Architecture Commons^™

Re-Forming Prison: Better Mental Health Through Progressive Penitentiary Design, Emily Lodato

Architecture Senior Theses

Prisons are intended to both punish and inform their inhabitants. Complicating this task are the 21.7% of inmates who have serious mental health issues. Most contemporary experts claim that addressing mental health challenges in a progressive manner in prison will promote better results in terms of reduced recidivism through improved therapeutic techniques that foster an enhanced level of general humane-ness in the day to day management of penitentiaries. This thesis can be used as a methodology for rethinking community development and the promotion of mental health through architecture.

Energy Modeling And Implementation Of Complex Building Systems, Pt. 3, Kurt Rogler

Architecture Senior Theses

Complex/dynamic systems and technologies are gaining traction in architecture, but accurate analysis and simulation of conflicting dynamic systems within a building model has yet to be achieved. Most ideas of analysis and simulation revolve around a set process: model one instance of a building (i.e. without changing parameters) and analyze in a separate program. The use of a parametric base for analysis/simulation plugins, as well as an easily manipulatable and responsive model would not only further the accuracy of testing the effects of multiple dynamic systems, but become a new tool that merges model, behavior, analysis and simulation to strive …

Energy Modeling And Implementation Of Complex Building Systems, Pt. 2, Kurt Rogler

Architecture Senior Theses

Complex/dynamic systems and technologies are gaining traction in architecture, but accurate analysis and simulation of conflicting dynamic systems within a building model has yet to be achieved. Most ideas of analysis and simulation revolve around a set process: model one instance of a building (i.e. without changing parameters) and analyze in a separate program. The use of a parametric base for analysis/simulation plugins, as well as an easily manipulatable and responsive model would not only further the accuracy of testing the effects of multiple dynamic systems, but become a new tool that merges model, behavior, analysis and simulation to strive …

Blind Spot, Andrea Macias-Yanez

Architecture Senior Theses

Negotiating between the physical and software means mediating perception, therefore physical space is defined by endo-perception and software space by exo-perception. This project investigates the temporary singularity of a frozen moment. Through means of motion Blind Spot will reveal unalienable, hidden software algorithms, stripping off what is not comprehensible and feed back the output back into the process of creating architectural speculation.

An Architecture Of Dimensions 2d»3d»4d»Et Cetera, Pt. 2, Tiffany Montañez

Architecture Senior Theses

As humans, we see, view, and understand spaces and the representation of space via images. It is natural for humans to have a preconceived notion of existing conditions based on expectation, mental record, and previous experience. This thesis explores the dimensional potential in architecture of the mis-representation of space through illusory, mischievous and precocious means. This is an architecture that questions one’s perspective, perception and placement.

This intentional and productive miscommunication of architecture happens through the creation of the drawing and model simultaneously with strategic but not comprehensive alignments to create an expected image in the mind of the viewer …

The Spatial Implications Of Creative Collaboration Spaces, Omal-Hoda Kassim

Architecture Senior Theses

Architecturally influenced, specialized spaces for storytelling disciplines will create a place of collective learning that promotes social interaction and creative cross pollination. Multifunctional spaces that use architecture to target the social dimension may become a vehicle for testing this contention. The vehicle would be a ‘storytelling incubator space’ that will specialize in film/animation/comics and other storytelling medium, thus resulting in a multi-use space that’s purpose is to create a place of collective learning. Using architecture as a motivator, the space would have highly specific workstations with spatial elements that would directly influence workflow and collaboration between students/people.

Thick Matters: De-Optimizing Infrastructural Redundancies, Pt. 2, Marco Ravini

Architecture Senior Theses

Closed system design methodologies have produced infrastructures that anticipate only a single lifetime use. This approach has burdened many urban areas with defective infrastructures in need of perpetual modification and repair. Rather than continue to over-engineer these vital frameworks to resist the inevitable failure of individual components, the next generation of public infrastructure needs to exceed its

technical specifications and seek ways to create spatial reciprocity among systems. This thesis calls for a renewed understanding of redundancy in order to strategically infuse infrastructure with public agency and diverse utility. Such an approach has the potential to yield greater systemic outputs …

Variable Tectonics: The Project Of The Jig, Steven O'Hara

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis is an investigation into how the means of fabrication and construction influence architectural design. This study intends to question existing relationships between design and making, by proposing that the designer approach the field of tectonics through the lens of the process of jigging. This paper will outline theoretical and practical foundations of such a study by (1) analyzing how the architect engages with construction by looking at the divisions and operations of professional practice of architecture. The analysis will continue by (2) defining the process of jigging, looking into where jigging sits in the practices of fabrication, and …

Thick Matters: De-Optimizing Infrastructural Redundancies, Pt. 1, Marco Ravini

Architecture Senior Theses

Closed system design methodologies have produced infrastructures that anticipate only a single lifetime use. This approach has burdened many urban areas with defective infrastructures in need of perpetual modification and repair. Rather than continue to over-engineer these vital frameworks to resist the inevitable failure of individual components, the next generation of public infrastructure needs to exceed its

technical specifications and seek ways to create spatial reciprocity among systems. This thesis calls for a renewed understanding of redundancy in order to strategically infuse infrastructure with public agency and diverse utility. Such an approach has the potential to yield greater systemic outputs …

Field Urbanism: Collective Form And The City, Pt. 3, Ann O'Connell

Architecture Senior Theses

This project employs a tactical approach to the design process. Spatial patterns and local relationships regulate form and program to facilitate these hybrid social constructions. The development of field elements re-organizes in terms of interrelationships and functions, creating infinite possible combinatory logics in the evolution of the neighborhood. These logics negotiate the threshold between figure and field, accommodating programmatic indeterminacy with architectural specificity to thicken and intensify, producing an alternative "collective" urbanism.

Field Urbanism: Collective Form And The City, Pt. 1, Ann O'Connell

Architecture Senior Theses

This project employs a tactical approach to the design process. Spatial patterns and local relationships regulate form and program to facilitate these hybrid social constructions. The development of field elements re-organizes in terms of interrelationships and functions, creating infinite possible combinatory logics in the evolution of the neighborhood. These logics negotiate the threshold between figure and field, accommodating programmatic indeterminacy with architectural specificity to thicken and intensify, producing an alternative "collective" urbanism.

Perfomance Pedagogy, Dana Hareli

Architecture Senior Theses

The term “performance pedagogy” refers to a method of instruction in which the role of the instructor is one of a scholar-performer in a subverted classroom, implicating notions of theatricality and spectatorship. Evolving from the notion of the architect as a patron-master of an atelier to that of a generalist within a craftsmen workshop, contemporary architectural education practices should foster the notion of the architect as a scholar-performer through performance-based learning. However, current formal and spatial configurations of the architectural studio inhibit the potential for theatrical interplay and improved learning. The deterioration of performance pedagogy in contemporary educational practices, fostering …

The Meat You Haven't Met, Pt. 1, Rebecca Soja

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that architecture can be a tool for exposing the social, environmental, economic, and political problems caused by industrial beef production and excessive cultural consumption of beef in order to promote meaningful change. A narrative is established in which a fictitious beef corporation seeks the expertise of an architect to design a Transparency Tour as part of a green washing campaign. However, while the intent of the corporation is to mislead consumers to gain loyalty, the architect seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the system and expose realities that would have remained hidden. Subversive design interventions within three stops …

The Meat You Haven't Met, Pt. 2, Rebecca Soja

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that architecture can be a tool for exposing the social, environmental, economic, and political problems caused by industrial beef production and excessive cultural consumption of beef in order to promote meaningful change. A narrative is established in which a fictitious beef corporation seeks the expertise of an architect to design a Transparency Tour as part of a green washing campaign. However, while the intent of the corporation is to mislead consumers to gain loyalty, the architect seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the system and expose realities that would have remained hidden. Subversive design interventions within three stops …

The Meat You Haven't Met, Pt. 5, Rebecca Soja

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that architecture can be a tool for exposing the social, environmental, economic, and political problems caused by industrial beef production and excessive cultural consumption of beef in order to promote meaningful change. A narrative is established in which a fictitious beef corporation seeks the expertise of an architect to design a Transparency Tour as part of a green washing campaign. However, while the intent of the corporation is to mislead consumers to gain loyalty, the architect seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the system and expose realities that would have remained hidden. Subversive design interventions within three stops …

The Experiences Of African-Born Women Faculty And Administrators At Colleges And Universities In The United States, Oyibo H. Afoaku

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to document the experiences of African-born women faculty and administrators at colleges and universities in the United States. The study explored the factors that motivated African-born women to immigrate to and extend their stay in the United States beyond completion of their education; factors they perceive as constraint on their quest for self-empowerment and identity as foreign students, college instructors, and/or administrators, and parents; and factors that have enabled them to adapt to their host culture and achieve their educational and professional goals even though they had to contend with multiple challenges associated with …

The Critical Vernacular Component A Material Exploration Mississippi River Basin, Louisiana, Nathaniel Frank

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Temporal St. Louis: From The Invisible City To A Vision Of Futurity, Samuel Thomas Boyster

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

What begins as a study of temporalities in St. Louis' architecture condenses first into a presentation of the relationships within the city which reveal conflations of different scales, durations, and structures of time as a synthesized, annotated drawing. The study then focuses on four projective drawings exploring the production of diachronic time in a megastructure connected into St. Louis. The study reveals opportunities for persistence in plan and section of the city framework even as buildings within are built and torn down. What begins as a study of temporalities in St. Louis' architecture condenses first into a presentation of the …

Visceral Space: Dissection And Michelangelo's Architecture, Chloe Costello

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the architectural work of Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti, who, perhaps, is better known for his painting and sculpture than for his architecture. Nevertheless, his buildings are revered by architectural historians, such as James Ackerman, for their mimicry of bodily motion and emotion. Under the influence of Renaissance humanism, it was not uncommon for architects to validate their designs by reference to the human body, for example, basing the dimensions of a basilica on ideal bodily proportions. But, Michelangelo's approach in his earliest architectural designs, such as the Medici Chapel (1521-1524) and the Laurentian Library (1523-1525) in …

Ndërtesa Edukative-Banimore- Qerdhe-Kopësht Për Fëmijë, Evelina Nushi

Theses and Dissertations

Ky punim diplome është një përmbyllje e studimit themelor në Universitetin për Biznes dhe Teknologji , departamenti i Arkitekturës dhe Planifikimit Hapësinor. Përzgjedhja e temës “Ndërtesë edukative – banimore ” është bërë nga dëshira për të projektuar një objekt të tillë për së pari herë dhe të njoftohem me rregullat dhe kërkesat e projektimit të këtij objekti edhe pse kopshti i fëmijëve është i njohur për të gjithë ne qysh në fëmijëri të hershme . Njeriu që nga fillet e para të jetesës ka filluar të njihet me atë që e rrethon , ambientin , njerëzit , natyrën etj. Është …