Architecture Commons^™

Hidden Narratives, Diego Becerra

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis is interested in the active interventions that affect isolated towns through new economic developments. And I'm focused in the use of architecture as a leverage to transform the city in a way that empowers their local community, by adapting the architecture to handle the economic, infrastructure and density change, by working with existing building interventions. So it maintain its character but it also becomes its tool for social and economic cohesion that empowers the community.

Latent Territories, Vasundhra Aggarwal, Jaclyn Doyle

Architecture Thesis Prep

Through accelerated processes of recording and transmitting visual data of our built environment, architecture is increasingly consumed as a series of pixels and numbers by machine modes of vision for other autonomous actors. The incessant processing and data hoarding is saturating the networks that are perceived to be infinite, leading to the inevitable physical and digital decay. As weathering is to the physical, lags and glitches are to the the digital. The effects of aging of physical degradation are evident in our environment, however, the loss of material integrity of digital files is much less visible. Due to the mutable …

The Politics Of The Trash Heap, Kyle Neumann

Architecture Thesis Prep

I propose to develop a new methodology on housing fabrication and community development and engagement in the region of northern Baja to be achieved through material sourcing and fabrication, localized infrastructure, and larger scale infrastructure throughout the border region of Mexico and California. This will be done at three scales: Macro-scale, studying ecologies, climate, and political landscapes; Meso-scale, studying infrastructure, resources, population density, and agriculture; Micro-scale, studying familial types, dwelling infrastructure and the cultural community. The Human dwelling will be the amalgamation of this border redevelopment, as refuse material from the US can be augmented to produce climactically appropriate materials …

Privacy Reconfigured: Examining Public Interactions Within Domestic Space, Vanessa Poe

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis reconfigures private domestic spaces by combining modes of privacy in order to accommodate the needs of the townhouse, resulting in a new series of private reveals through socialization.

An Interface: An Architecture That Stitches Species, Suren Sivaram

Architecture Thesis Prep

Materialized, architecture could be considered as an interface that promotes and preserves biodiversity within a site, as “all life is bound into dynamic and interrelated processes of codependency.” In addition, this thesis posits that architecture as an interface may act representationally to raise awareness of the need to embrace biodiversity and to sustain humanity. In Greater Perfections, Hunt suggests, “The garden will … be distinguished in various ways from the adjacent territories in which it is set … it will be set apart by the greater extent, scope, and variety of its design and internal organization”. Stitching elements of its …

Drawing Ambulatory Cartographies: Understanding Urban Experience Through Walking, Bonnie Yu

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis contends that the act of walking, as a way of seeing, being, and understanding in the city, can be a form of urban intervention that enables the transformation of space by allowing individuals to imbue spaces with meaning. The act of walking, in conjunction with mapping practices, can be a critical tool for understanding urban space, acting as a nomadic architecture that works to subvert and smooth the striated space of the city.

This project will investigate the ways in which urban landscape representation, in particular the processes and performances of walking-based mapping practices, can reveal and assert …

Architecture Student Design Competition 2020 Final Report, Andreas Luescher

Architecture and Environmental Design Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Concrete Embodied Carbon Study, Maab Mohammed, Tabassum Kalam Khandoker

Research-Based Design Initiative

Generally, in concrete, cement contains a significant amount of embodied carbon. For this reason, designers are looking for different mixtures and .sources for the replacement of cement in concrete. Which can provide the optimum strength by using a minimum amount of cement.

Comparing Wall Assemblies Based On Carbon Emissions And Red List Materials, Alexa Esguerra, Bassetti Architects

Research-Based Design Initiative

The purpose of this project was to conduct necessary sustainability research in the early design phase and serve as a starting point for all future projects.

Hacker: Evaluating Design Impact Under Quarantine, Portland State University. School Of Architecture, Hacker Architects

Research-Based Design Initiative

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

Hacker Architects are interested in understanding the impact of their design decisions on the user experience of five of their Portland-area residential projects. One of their greatest challenges has been a pandemic that prevents their team from conducting quantitative research ,vithin each of the their occupied residential buildings to better understand the efiect of site-specific designs of the architecture. What has becorne a unique opportunity, Hacker proposes that we research, develop, administer, and analyze the responses of a Post Occupancy Evaluation that addresses the design decisions vs. their impact on user experience and the impact of COVID-19 on …

Analysis Of San Luis Obispo Housing Elements, Madison M. Driscoll

City and Regional Planning

This project focuses on analysis and recommendations for housing elements within San Luis Obispo County. The project details housing element requirements made by the State of California Housing and Community Development Department and how the incorporated cities of San Luis Obispo meet these requirements. Cities analyzed include Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Grover Beach, Morro Bay, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, and San Luis Obispo.

The Living Object: Repurposing An X Dollhouse To Increase Visitor Engagement At A Historic House Museum, Lindsay Zaremski

Historic Preservation Final Projects

Kempf House tells the story of a middle-class, German American family from the late 1800s to the middle of the next century and reinforces the story with objects, many of which belonged to the Kempfs. The Kempf House has a dollhouse which is not original to the house or family; it was not enhancing the tour as it could have because of its poor condition and sparse furnishings. This paper documents Kempf House dollhouse restoration project, in which the author repaired and augmented the dollhouse to resemble one an 1890s middle-class family may have owned. She researched the history of …

Guidelines For Implementing Modem: An Open-Source, Matlab-Based Digital Image Correlation Software, Ryan Schwartz

Architectural Engineering

MODEM is an open-source, MATLAB-based digital image correlation (DIC) program that was developed at the University of Auckland for small-scale testing of flexible materials. Structural engineering researchers at both the University of Auckland and Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo wanted to expand the uses of the program to study the seismic response of large-scale test specimens. This guide document describes how to implement DIC using MODEM, including the hardware and software needed to run an experiment as well as data collection and post-processing procedures for the program. Additionally, this document includes a case study focusing on a DIC test …

Ec3 And Embodied Carbon Reduction, Karl Benjamin, Opsis Architects

Research-Based Design Initiative

The objective of this research was to use the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool to evaluate the embodied carbon emissions in several material categories, allowing for specification and procurement of low carbon options. The case study for this research is the Shiley-Marcos Center for Design & Innovation (University of Portland), an adaptive reuse project currently in the late design and procurement phase of the construction process. This research was intended to contribute to the research done during the design phases related to the Whole Building Life Cycle Analysis (WBLCA) using Tally. I worked primarily with Heather DeGrella and …

Methanosarcina Acetivorans Contains A Functional Isc System For Iron-Sulfur Cluster Biogenesis, Thomas M. Deere, Divya Prakash, Faith H. Lessner, Evert C. Duin, Daniel J. Lessner

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

The production of methane by methanogens is dependent on numerous iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster proteins; yet, the machinery involved in Fe-S cluster biogenesis in methanogens remains largely unknown. Methanogen genomes encode uncharacterized homologs of the core components of the ISC (IscS and IscU) and SUF (SufBC) Fe-S cluster biogenesis systems found in bacteria and eukaryotes. Methanosarcina acetivorans contains three iscSU and two sufCB gene clusters. Here, we report genetic and biochemical characterization of M. acetivorans iscSU2.

Results

Purified IscS2 exhibited pyridoxal 5′- phosphate-dependent release of sulfur from L-cysteine. Incubation of purified IscU2 with IscS2, cysteine, and iron (Fe2+) resulted …

Calculating Embodied Carbon In Las Adelitas, Nancy Barakat, Salazar Architect Inc.

Research-Based Design Initiative

The purpose of this research is to assist team Salazar and Hacienda in researching embodied carbon in the construction materials that will be used in Las Adelitas affordable housing, public plaza and event hall project. As part of the AIA 2030 commitment, this report will help the team and their client prioritizes collect necessary data to understand the climate impacts of selected materials, in order to reduce the building’s carbon footprint, and improve the wellbeing of the environment and the Living Cully community.

Volta Project, Portland State University. School Of Architecture, Bora Architects

Research-Based Design Initiative

This project aims to renovate the existing building, both the exterior and interior. For this renovation, BORA has committed to meeting ambitious sustainability goals. Among these is to convert the building into a net-zero energy (NZE) building. The research this term supported this NZE effort by studying the existing building and testing strategies to improve its performance. The team identifed multiple opportunities to implement passive strategies, but decided to go with daylighting strategies.

The Professional Constructor, Full Issue, Volume 45, Number 02

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

The Possibility Of Sustainable Investment By Re-Using Traditional Buildings As A Cultural Tourist Hostel: Case Study, Thurban Palace, Al-Namas Region, Asir Region, Ahmed Ali Bindajam

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Traditional architecture is a mirror that embodies the reality of architectural heritage, as it represents the description of architectural richness, highlighting the most important variables and consistent with functional solutions that take into account the climatic, social and environmental factors that meet the needs of society, its traditions and customs. The urban development and the economic renaissance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia witnessed an economic prosperity and this development and renaissance was accompanied by the migration of many villages and neighborhoods and thus formed a case from the beginning of the architectural and urban deterioration of these traditional and …

Resilience Of School Systems Following Severe Earthquakes, Emad M. Hassan, Hussam N. Mahmoud, Bruce R. Ellingwood

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Natural disasters may have catastrophic and long-lasting impacts on communities' physical, economic, and social infrastructure. Slow recovery of educational services following such events is likely to cause traumatic stress in children, lead families to out-migrate, and affect the community's overall social stability. Methods for quantifying and assessing the restoration process of educational systems and their dependencies on other supporting infrastructure have not received adequate attention. This study introduces, for the first time, a new framework to evaluate the functionality, recovery, and resilience of a school system following severe earthquake events. The framework considers both the quantity and quality of education …