inequity in one of Atlanta's most historically significant yet underserved neighborhoods.

Ile Idasile Aso: Creating Spaces That Promote The Creative Economy In Lagos., Ifeoluwa S. Gandonu

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Ilé Ìdásílẹ̀ Aṣọ directly translates to “House of Cloth Creation”. Yoruba fashion is more than attire; it is a cultural system that encodes identity, resilience, and social belonging through fabric. Every textile from the indigo-dyed adire of Osogbo to the ceremonial aso-oke woven in Abeokuta carries a story of community, heritage, and continuity. These materials serve not merely as garments but as living archives that express the Yoruba worldview through color, pattern, and form. Just as fashion weaves meaning into cloth, architecture can weave culture into space. Both disciplines involve composition, layering, and adaptation, reflecting how societies construct and express …