Architecture Commons^™

Urban Space Regeneration, Yuanyuan Xiao

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The main idea I pursued in my research is the regeneration of urban space, which helped to create a new civic space for a city. The details of urban space regeneration are designed to improve the quality of life, and it involves the use of urban public space. Based on the research and background study, my thesis explored to improve the urban environment, enhance urban space usage and improve city image in Beijing to regenerate it from a heavy industrial city in a garden city. In my research on regeneration of urban space I came across the example of the …

Perceptive Architecture : Reviving The Perception Of Space In A Digital Era, Minho Jang

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

We perceive what we see. Therefore, we conceive the information of an experience we have. According to Henri Lefebvre, “Nothing disappears completely, however; nor can what subsists be defined solely in terms of traces, memories or relics. In space, what came earlier continues to underpin what follows.” (The Production of Space_Henri Lefebvre 229). It can be said that Lefebvre is implying the importance of spatial experience in context to the transition of space.

Previous experiences will affect the way the occupant percieves future experiences of space. Taking this into consideration and referring back to the problem implied, excessive users …

New Constuctivism Or [Re] Defining Utopia, Anna Pack

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In contemporary Practice what makes a society successful and how can we achieve it?

Defined as “the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community.” It’s a structure, flexible, movable, and, therefore, shape-able. In the roots of Constructivist Utopia lays the idea of achieving the perfect society through the means of practicing new methods of design and productions. The Revolutionized ideas of propaganda and communal living in total equality were the key points in Constructivist Agenda. Their Utopia was to erase all boundaries and to build total equality. What is Utopia today? In my thesis I …

Revolutionary Rooms, Briana J. Fountain

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Residence Halls are a social center on college campuses. The common spaces within a residence hall are a space for informal collectivism. However, they have become increasingly task specific and redundant. How do social constructs influence design? Should common spaces within the residence hall typology influence the design of the entire domicile? This thesis develops a methodology that prioritizes sociospatial relationships in the design of residence halls. This was accomplished through the exploration of college culture, socio-spatial relationships, and notions from sister typologies.

Home-By Us: Togethernest Alternative Practice, Kristen M. Schulte

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Responding to the affordable housing crisis, the proposed practice leverages tools typically associated with internet-based startups and technology companies to assemble teams and build efficiencies into the building procurement process. This approach facilitates access for an income demographic that would not normally engage an architect. Through a process like online dating, the practice assembles small groups of owner-developers to design, finance, and build their own homes. Participating households are advised on location and project approach based on their self-reported preferences; and matched with others with similar preferences. Collaborative mass customization of each home is achieved through a mix of online …

Retail Without Walls: The Built Impacts Of A Post-Spatial Retail Reality, Matthew Richard Kreutzer

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Retail Without Walls: the built impacts of a post-spatial retail reality seeks out a better understanding of the physical outcomes of a retail environment that is rapidly changing and adapting to the demands of an increasingly digital consumer. As studies have repeatedly shown, foot traffic in malls and other physical stores continues to decline, which can be attributed to the rise of online platforms of retail.

Much of the thought going into the future of retail has been directed at understanding how the present store may adapt to suit the needs of a changing consumer buying process. Companies driving these …

[Un]Building The Rural: The Strategic Subtraction Of Sidney, Nebraska, Caitlin E. Tangeman

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

This thesis focuses on the decline of rural communities and how rural decline might be addressed through design.

Rural decline is a phenomenon affecting rural territories around the globe, including the Great Plains. Rural decline has been caused by a number of factors, perhaps the most persistent being the reliance on an economy that is not diversified. In the Great Plains, agriculture is typically the main source of economic income, with a significant portion of the region’s counties depending on agriculture. Mechanization of agriculture through increased technology has eliminated many jobs in the agriculture industry, since higher yields can be …

The Ne[X]T Generation Learning Environments: Influences On The Future Design Of Educational Spaces, Bryan Hill Perez

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Over the past 100 years, there have been significant changes in many aspects of our lives, from the way we communicate to the way we work. One aspect that has seen minimal change is the way we learn – In classrooms with rows of desks and chairs facing the front, where a sole instructor disseminates knowledge the class as a whole. As the next generation of students is entering college, it has become apparent that there is a disconnect in the way this generation behaves, interacts, and learns and the typical school infrastructure and pedagogy of today. The design of …

A Formal Building Dress, Maria Jarda

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The thesis approaches building façade design from a couture point of view. Examining closer the cloth of the building and its inhabitants. It approaches design from a fashion start, turning dresses into building dresses, thus relating it to its textile origin. Initially, the analysis of dress vs façade falls into 4 categories materiality, layering, exoskeleton, and responsive. Building upon the analysis, essentially the outcome of the thesis is to adaptively redress a high rise. The focused runway is Broadway Street from Penn Station to Times Square. The questions become, What is the appropriate modern day building dress? Can this envelope …

Sustaining Independence: An Architectural Proposal For Fostered Youth, Karlla Oliveira

Master of Science in Architecture Theses

The social aspect of sustainability is often neglected when environmental and economic targets in architectural practice and education are prioritized. This thesis investigates how architecture can have a positive impact on the life of those experiencing the most inequitable position of society: the homeless. Several studies have shown a strong relation between chronically homeless adults and youth departing the foster care system, therefore this thesis focuses on exploring the housing component for a prevention program for at-risk of homeless former foster care youth. This study aims to introduce a site selection methodology and housing model approach for supportive transitional living …

Offshore R+D Facility, Philip A. Marble

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Design a Research + Development facility that merges with a functional Oil Rig. This center will house both a Marine Research Center and Oil rig Research + Development center. Both of these facilities will be in a separate structure than the Oil Rig but will have a connection back to the Living Quarter.

Delirious Boundaries, Miguel Perez

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

When we think of an American identity it is very hard to describe due to bases on race and ethnic groups. The idea of an American identity is often blurred in a place where two identities try to establish an existence. It is not the existence of race and ethnicity but the existence of culture. Culture as viewed by many is having elements which can be disassembled and re-composed, that is to say that culture is a process of living conditions not here a process of a condition that does not change. Culture is based on the ideas of context …

Kinesthesis: Buildings Learning From People, Will Tufts

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Kinetic architecture has traditionally been the domain of expensive, boutique projects which require a high degree of finance and engineering. This results in systems which are difficult to construct and maintain, and prevents widespread adoption of building technologies which offer adaptive possibilities to their users over time.

Additionally, such systems predominantly either respond to simplistic environmental models, or actuation for purposes of artistic effect. Neither approach primarily addresses the needs of the user -- an approach which architects should not accept.

This thesis shows that new technologies in analysis and construction techniques can be combined to create performative works which …

Material Poetics, Ellen G. Reid

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

quench: /kwen(t)SH/

a : put out, extinguish

b : to put out the light or fire

c : to cool suddenly by immersion

d : to cause to lose heat or warmth

e : to bring to an end typically by satisfying, damping, cooling, or

decreasing

f : to relieve or satisfy with liquid

This is often how projects begin, a haunting idea, word, or experience inundates my consciousness and sub-consciousness. How could the body directly relate to an experience of quenching? This provoked the idea of the extreme sport: freediving. To adequately depict the definition of quenching, any …

Breaking The Horizon, Chelseay Frith

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

I want you to imagine my first time scuba diving; it was at Morrison Springs, Florida in January 2012... Yes I know what you are thinking it was really cold. I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, while putting on my gear I started to think of all the possibilities that could happen, including death. As we start to descend into the water, my eyes adjusted to the new surroundings seeing a whole new world under the surface of the water. Fish darted around these plants that towered like sky scrapers: it started to look like a …

Architecture And Memory, Anne Murigi

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The objective of this thesis is to come up with a design which will celebrate the experience during and after the Post-Election violence that rocked Kenya through the design of the Museum of Hope in Uhuru Park, in Nairobi, Kenya. The museum is intended to create an experiential journey that allows visitors to explore sentiments of the climate of the country during this political time, while also evoking optimism in design. The recent history of Kenya is marred by struggle, violence, terror, hope, joy and peace. The site of Uhuru Park has witnessed this unending cycle, making it a politically …

Coda - Sound Urbanism, Michael Phaff

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The interstate connector was once a really exciting and cutting edge concept for Atlanta. It celebrated a vehicular lifestyle and addressed movement in and around the city with the development of I-75, I-85, and I-285. The lack of connectivity in the Midtown area is divisive as it limits travel from one side of the Connector to the other and ruins the local atmosphere and exchange of ideas. Connecting across this sixteen lane barrier is imperative to the future success of the city of Atlanta. As society moves towards a more sustainable environment focused in pedestrian and public transit, the city …

Scalar Resiliency In The Age Of Disruption, Brandon Aultman

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Natural storm surges and global sea level rise cause devastating effects, whether it’s leaving over a million of residents homeless or dooming an entire

coastline ecosystem with little to no hopes of recovery. Current responsive methods consist the issue of unequal priortization within coastal resiliency

design because of site scalar characteristics. A design that incorporates an equity of attention towards all elements of resiliency will lead to a responsive

solution that can transcend any scale of site. I will begin to analyze the elements of effective resiliency; adaptation, affordability, community, sustainability

and customization, in order to provide a balanced solution …

Compelling Interactions, Zimbulus T. Nixon

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture can unite cultural diversity through means of communication via spatial orientation. Spatial and sensory experience are key components in developing spaces that can compel interaction. By fusing communication and architecture, a complex international airport terminal can transform into a structure that supports the notion of communication and interaction between people.

Healing Architecture: Engagement, Nature, Community, Antonio D. Hinson, Antonio D. Hinson

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

My thesis focused on exploring death as a part of life rather than looking at death as a separate entity. I reframed a Cancer Center that engaged life as part of a community with nature rather than a hospice center that embraced death. In today’s society, healthcare institutions are very isolated and disconnected from the public like gated communities. Most people I know do not like to go to hospitals if they can prevent it. I felt there needed to be a place where people with cancer could go that offered some respite from the conventional healthcare institutions. A place …