Architecture Commons^™

Building Services Engineering May/June 2026

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Erosion And Accretion: Mobilities Of Sand, People, And Memory At Queer Riis Beach, Jah Elyse Sayers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The People’s Beach at Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, New York, is a vibrant place of queer and trans public-space placemaking—and especially Black and working class queer and trans placemaking. A distinct queer ecology emerges in the interplay of the dynamic movement of the barrier island, queer and trans—especially queer and trans Afro-diasporic—mobilities. This queer ecology, while articulated with, also defies and exceeds logics and workings of private property. In response to a convergence of pressures on Black, queer, trans, and working-class placemaking on the beach site in the 2020s, beachgoers have mobilized longstanding provisional socialities …

“I Didn’T Know Architects Do This”: Interventions In The Social Reproduction Of The Architect Figure In Ireland., Miriam Delaney

Doctoral

The architect is widely understood as the producer of architectural artefacts: buildings, feasibility studies, drawings, and specifications. However, architects (as a professional collective identity) are themselves produced by the complex matrix of social relations and structural forces in which they act; the architect is as much a product as the architectural artefacts.

This thesis provides a retrospective critical examination of aspects of my work in expanded forms of architectural practice from 2011 to 2021. My Critical Appraisal of this work focuses less on the content or successes of the Outputs, the products of production, and more on their collective contribution …

Advertisement Recognition And Recall In Urban Environments, Carson L. Ambrose

Graphic Communication

Why is it that certain advertisements are so much easier to remember than others? And how can places like Times Square actually be communicating effectivly through the dense amount of different ads? This project aims to get closer to finding out how design and environmental ad density effect advertisement recognition and recall. To capture the real-world feeling of a dense city, a 3D printed one was created to allow for custom testing and various locations meant for displaying custom advertisements. These ads would be created using a variety of design characteristics such as color, hierarchy, composition, typography, and over all …

The U.S. Shopping Mall: Opportunities For Preservation And Transformation Through Adaptive Reuse, Sophia Janzen

University Honors Theses

The U.S. shopping mall, once an integral part of suburban living and community, has slowly disappeared from cities nationwide. What used to be thousands of malls sprinkled throughout America in the 20th century is estimated to be 900 by 2028. A mall's programming of the past is lacking a place in the future, but their architecture leaves a desolate structure in the midst of our cities. Through adaptive reuse, the intentional redevelopment of a preexisting structure, how can malls be thoughtfully revitalized and given a greater purpose within their surroundings?

This research analyzes successful adaptive reuse strategies implemented in few …

News Media Coverage Of Measure Ula: How The Story Of La’S Big Project To Address Homelessness And Affordable Housing Got Sidetracked By The Story Of Big Real Estate, Christopher R. Martin

Faculty Publications

“Measure ULA,” named after United to House LA, was approved by voters in Los Angeles in 2022 to create a dedicated, long-term funding source for solutions to homelessness in LA, including funding the construction of affordable homes and preventing homelessness by helping tenants stay in their homes. The funding would come from a new tax on the most expensive real estate transactions in L.A. (i.e., mansion tax), and would affect fewer than 4% of all property transactions. At the end of three years of local news coverage about Measure ULA from the Los Angeles Times and LAist, the news audience …

City Farm Slo Brooding Box, Jon Travis W. Black

Construction Management

The Brooding Box Project, completed by a California Polytechnic State University Construction Management student, aimed to provide additional chicken housing and secure storage for City Farm SLO, a local nonprofit farm located in San Luis Obispo. Led by Travis Black under the guidance of Shane Lovell, one of the farm’s caretakers, the project combined basic, hands-on construction skills with community service. Using the client’s initial design concept and purchasing the required materials independently, the project focused on durability, functionality, and cost-efficiency. Since the project was self-funded, careful budgeting and material selection were essential to ensure structural integrity while meeting the …

A Review On Credit Card Electronic Fraud Detection Methodologies, Titilayo Mary Sayikanmi, Ibrahim Adepoju Adeyanju, Bolaji Abigail Omodunbi

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Credit card fraud remains a critical and escalating challenge within the global financial ecosystem, driving substantial annual losses and necessitating the continuous evolution of detection methodologies. This paper presents a systematic literature review, conducted via the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework, which comprehensively analyzes the state-of-the-art in electronic credit card fraud detection. Through a rigorous examination of 49 high-quality studies, this review maps the methodological evolution from traditional rulebased systems and statistical models to advanced artificial intelligence techniques, including machine learning, deep learning, and graph-based approaches. The analysis reveals that while individual methods possess distinct advantages …

Adaptive Reuse As Sustainability: Reconciling The Crises Of Functionalism And Environmental Conservation In Copenhagen And San Francisco, Samuel J. Fernandez

Master's Theses

Sustainability is the buzzword for modern global development. In the age of rapidly growing populations, unsustainable building practices, and an ever-present climate crisis, there must be a reorientation in global urban development practices. While experts tend to tout one sustainable initiative as a catch-all solution to the above crises, a multidimensional problem cannot be solved with a one-dimensional approach. In other words, sustainable development can only be achieved through a combination of different practices and approaches. This case study seeks to present adaptive reuse as a viable reaction to the climate crisis, but one that requires a combination of other …

A Stadium In Our Backyard: Community Participation In Stadia Redevelopment Projects, Sofia Zazueta

Master's Theses

The Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Spain and the Chase Center in San Francisco, California are two stadium redevelopment projects that exemplify the stakeholder dynamics that come into play when developers pitch a multipurpose stadium located a few blocks away from people’s backyards. Urban development patterns must be in constant evolution to meet the needs and demands of the current generations. In cities, stadia redevelopment projects have entered the picture to reimagine the role that these structures once played. The stadium once used for the sole purpose of holding matches has become a venue that now hosts different events such as …

Where My Memory Settles, Rachel Kobb

Masters Theses

My memory is blurry but ever present in an atmospheric state. Through my investigations of memory and sensorial experience, this thesis is an attempt to understand how the body recalls the spaces I have spent the most time: my various homes through life.

The output of this thesis is a paper installation that layers and translates spatial qualities of my past homes. The home is not a neutral container, but instead a space that should support a sense of retreat and security. Drawing upon Gaston Bachelard’s zones of experience, I explore how a domestic space is moved through distinct zones. …

Between Nature And Architecture : A Dialogue Of Five Elements, Niexiangyi He

Masters Theses

Rooted in classical Chinese cosmology, the Daoist Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) describe dynamic cycles of mutual generation (sheng)—in which one element produces or supports another—and restraint (ke)—in which elements regulate or limit one another to maintain balance. Rather than a system of symbolic representation, these interactions outline a relational model of equilibrium based on interdependence and continuous transformation. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water can inform a contemporary design framework for interior and architectural practice. It interprets these cycles as a form of spatial logic that guides material selection, structural organization, environmental modulation, and experiential sequencing, …

Soft Bodies, Hard Frames, Emily Zhang

Masters Theses

Silk is delicate yet strong, responsive to light and air, dependent on living processes and careful labor. These qualities position silk not only as a material object, but as an instrument capable of organizing space. Rather than functioning solely as a surface or decorative textile, silk can operate as a spatial generator, shaping enclosure, movement, and environmental conditions.

For centuries, domestic courtyard houses in the Jiangnan region, located south of the Yangtze River, evolved alongside sericulture, forming spaces that were attuned to the environmental and material requirements of silk. Architectural elements such as courtyards, screened openings, flexible interiors, and canal-directed …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Fetishismus:Facism, Sodomy, And The Exhibition, Matthew P. Gershovich

Masters Theses

Fetishismus examines the contemporary dislocation between homosexuality and queerness. Homosexuality is the biological, innate quality of same-sex attraction. Queerness is rooted in deviance, perversion, and sociologically attached to the “other.” Although almost always used in an explicitly homosexual connotation, “queerness” is not entirely contingent on the physical engagement of homosexual acts. In historical usage, queer is used as a pejorative adjective, implying a lack of masculinity with the intent to invoke repulsion. In contemporary parlance the two are treated as synonymous. This intertwined relationship relies on the forced lack of social and spatial belonging that is rooted in a foundational …

The Birdwatching Pause: Reframing Campus Life Through Everyday Bird Encounters, Katherine Zeng

Masters Theses

Birdwatching, typically framed as a leisure pursuit removed from everyday life, becomes here the organizing logic for a three-site campus route of restorative pause. The thesis departs from the assumption that nature must be sought out and instead asks what happens when the birds already present in urban space are made legible through design.

Three existing RISD buildings anchor the project, each organized around a distinct mode of encounter. At Carr Haus Café, a furniture-scaled insertion creates conditions for attentional reset through passive listening rather than active looking. At North Hall, a semi-open balcony garden introduces incidental, distanced contact with …

Returning To The Hand, Tatum Dodd

Masters Theses

Historical preservation is traditionally understood as the act of protecting objects and buildings from change, reinstating and stabilizing the past so they may endure into the future. When preservation seeks to freeze and resolve the past, it separates it from the reality of our multi-layered histories and the traces of labor, repair, and care unfolding across generations. Through a human-centered lens that allows one to touch, uncover, and redefine, we are able to relate to our built environments through an ethical practice of care, inviting new avenues of dialogue and engagement with our past.

Recording traces of the hand within …

Somatic Prosthetics For Planetary Resonance, Disha Dharesh Kumar R

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how industrial design can transcend extractive technological paradigms in favor of relational interfaces that foster planetary attunement. Framing the climate crisis as a 'crisis of imagination', the research challenges the Western bifurcation of nature and culture by drawing on Indic cosmologies- which recognize stones, plants, and ecosystems as conscious at different levels and participants in a shared cosmic field. By synthesizing research in Biosemiotics, Quantum Information Pansycishm, and Neuroscience, the project redefines intelligence as a distributed, more-than-human phenomenon.

The research materializes as a speculative design artifact: a device that functions as a somatic prosthetic for planetary resonance. …

The Amplifier: Small Spaces, Loud Futures, Szewai Hong

Masters Theses

Once nicknamed “Rock City,” Allston, MA has long been a creative hub known for its grassroots music culture. Historically the neighborhood has been home to many independent music spaces, nurturing generations of musicians. Relentless real estate development, the expansion of nearby institutions and ongoing inflation, has made the neighborhood increasingly unaffordable for the creatives and forced many to leave, diluting the once vibrant music community. Simultaneously, the shift toward digital music consumption has contributed to the disappearance of physical spaces where people once gathered to discover, discuss, and experience music collectively.

This thesis responds to these circumstances through an intervention …

The Found Stone Game, Magnolia Moskun

Masters Theses

This is not about masonry. This is stone architecture in constant motion.

I work with found stone in states of precarity, extracting discrete and sometimes surprising functions from each individual rock. Construction relies on physical forces while avoiding standardized building materials and methods.

Uncertainty is inherent. The builder is a perpetual novice, open to unexpected outcomes. Working with irregular stone takes incredible precision: it can’t be entirely planned or designed. The process is an inquiry into the deep physical understanding that can only be gained through hands-on work. This architecture rebels against the apathy in contemporary practice by deviating from …