Architecture Commons^™

Collective Consumption : A Game For Living, Zachary Rochman

Masters Theses

“The time-lapse fluctuation of our societal floor plan has accelerated. Now you can almost watch the walls go up and down in real time.” -Rem Koolhaas, Elements

There is an efficient and beneficial way to collectively consume resources, but our houses and apartments do not function this way. The commons still exist, but their locations are sparse and specific. What if we established communal spaces that connect private dwellings and blur the lines between them? What new responsibilities and freedoms would arise? If we establish new commons and new abilities to share spaces and resources, we can help alleviate the …

In Between Forces, Jungyun Lee

Masters Theses

In order to live, humans make buildings in nature and live in there. This fact has not changed since the birth of mankind. It means to live in a certain space, because a medium of building is necessary for man to survive safely in nature. Based on these mediators mankind has been living. In addition, villages and cities were created and continued to grow in size. As a result, the building, which is the mediator, has been different in shape and size. In an expanding city, are city and nature now balanced? How do we balance it? How can we …

Tsirik - Fold The Leaves So That Others May Be Guided: A Study Of How The Bribri Women Are Preserving Their Culture To Ensure A Sustainable Future For Their Community, Emily R. Blau

Capstone Collection

Bananas are one of Costa Rica’s largest exports, along with coffee, palm oil, and cocoa. The banana plantations are large-scale, are most often run by multinational companies, and are considered to be run as enclave economies (Equal Exchange, 2016). This monoculture crop production has been globally accused of human rights abuses said to include, but not be limited to, violating the rights of indigenous people and loss in culture and tradition. For this paper, I studied the effects that large-scale agricultural corporations have on the BriBri, a matriarchal and indigenous group who live on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. …

Rebuilding Silicon Valley - An Assessment Of The Silicon Valley Corporate Campus And The Potential For Suburban Sustainability, Eden Lindeman

Master's Projects and Capstones

Silicon Valley is the San Francisco Bay Area’s economic powerhouse and is herald for its innovation and success. However, Silicon Valley’s urban design is unsustainable and characterized by remote and large corporate campuses that contribute to job sprawl and heavy traffic congestion. Many of the buildings are also not performing at an efficient level and are due for deep overhauls to cut back energy consumption and costs. The inevitable effects of climate change continue to loom large over the world, heightening the importance for the built environment to be reformed into an environment that can mitigate and adapt to climate …

The Impact Of Housing Insecurity On Community Health Outcomes: Exploring Collective Community Solutions And Housing Models In The Western Addition, Jacqueline V. Brown, Jacqueline Victoria Brown

Master's Projects and Capstones

In a city where housing is scarce and prices continue to rise, the lower income residents of the Western Addition are in panic. Historically, the Western Addition/Fillmore is ground zero for Urban Renewal. This community is still bouncing back from the negative effects of the out migration of Black residents, Japanese internment, and rapid gentrification. For twenty years, this part of the city was known as Harlem of the West due to its world-renowned Jazz and Blues composers, and is informally known as “Tha ‘Mo”. San Francisco has set the tone nationally for public, mixed income, and private housing that …

2016 "Meeting Of The Minds" Research Symposium Abstracts

OSRI Journal of Student Research and Innovation

No abstract provided.

Artificial Islands In The South China Sea, Aaron Holmes

OSRI Journal of Student Research and Innovation

The purpose of this study was to understand the value and implications of artificial islands constructed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the South China Sea. Qualitative analysis was used with the available literature, sources, and treaties of the topics concerned. The paper concludes that the PRC gains many benefits primarily within the realm of energy security and explores what effects they may

The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships: Helen Of Troy In The Poetry Of Atwood And Tufts, Alea Walstrom

OSRI Journal of Student Research and Innovation

This paper considers the transformation of Greek myth over time, how character’s attributes change over time, and ultimately how contemporary poets employ these myths. The myth of focus in the paper is that of Helen of Troy and the depiction of her character throughout the many years and variations of the myth. Her character is then considered in the contemporary feminist poetry of Carol Tufts and Margaret Atwood.

Aging-In-Place Home Modification: Led Lamp Color Temperature Preference Among Adults, Laura J. Maher Mrs.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated LED color temperature preference and effectiveness in a task light setting for older adults with a comparison to younger adults. Test subjects included visually active adults, male and female, from 19 years to 96 years of age. The researcher tested one hundred participants from several test sites. The researcher ascertained conclusions based on the correlations of age, gender, visual acuity, time of day, and visual medical conditions to LED preference. A tunable lamp with four correlated color temperatures (CCT/K), 2700K, 3500K, 4100K, and 5000K was analyzed using timed and graded, reading and number comparison tasks. Lumen output …

The Cost Of Direct And Indirect Potable Water Reuse In A Medium Sized Inland Community, Jason Glenn Herman

Architecture and Planning ETDs

In the face of increasing population, development pressures, and climate change, many regions around the world face freshwater shortages. Planned potable water reuse can improve sustainability and reliability of water supplies by providing drinking water from wastewater. Most potable reuse research has focused on large coastal communities with relatively high mean household incomes. However, the US Department of Interior predicts that “hot spots” of conflict over water in the arid West are “highly likely” in numerous small-to-medium-sized inland communities with low-to-moderate household income levels. Potable reuse options may be different for larger, wealthier coastal communities as compared to small-to-medium-sized inland …

A Study Of The Adaptation Of Parametric Computer Design Among Landscape Architecture Professionals In Texas, Chad Allen Paulson

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses - Archive

Parametric design utilizes algorithmic-based software to produce computational, generative, responsive, and immersive three-dimensional models for use in landscape architecture, planning, and architecture (Cantrell & Holzman, 2016; Jabi, 2013). Advanced parametric software tools such as Rhinoceros and Grasshopper combine to create a robust system to express a set of customizable parameters that define and clarify the design intent and set of iterative solutions to a design problem (Jabi, 2013). Although parametric design in architecture has been in use for over 15 years, it has not been broadly adopted by the field of landscape architecture. Current professional practices illustrate that software development …

Speculations On A City For Mars, Edouard Terzis

School of Architecture - Theses

This thesis proposes the reinterpretation of architectural forms as the index of the constitution of the idea of the city. “Speculations on a City on Mars” is paradoxical in a sense as it superposes both the managerial representation of a city, that is Zoning, along with the speculative aspect of an extra-terrestrial city.

The Glocal Creation Of Space: Paru Paru’S Youth Casting Their Own Futures, Teresa M. Drenten

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis illustrates the active participation of Indigenous children in the creation of space intersecting across multiple scales. I engaged with critical decolonial theories to create a community based participatory process with eleven bilingual Quechua-Spanish children in Paru Paru, Peru. My methodology focuses on the desires of the community, concentrating on their lived experiences and honoring the community’s challenges and resiliency. This research and knowledge belong to the community. Through small group and observation methods, these young participants demonstrated two desires; First, they want to remain connected to their lands and cosmology; next, they wish to receive the benefits from …

Ideology V. Reality: The Tiny House Movement In America, Taylor Pierce

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Raaxo: A Post-Refugee Landscape, Bailey M. Riales

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

raaxo: a post-refugee landscape

sited in dadaab, kenya // raaxo is a transformation of the current landscape that works with harsh conditions of sun and wind to provide spaces of dwelling and gathering, improving refugee comfort by initiating a sense of community. tall, mechanical screens protect against the strong desert winds, while also creating a build-up of sand. overtime, the sand build-up forms an exterior barrier around the community and dwelling spaces, and creates a façade on the interior. Other designed screens are placed opposite the formed community spaces, providing shade from the desert sun for the refugees. throughout the …

[Un]Known Lines, Kimberly M. Faber

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

An exploration of the innate changes of the passing of time, was accomplished first by investigating nature’s way of documenting time through layers within ice cores in Antarctica and then through the design of architectural interventions that marked and documented the passing of time through the D.C. area on the National Mall through an exchange of storytelling. Theses interventions began to change + manipulate + document buildings in the D.C. area. The information was sent back to the National Mall and later the information (story) was sent to yet another area.

Living Tiny Legally, James G. Rollin

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Over the last 40 years, the average new United States house has increased in size by more than 1,000 square feet, from an average size of 1,660 square feet in 1973 (earliest year available from the Census Bureau) to 2,687 square feet last year (Perry, 2016). In that same time period, there was a 91% increase in home square footage per inhabitant and a decrease in average household size. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average home in the United States costs approximately $358,000 to build, an increase of roughly $200,000 since 1998. Meanwhile, the average annual income in …

The Broadsheet May 6, 2017, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

The Broadsheet was a short-lived student newspaper published in 2017. The May 6, 2017 issue was the first and contained articles on the Social Equity Action plan developed in the wake of the "Not Your Token" protests, random facts about RISD, Project Open Door (POD), faculty member Jung Joon Lee, previous student newspapers from the RISD Archives, the European Honors Program, facts about the RISD student body, a student music club on campus, how Mike Fink saved Carr Haus, and other items of interest.

Wal-Seum, Maya Chandler

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Designed as a museum of contemporary American history, Wal-seum proposes a new prototype museum that re-presents the commodities of today’s America as historical and cultural artifacts of our time. The museum’s design also borrows from the spatial and organizational techniques of Wal-mart, a place that so many Americans visit time and time again, and which is truly American architecture.

In the final proposal, each department of Wal-mart becomes redesigned as an exhibit in the museum, showcasing ordinary objects, taking cues from the cultural agendas of those items, and calling into question the values therein (i.e. the endless cycle of comparison …

Migrant Archives, Byronaé Lewis

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Migrant Archive is the cultural exploration of what design can be when it intertwines with the depth of ethnographic narratives . No longer allowing stationary boundaries to define where a culture begins and ends, as the space explores the migration patterns between divisions of each neighborhood within a city. The migrant hub works to capture and drop-off memory relics to tell the history of each region. The focus is to understand a culture through design while celebrating the positive and negative aspects within the past that have influenced the current moments.