Architecture Commons^™

Assemblage Dwelling: A Radical Migrant Domesticity In Urbanity, Protik Choudhuri

Architecture Senior Theses

Humanity will end the 21st century as an entirely urban species. But urban environments are factories- the site of perpetual reproduction of services, interactions, urban and domestic spaces for capital accumulation, rather than the outcome of social processes. As such, the conditions under which migrants have integrated into the urban environments globally are characterized by the extraordinary struggle for decent housing and work.

Globally, it is the squatting movement that responded by countering exclusionary forms of ownership and radically transforming urban and domestic conditions for migrants through two distinct operations: the illegal appropriation of vacant buildings and domestic interventions centered …

Guiding The Future Of The Cache County Fairgrounds, Logan Hall

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The County fairgrounds have been a fixture in Cache Valley, Utah for over 100 years. They provide a valuable resource to the community. Effective planning can ensure the appropriate use of this public asset and prevent underutilization. Modern design guidelines have been developed for other fairgrounds in the Intermountain West, but not the Cache County fairgrounds. This research is focused on developing a contemporary visioning plan to guide the growth and future of the County fairgrounds, create design guidelines for future development, and maximize the fairground’s economic potential. The methodology used to develop this plan involved an extensive review of …

Maidstone Estates: Utilizing Research-Based Design To Create The Luxury, Location, And Lifestyle Of A Continuing Care Retirement Community, Jake Hardin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The nature of this essay explores the implementation of research-based design to the senior living concept and showcases how design can improve and empower the lives of our seniors as they hit retirement age. Over the course of the essay, the project will begin as a concept and navigate its way through the design processes until the concept is fully developed as a stand-alone package that speaks for itself. Maidstone Estates is built upon the guidelines of the Green House Project and outlines the mixed-use nature of design involving branding, building code, ADA compliance, universal design, and the three acuity …

Of Word And Stone: The History Of Medieval Spain Through The Lens Of Architecture And Language, Samantha Hernandez

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Medieval Spain is a unique summation of religious and cultural communities. Through the built forms of Al-Andalus, there is unique preservation of societal imprints that parallel the formation of the Castilian language. These two mediums—architecture and language—are a telling of the culture and history of the region. By first observing the historical formation of Spanish, and in turn the various communities which inhabited the Iberian Peninsula, one may find many correlations with architecture created at the same time. After understanding the historical making of the Spanish language, it is important to analyze the language itself and how it differs from …

Early Childhood Educational Toys Through An Architectural Perspective, Anindhitha Sudhakaran

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone explores the overlaps between architectural training and early childhood education, and how architectural design can inform the design process of creating educational toys for young children. Through an analysis of pedagogies used throughout history in early childhood education and my own personal experiences of architecture school, an understanding of how an architectural perspective can influence activities for three- to five-year-olds is developed. Precedent studies of open-ended educational toys designed by educators and designers introduced the design thinking mindset necessary to create an effectively enriching toy. The next phase of this project involves designing an educational toy for the …

Adhd In Classroom Design, Conley Lents

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper identifies interventions that primary schools should implement to make their physical environments more conducive to learning for students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, by extension, the entire student body. The school environment's impact on children is often underestimated, leaving children to be blamed for issues that could have been prevented. This oversight is mainly caused by a general need for more understanding of these students and this environment's vital role because of the limited research on both. The evidence-based interventions developed are based on a review of research on the impact of the school environment and ADHD …

Designing For Mass Customization Housing Through Generative Design, Tania Salgueiro

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research proposal aims to investigate computational design strategies for sustainable, affordable, and more equitable housing. The study will focus on the use of generative design tools, such as parametric modeling, rule-based modeling, and optimization, to aid architects and designers in creating custom housing complexes for single families in small and medium urban lots. The goal is to develop a computational method that considers sustainability, affordability, and long-term usage parameters to create housing designs that meet the desired spatial qualities. The research question asks how generative design tools can support designers in approaching affordable housing given the increasing demand for …

Environmental Injustice In Fayetteville, Arkansas: Investigating Unjust And Racist Conditions In Fayetteville's Industrial Park, Chloe Devecsery

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Environmental racism refers to how minority neighborhoods are burdened with a disproportionate number of environmental hazards and pollution that lower the quality of life and create health disparities. Despite the growing awareness of the national and global problem, environmental injustice and racism can be found in nearly every place. There is little being done regarding policy, public awareness, and government action. The fight for environmental justice is still needed across America, in Arkansas, and in our community. This disciplinary-oriented capstone gives a brief overview of the environmental justice movement and uses publicly available maps and statistics from government and academic …

The Study Of Pine Bluff Low-Income Housing Opportunities: What Is The Cost Of Inaction?, Victoria Best

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The impact of stable housing can have the power to shape the overall quality of life. Housing influences various life outcomes, such as education, health, financial stability, emotional well-being, and an overall sense of safety. Studies show that quality of life is linked to housing stability and impacts people of all ages. This thesis looks at the city of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which has a severe low-income housing shortage which results in many people living in poverty and unstable settings.

This thesis analyzes three low-income housing case studies to evaluate the process and outcomes of various approaches to addressing housing …

Springdale Arkansas' Form-Based Code: Analyzing Urban Dispositions, Nate Cole

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Springdale, Arkansas, has witnessed population growth, public and private development, and interest from stakeholders throughout the Northwest Arkansas region in the past six years. The impetus for this case study is the rapid urbanization of Springdale, catalyzed by the adoption of a downtown Form-Based Code in 2017. The study analyzes four projects representing a range of typologies and uses, selected from many new and upcoming projects in the FBC area. Utilizing multiple techniques to present each project's spatial and social characteristics, the study presents these nuances and provokes further discussions. A literature review covering complexity and complex adaptive systems supports …

Rilem Tc 266-Mrp: Round-Robin Rheological Tests On High Performance Mortar And Concrete With Adapted Rheology—Rheometers, Mixtures And Procedures, Dimitri Feys, Mohammed Sonebi, Sofiane Amziane, Chafika Djelal, Khadija El-Cheikh, Shirin Fataei, Markus Greim, Irina Ivanova, Helena Keller, Kamal Khayat, Laurent Libessart, Viktor Mechtcherine, Ivan Navarrete, Arnaud Perrot

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Recent developments in understanding the rheology of mortar and concrete as well as applying this understanding in the practice of construction necessitate an accurate assessment of materials' rheological properties. It is well known that different rheometers for mortar and concrete deliver different results, as this was shown over 15 years ago in two measuring campaigns comparing concrete rheometers. Considering newly developed rheometers, including those to evaluate interface rheology and structural build-up at rest, as well as additional measurement procedures and data interpretation techniques, a new comparison campaign was carried out in 2018 at the Université d'Artois, in Bethune, France. This …

Subterraneans: A Regional Earth Dwelling For Comfort And Beauty, Isaak Benchoff

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Subterraneans is a study of an affordable, self-sufficient, sustainable, and dignified housing prototype for the region of Northwest Arkansas. It is a design process investigation based on the ideas of turning a local, sustainable material into affordable homes that can be built within a community of people sharing land and resources. The homes would utilize as many natural materials as possible to minimize the impact on the Earth and the cost to the owners.

Research looked at many different vernacular building precedents as well as the work done by contemporary design firms in the area of economical, low-impact, and passively …

Bench – A Design Process To Make A Digitally Manufactured Furniture System Using The Spirit Of Japanese Joinery, Myles Richter

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone identifies and implements the spirit of Japanese joinery into a contemporary design process to develop a component based piece of furniture through means of digital manufacturing, namely CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machining. Through the aesthetic, functional, and structural results of this design process, the impact of applying the spirit of Japanese joinery as a guide for the development of the tectonic language of an object are revealed. The structure of this project will discuss an overview of the design process of an object which was designed in the spirit of Japanese joinery, and an assessment of the success …

Designing For Micropolitan Areas: A Public Library Design Manual For Adaptive And Circular Applications, Samantha R. Zeek

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

A micropolitan statistical area refers to a geographic region in the United States that has at least one urban cluster of population between 10,000 and 50,000 people, as defined by the US Census Bureau. According to the 2019 Fiscal Year Public Libraries Survey, more than three-fourths of public libraries serve areas with fewer than 25,000 people in the U.S. (Frehill, et al. 2021). However, as new design techniques and advanced services are developed, they tend to be primarily implemented in libraries serving metropolitan areas, which only serve around a quarter of the US population, leading to an unequal distribution of …

Beyond Dualities Of Place: West Bottoms Kcmo, Keleigh Ketelhut

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

West Bottoms, Kansas City, is a historic, industrial neighborhood adjacent to downtown and splitting the Kansas/Missouri border. Formerly home to livestock trading, It is a place currently known for its lawless character and grit. Like many urban cores, it has grabbed the attention of developers, including current stakeholders in SomeraRoad, a New York-based developer, partnering with HOK Kansas City to masterplan the district and redevelop the portion adjacent to the Historic Core.

Like many urban redevelopment projects, the locals who live, work, and play here have concerns that the West Bottoms may succumb to conventional placelessness development, washing out the …

Characterizing Energy Dissipation Of Shallow-Water Wave Breaking In A Storm Surge, Hunter Boswell, Guirong Grace Yan, Wouter Mostert

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

While understanding breaking waves is crucial for the development of parametrizations used in ocean wave modeling for both deep and shallow water, the complete process of wave breaking is not well understood. Here we present direct numerical simulations of two-dimensional solitary waves that shoal and break on a uniform beach in shallow water, with the presence of storm surge represented by an inshore region. The storm surge depth, beach slope, and wave amplitude are varied to study the dependence of energy dissipation in the breaker on wave and bathymetric parameters. We classify wave breaker types and find a separation between …

The Way Of Water: A Cultural Revival, Mariana Munoz

Architecture Senior Theses

THE WAY OF WATER: A CULTURAL REVIVAL MARIANA MUNOZ:

This thesis aims to address the challenges facing the coastal community of Condado, Puerto Rico, by proposing interventions that protect against floods and restore access to water, while also enhancing daily life and cultural practices. Through an examination of the community’s existing conditions, and answer three research questions: (1) how to mitigate flooding without displacing the community, (2) how to meet the needs of the community during times of emergency, and (3) how to integrate interventions into daily life and existing practices. The proposed interventions include a canal system to redirect …

Perceived Safety And Equitable Access: An Investigation Of The Northwest Arkansas Regional Greenway, Jessica Shearman

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

In today’s world, designers, planners, and policymakers are grappling with conflicts of climate change, habitat loss, and increasing diversity all during a migratory trend towards urban areas and higher densities of living. Creating public spaces that are both resilient ecologically and environmentally, while also creating a sense of place is essential for providing a higher quality of life equitably for all citizens. Through case studies and literature review, the public’s safety perceptions when accessing public spaces is key to equitable access. Specifically, differing perceptions of safety based on gender, race, and backgrounds. Perceived safety can be defined as an awareness …

Museum Of The Mechanical Eye: The Phenomenology Of Perception In Architecture, Isabel Sierra

Architecture Senior Theses

Since ancient tines, philosophers have tied knowledge to clear vision. Sight has been deemed the most important sense to mankind. Plato said vision was "humanity's greatest gift." It is human nature to make optical conclusions, to reify, to totalize, to control. What is seen is assumed to certain because of the uncontested and unexplored optical gray areas upheld by our rational and technological culture. We solidified our ocular-centric society by creating vision-generated understandings of knowledge, truth, and reality. Architecture, along with art and film, deals directly with human existence in space. Architecture is the construction of human perception.

The universe …

A Narrative Research Study On How Brazilian Women Executives Build A Sense Of Community And Belonging When Transferred To The United States, Silvia Regina Siqueira

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the American Immigration Council (2021), 14 percent of the United States population is foreign-born. Immigrants have enriched American culture and enhanced our influence in the world. People feel a need to belong and have an inherent desire for deep, lasting, and meaningful connections (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Research suggests that humans are fundamentally and pervasively motivated by a need to belong and the desire to form and maintain enduring interpersonal attachments (Allen, Kern, Rozek, McInerney & George, 2021). These authors also define immigrants’ sense of belonging in terms of how they make sense of their social identification with …