Architecture Commons^™

In Memory Of Nuclear Waste | Architecture That Endures A Millennia, Jacob Powell

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The majority of waste that has been used for nuclear power is stored underground in Carlsbad New Mexico. The problem is that deep underground radioactivity of uranium has a half life of 10,000 years, meaning that the site can potentially pose a threat in exposure on radiation if there ever was an event of unintended tampering within the area.

This thesis investigates what it takes to make “timeless architecture” in doing so I will focus on how historically old architectural projects such as the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge and the Colosseum. Each precedent has very structures, however I will go …

The Metamorphic Model: A Test In Post-Millennial Living, Andrew Mesa

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The Metamorphic Model is a look into future Millennial Urban living through an experiment to create a building prototype per the needs and wants for future architecture. It focuses on creating a building infrastructure which creates social environments for the residents and the community alike through a modular system of units supported by building infrastructure which lifts and moves the units into the desired slot. The goal is to oppose to typical buildings format which takes time to modify and adapt to changing conditions and highlight the trends moving into the future. The idea of the project is to take …

Mental Sensorium, Brittany Adkins

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

According to ADAA, nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable but only 36.9% are receiving any kind of treatment. Anxiety disorders develop based on a set of factors including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. Many do not realize but our environment, especially the built environment we inhabit every day can have a positive or negative effect on our mental well-being. Architecture should not just focus on the physical needs of their inhabitants but the mental health needs as well.

The built environment has a considerable impact …

The Anti-Panopticon: Rethinking The Architecture Of Surveillance, Darral Tate

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The origins of American prison design can be traced back to Jeremy Bentham’s theory of the Panopticon developed in the late 18th century. Bentham saw prison reform as a model for how society should function. He believed surveillance was the best way to deter inmates from committing further crimes. Bentham argued for an architecture of surveillance by making every cell visible from one center point with no interaction. Every prison in the U.S since, has adopted this model designed to produce a system of containment and punishment, while removing inmate interaction. With today’s technology, we are no longer shackled to …

Sensorial Architecture: Design For Well-Being, Philip Sanders

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

My thesis aims to interrogate the relationship between phenomenology and architecture. Through this project, I will investigate how to create a sense of well-being, particularly in response to the condition of depression in its various forms. Architectural design, with an emphasis on mood and atmosphere, will take a central role through the design of a series of retreats. Through manipulation of: natural light, smell, texture, materiality, and the like, I intend to create a multi sensorial space in which the present moment is the central focus. I will examine the current building typologies being used to address depression, as well …

Clarkston: A Place For The [Dis]Placed, Elizabeth Nguyen

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis explores architecture explicitly programmed for the uniqueness in Clarkston’s multicultural population diversity and their needs for assimilation where current resources are fragmented and some non-existent, lacking a real sense of community. I am proposing a master plan and a building to cater to the refugee families’ adaptation to America in a social, economic, educational and cultural context where diverse groups of people can co-exist to better assimilate into society.

Resurrecting A Fallen Angel: Architecture Remediating Pollution In Mexico City, Karen Rios

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Mexico City's population of over twenty-one million inhabitants makes it the second largest city in the world. Consequently, air pollution levels in the capital are outrageous.

The following proposal is not an attempt at fixing the city's pollution issues but, rather, presenting an innovative solution to be adopted throughout the city. The thesis aims at solving the contamination crisis' physical and psychological aspects.

That is, a combination of architectural intervention and community involvement will help slow down the rising pollution levels in a once beautiful city. Perhaps starting at a micro scale and spreading throughout the city.

Skater Conscious, Jeremy Bowen

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Skateboarding is made possible by the built environment, but without architecture necessarily being designed for its occurrence. Without knowing it, designers have created environments that facilitate a social and artistic culture to thrive. And this has happened – for the most part – in leftover pieces of landscape, infrastructure, and urban settings. Skaters move through and experience space in unique ways. While their boards enable this experience, there is more; most spaces are not designed for them – and some are even designed to keep them out – but, nevertheless, skaters persevere through invention and creativity. Skaters actively search for …

Delineating Social Environments In The Residential High Rise. Inquiry Into A New Typology For Living, Cameron Jackson

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Cities are known for their high levels of diversity which increases the number of interactions in the urban environment. These interactions happen in parks, plazas, and promenades, which are supported by the diversity of the surrounding buildings. Cities will increase by 60% in 2030, increasing the demand for housing. This increase in housing could also have a negative impact on the diversity of building character and contextual identity if building forms become too repetitive or standardized, a condition typical in times of rapid growth. This decrease in diversity can also lead to fewer interactions which will cause social isolation for …

Mixed Reality’S Ability To Craft And Establish An Experience Of Space, Corey Jones

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Mixed Reality, when integrated into architecture, will enable open spaces and the perception of the built environment to change rapidly with little physical fabrication.

As architects, we design with a desired experience of space in mind and don’t typically design with a rapidly changing built environment to meet a fluctuating programmatic demand. Theater Program however, often requires such rapid changes to the perceived environment, that is the stage, and is an activator of social interaction based on a shared experience of the performances.

What would be the architectural implications if we were to integrate mixed reality as a factor of …

Community-Based Healthcare | Interlace Of Biophilic Design In Outpatient Facilities, Joshua Robinson

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis questions how architects can redesign typical healthcare typology in response to the medical and sociological needs of the community while integrating the measures of wellness and biophilic design. By redefining architectural programs within a wellness clinic, this can allow the facility to prioritize the communities needs through non-medical determinants. The research will look at both the social and medical needs of a community, along with the Seven Standards of Wellness as defined by the Well Building Standard and The Fourteen Patterns of Biophilic Design as defined by the Terrapin Bright Green, to develop a connection between the facility …

Ecological Urbanism | Design Strategies For Bridging The Social Gap In Kolkata, Varshil Patel

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Kolkata, India, also known as a “City of Joy” for its vibrant diversity and as one of the most important cultural centers in the country, exemplifies many issues that are related to overpopulation, weak enforcement of planning regulations, informal housing, natural ecological degradation, and lack of social cohesion. The development of modernized neighborhoods in the outskirts coincided with the internal migration of the middle class and furthered the social gap. Wetlands east of the city, which used to provide a substantial amount of food and livelihood for the city, have been diminishing due to urban development. The lack of necessities …

Urban Stitch: A Game In Section, Jesse Garner

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

A city begins as a small, centralized community where everybody knows each other. Social events take place in the city square, or even on sidewalks, creating a street culture. As a city grows, so does the demand for larger roads, and eventually highways. In the late 1940’s President Eisenhower initiated the interstate system, capable of handling large amounts of traffic, creating connections to larger cities with economic centers. Over the next forty years, the interstates were installed across the United States, either bypassing, or crossing through cities. Although necessary, at what point does the interstate, if taken through a major …

Reframing Urban Redevelopment Via Women Empowerment: Sustaining Existing Community In The West End Neighborhood, Dyesha Holmes

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Recent studies in England found out that people who know their family history are more resistant to stress and anxiety. (Bradley, 2016) This connection between family history and place history is important in understanding the connection individuals have to the places they grew up and know. However, gentrification poses a threat to inner-city neighborhoods and disrupts the cyclical relationships between history and culture that forms the character of their social community. Ruth Glass coined the term gentrification in 1964 to describe the influx of middle-class people displacing lower-class worker residents in urban neighborhoods. Gentrification is a matter of oppression; displacement …

Generative Suburban Frameworks: Emerging Architect-Guided Optimization Workflows Within Suburban Mass Production, Chris Reeh

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

The mass production of single-family housing has led to a number of overlooked design problems, including enormous physical footprints, subpar construction, and hastily installed infrastructure (Florida 2017). The continued growth of this development strategy has decreased the disparity of the building type, which also undergoes far less design consideration than other building typologies. Solutions to these issues have been oriented around concepts of modular construction and prefabricated elements. These ideas have typically remained in conceptual design stages, and when actualized they tend to lack the simplicity, speed, or cost of current residential construction practices. Additionally, several of these approaches could …

Headspace: Architecture For Mental Health, Courtney Wise

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis proposes a mental wellness center that will act as a free resource for mental health services, specifically anxiety and depression. The goal of this project is to create a resource that will help mitigate the ignorance around mental health by educating the public, creating opportunities for positive social interaction, and giving the scholastic and residential communities a safe place to examine their individual mental health. This will be accomplished by finding mediators between clinical and non-clinical types of program.

Rooted: Cultivating Social Inclusiveness + Food Equity, Andrew Newman

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

From great tragedy comes greater opportunity. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, New Orleans found itself in the midst of an unprecedented civic disaster after being abandoned by the state and ignored by the federal government. Outrage and concern about the slow political response culminated in the creation of a citizen-driven food network. This local food network consists of community-based farms and organizations that devoted their resources and time to providing under-served residents with sustained access to fresh produce. These local farms and gardens primarily began to sprout up in the hardest hit and most restricted of neighborhoods. …

Aging & Space, Jenshe Floyd

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

There are many factors that contribute to our individuality, but aging is not one of them. Aging is a fundamental aspect that connects us all because at the end of the day we are all part of the aging process - a process that begins at birth and continues until death. When we are in our thirty’s the decrease of cognitive function begins. In our forties the difficulty in hearing and visions begins. In our fifties the decrease of mobility function declines and in our sixties our taste and smell become more difficult. By the time we reach our seventies …

Social Discourse Between Humans And Animals, Sara Honeycutt

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

My project is to investigate social interaction through design. I am exploring to understand the social discourse between humans and animals. I propose an animal facility which houses adoptable dogs and cats as a method of bridging gaps in social interactions that are a result of the fast-paced media society we now live in. My thesis is an attempt to prove that the notions of architecture, animal and human, are interdependent of one another—that architecture is the vehicle working towards building a new relationship between humans and animals. Our domesticated animals rely on humans but we also lean on our …

Mapping Wilderness Character In Adams County, Pennsylvania, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

The spatial trends in wilderness character in Adams County, Pennsylvania were examined to evaluate how influenced specific areas are impacted by human activity and development. Indicators of wilderness character were selected as natural, untrammelled, undeveloped, along with solitude and unconfined recreation by the Death Valley National Park staff in which a 0-4 ranking system was based upon to portray a range of most degraded to optimal land. This was executed through examination of factors such as abundance of biodiversity and human development within the given area before a Monte Carlo simulation was run to show sensitivity of change. It was …