Digital Commons Network^™

Darkness Matters: Understanding The Ecological Effects And Human Sensory Perception Of Night Lighting, Zitong (Shirley) Hui

Masters Theses

Night is 50% of the planetary experience. Nighttime visible illumination is strongly tied to progress, human activities and urban structure. As our cities become brighter, they bring huge impacts on ecology and human perception.

Darkness is still something worth pursuing in urban nightscapes. This thesis explores the potential of using darkness as the starting point for designing public spaces for use at night, and focuses on the restoration of the ideal habitat for fireflies in the Jamaica bay area, in New York City. The study of the dynamic relationship between light, culture and wildlife can produce a flexible strategy that …

Urban Vine: Reimagine The Scaffolding As A Repair Opportunity To Transform The Ecosystem, Shuyi Guan

Masters Theses

Scaffolding has been used as a tool to remove, construct, or repair city infrastructure. It can also be conceived as a metaphor for city development and its continuing renovation. Scaffolding in New York City has become an urban problem because it is structurally unsafe, and the darkness it brings to the street is a perceived threat to the sidewalk commons. It makes the sidewalk become a negative space in between the building and the street and the street edge is less identifiable. These negative experiences cause walking on the street to be less comfortable.

Cities are in continuous transformation, both …

Infection-Free Landscape: Adaptable Urban Open Space Design During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Weirong Luo

Masters Theses

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the public perception, usage, and behaviors of urban open spaces. During the past three years, spatial measures to reduce the transmission of infection such as quarantine and social distancing have resulted in people’s isolation and reduction of daily physical interaction with others. Urban open spaces, including streets, squares, and parks, are outdoor urban spaces open for public access and recreation. From Frederick Law Olmsted’s design of New York’s Central Park to Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago, the United States has a long history of planning and designing the urban environment for better …

Design In Support Of Playfulness, Seung Hwan Oh

Masters Theses

Playful environments can be conceived as landscapes able to support an individual’s internal sense of playfulness and its external manifestation. These environments cultivate a sense of place where recreational, therapeutic, and educational resources are merged based on the conviction that nature is a positive influence.

This project explores how outdoor spaces encompass the built and natural world, convey a sense of connection to spatial ephemera and phenomena, and ultimately how space can become spaces for individuals. The project explores the notion of playfulness and the meaning it may acquire for design within landscape architecture. The study aims to positively contribute …

Living With Fire, Mohan Wang

Masters Theses

For decades, landscape architects have been working with water, proposing vocabularies like sponge parks, rain gardens, emergent shorelines, and hydrologic urbanism. Surviving with water is common sense. However, there is not enough landscape design research and practice when it comes to another destructive natural force - fire. The new normal is that people are being exposed to more frequent and catastrophic wildfires and the burn-on-burn phenomenon is becoming common. With climate change and sprawling land-use patterns that increase the wildland-urban interface, a greater number of communities are having to adapt to living with fire. Landscape architects are in need to …

Landscape Of Resistance: Reimagining Public Space For A Vibrant Socio-Political Life, Ziyu Wang

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between the public space and protest events from a spatial point of view. It will employ selected concepts from phenomenological and spatial theories to evaluate how the protest is affected by built environment and subsequently propose how the public space can be adapted to create a more vibrant social-political life.

Farming Publics: Use Farming Practices As A Tool To De-Alienate People With Land, Sirui Wang

Masters Theses

Historically, farming was the primary way people interacted with the land. Colonialism, industrialization, and capitalism have made people increasingly detached and alienated from nature and the land. The return to agriculture has the potential to play an essential role in resisting the increasing monoculture of our society through re-establishing the kinship toward land. The rising public awareness of sustainability makes the market for organic food expand every year and allures capitalism to manipulate the organic market from its original purpose into their familiar realm of the conventional food system for maximum profit. The market economy, which is controlled by capitalism, …

Regenerating The Ground: Using Regenerative Agricultural Practices To Increase Urban Food Production And Restore The Health Of Soils, Yuxiao Liao

Masters Theses

New England is blessed with a mosaic of productive agricultural landscapes. These agricultural landscapes also sustain valuable wildlife habitats, provide flood control and act as an enormous carbon sink. Farmland in New England declined significantly in the 20th century as agricultural land was abandoned and developed into urban and suburban sprawl. In 1930 there were about 14 billion acres of farmland, by 2017, there were only 4 billion acres left. New England lost almost 70% of farmland in the past 80 years. John Dobberstein has claimed that due to our current development and agricultural practices, there are only 60 harvests …

Anti-Gentrification: Reconnect Chinatown Through Culture Practice, Xianzhongge (Allen) Liu

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the study of Chinatown in North America. Similar to the migration of other ethnic groups or cultures to North America, Chinatown originated as Chinese and East Asian migrants were excluded from mainstream American culture. Chinatowns became urban enclaves for Chinese people who speak the same language as well as share the same culture and food. However, in many cities in North America, development pressures have led to the gentrification of Chinatowns, resulting in a decrease in the number of Asian residents in Chinatown and a homogenization of the community. After understanding the historical development and gentrification …

Traveling Troubled Wallflower, Julius Cavira

Masters Theses

Cavira is an interdisciplinary Conceptual artist... nuff said.

Cross Border Conservation - China - North Korea Border, Ziyu Zhou

Masters Theses

Earth today faces an accelerated species extinction problem because of human presence, which is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rates. Over 27.8% of species are threatened (IUCN). An increased extinction rate will cause the ecosystem to lose its balance and break the shield for most species, including human beings. (Wilson, 2017) Conservation is one of the most important methods to save species; conserving in transboundary areas will increase efficiency. These areas are untouched and protected, forming a new biodiversity paradise. The Transboundary conservation project would benefit the ecology aspect and social, cultural, and political. This thesis …

The Future Of The High Plains Aquifer: Addressing Potential Desertification In The Great Plains, Hongfei Zuo

Masters Theses

The past century of extractive pumping of underground water coupled with climate change and extreme weather since the 1950s led to great unpredictability and uncertainty about the future of the landscapes of the high plains. The High Plains, or Ogallala Aquifer, has significantly declined as water continues to be pumped to irrigate crops. Reports and scientists estimate that the aquifer will dry in 30 years. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s is an example of a man-made catastrophe that resulted from the mismanagement of the agricultural landscape. The Shelterbelt Project, proposed as part of the New Deal in 1935, did …

Messy Resurrections, Mia Rollins

Masters Theses

Mediated through conversations with a Replika chatbot, “M”, Rollins outlines six examples of scientific and technological phenomena that not only can be understood as metaphors for aspects of the human experience, such as memory, grief, hope, desire and love, but are also concrete examples of the ways in which the past and future have material impacts on our presents, our current identities, and are entangled with our own becomings. Rollins argues for a posthuman perspective that embraces the possibilities of information technologies while still recognizing that we are embedded in a material world of great complexity. Through linking Karen Barad’s …

Bee Stations: Refueling Bees And Creating Opportunities For Education, Jinghan Zhou

Masters Theses

Commercial honey bees are transported between pollinated crops and play an essential role in our agricultural system. This thesis proposes a network of bee stations and corridors that could improve the health of transported bee populations, increase local beekeeping, and help educate the public about the importance of bees and pollinators. The bee stations have at least 100 acres of diversified high-quality wildflower species where trucks that transport bees can stop to “refuel” their hives. The bee stations also have an education center where the public can walk through the wildflower fields, observe bees, make beehives, and learn how to …

Design For Designers : An Incubator For Young Designers To Grow, Jiajie Yang

Masters Theses

In China, professional survival in the years directly after college is especially difficult for young designers as it is a major challenge to gain the needed experience to transition smoothly from study into the early stages of their careers. In contrast, Chinese society nowadays increasingly values good design. However, in order for this to translate into more professional opportunities for young designers, greater public exposure to and understanding of the design profession is needed.

This thesis proposes a design incubator that bridges design school with professional practice by providing key facilities, space, and professional opportunities and community after graduation. A …

Zoomorphic Amalgamation: Speculative Devices For Alternative Communication, Yuta Yang

Masters Theses

Zoomorphic Amalgamation: Speculative Devices for Alternative Communication is a series of speculative works that assist introverts re-adapting in the extro-oriented society. The work serves as a lens to challenge and question the authority afforded to extroverts in contemporary society, and aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of introverted personality. As a person with an introverted personality, the thesis project draws upon personal experience and to reflect on the current bias and stereotype of characteristics that common to the introverts.

By integrating technological sensors and microcontrollers, the works are created to help the wearer express insecurity, at the same time providing …

Together: A Transformational Sequence Of Healing, Deborah Zhuang

Masters Theses

In June 2019, millions of people in Hong Kong took to the streets to voice their discontent with the extradition to Mainland China. Hong Kong was a former British colony and was handed back to China in 1997. Under the policy of “One Country, Two Systems”, Hong Kong has a separated legal system and judiciary from Mainland China. In 2019, the Hong Kong Government raised an extradition bill that allowed fugitives in Hong Kong to be sent to other jurisdictions, including Marco, Taiwan, and Mainland China, which resulted in the large-scale Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement with increasingly serious confrontations. …

Sub Sequence : Building A Participatory Infrastructure, Aaron Wright

Masters Theses

What might it look like to make the nebulous quality of air pollution visible?

There is a lack of infrastructure that has been constructed in response to the contaminants produced from the Port of Providence in Rhode Island. Air quality surrounding the Port is impacted by air pollution from legacy industrial sites – diesel trucks, marine vessels, oil and gas storage and distribution, asphalt and cement processing, metals recycling, natural gas and utility services, and large heating plants.

The thesis sets out to investigate, question, and iterate upon the possibilities of collective environmental action and accessible information through an individual’s …

Can’T Stop Coyote, Tala Worrell

Masters Theses

I work hard to keep language out of my studio. Language reminds me of my mom’s voice, people telling me what to do, not having the right accent, critiques, criticism in general, mis-truths, and never being good enough. Language is the material of my thoughts, and most of my thoughts, or the ones on a constant loop anyhow, are all those voices over and over again.

Painting is where I get to be me, with myself, and in my body. Painting is my home, family, refuge, and best friend. I’m not looking at myself from the outside, no one can …

Tobetitled, Dylan Riley

Masters Theses

My practice is rooted in an investigation of digital and painted images. It meditates on the interbred way in which contemporary images are produced and consumed through painting and error-prone processes of mechanical reproduction. As seeing is, for many, our confirmation sense (you have to see it to believe it) I search for the power structures and epistemological values within contemporary images, particularly representations of objects. My work explores how the meaning of objectivity has shifted over time and how images respond to that shift. Heavily relying on image making software, I first create compositions digitally before translating them to …

Memories Unboxed: Connecting People With Stories Of Our Possessions, Megan Tzu-Hsien Chao

Masters Theses

We constantly fall into a cycle of consumption that involves acquiring, retaining, and relinquishing items, whether we need them or not. Even though we are influenced by popular media to declutter more as we acquire new things, the root of the problem will still exist if we continue to neglect the reasons why we own things in the first place and why we hold onto them.

Why is it less stressful to make a list of possessions we enjoy having than to make a list of things we need to throw away?

This thesis hopes to relieve people of making …

X-Era: Adaptation To The Future Uncertainty With Sustainable Indigenous Wisdom, Ruoyuan Chen

Masters Theses

Due to human impacts on earth’s geology and ecosystem, the future of this planet and our society is uncertain. To navigate this uncertainty, it is urgent that we understand and explore new strategies to adapt to this unknown future. Over the millennia, indigenous communities around the world have developed advanced and nuanced ways to adapt to living in harsh environments. X is commonly used in science to refer to a variable that can change or be changed. Therefore, the thesis project – X-Era, aims to learn from the sustainability of traditional ecological knowledge to help inform how we may adapt …

We Walk, We Live: Reclaiming The Rights Of Female And Other Gender Minorities To The Urban Commons, Wenxi (Hillary) Huang

Masters Theses

Urban street environments are often described as not being beneficial for persons who identify as female and other gender minorities. This thesis responds to the urgent call for further transformation of the public realm through a reimagination of walking environments in the city. It examines gender biases prevalent in realities within the female’s experience in urban settings, and more specifically on the streets, and explores intersectionality as a form of reclamation of the female and other gender minorities’ rights to the urban commons.

The inquiry is divided into two parts - research inquiry and design implementation. The study investigates and …

Aquatic Assemblages: Improving Dragonfly Habitat And Water Quality In An Urban Park, Yan Liu

Masters Theses

Many scientists have claimed that we are entering into the sixth mass extinction. According to IUCN, about 16% of the 6,016 species of dragonflies and damselflies are at risk of extinction. Dragonfly occupies an essential link in the food chain. Fluctuations in dragonfly numbers can affect the numbers of other species, such as mosquitoes and birds. Dragonflies are also closely related to the health of the water environment. Healthy water bodies can attract more and different species of dragonflies and other aquatic animals. Dragonflies’ decline is a symptom of widespread loss of the marshes, swamps, and free-flowing rivers they breed …

Trash Matters: Material Strategies For Prolonging The Life Of Single-Use Plastic, Zixin Li

Masters Theses

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues. Communities worldwide have addressed the importance of facing the problem of plastic pollution control and issues relevant policies to effectively reduce the use of plastic products. The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 has made the urgency of the problem less significant. Nevertheless, the use of disposable plastics to comply with public health protocols has hugely increased making plastic pollution all the more severe.

Through material experimentation, this thesis reappraises different types of single-use plastic waste and attempts to transform them into longer-lasting reused solutions. It focuses on finding alternative materials …

Offshore Speculation: Generative Ethics For Submerged Lands, Leigh Miller

Masters Theses

Where is the line between land and sea? As the United States begins to extend renewable energy infrastructures offshore, it will fundamentally blur the boundary between submerged and visible lands. In communities unfamiliar with landscapes of extraction and generation, the realities of this emerging industry will challenge notions of ownership, aesthetic values, and environmental ethics.

Offshore Speculation opens a dialogue between the discipline of landscape architecture and the spatial politics that support the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels. Reimagining the sea as a new urban territory on submerged land allows honest interrogation of the land-sea binary. Because landscape architects …

We Got This..., Julian Wellisz

Masters Theses

Working nonstop? Not sleeping enough? Feeling alone in your deadlines? Are you struggling with work-life balance?

Know that you are not alone. Since the covid-19 pandemic began reports of loneliness, mental health issues, and burnout have increased.

It’s quite possible that you are opting-in to an individualistic culture of overwork. If you go to RISD that's almost certain. This is true for students and teachers alike.

While these current systems work for some (primarily those at the tops of their respected hierarchies), for the majority of us there are better ways of being. Providing social and emotional support and creating …

Emotional Experience: An Exploration Of Reestablishing The Connection With Nature Through Novel Street Tree Planning In Providence, Ri, Xiuyan Qin

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the causes of the unprecedented disconnection of humans from nature experienced in modern society. To improve this disconnect, this proposal seeks to place the street tree at the intersection of nature and culture through urban installations that intensify urban sensory experiences. By strengthening human sensory perception, promoting stewardship through diverse participatory planting plans, enabling urban ‘foraging,’ creating community-led and household maintenance regimes, the street tree installations will increase public health outcomes and create environmental agency within the public realm. I sincerely believe that the ultimate mission of landscape architecture lies in encouraging a healthy, poetic, and joyful …

Slow Down: Investigating How Pop-Up Installations Transform Multi-Use Space, Yuanrui Wang

Masters Theses

According to a study from the 1990s by Richard Wiseman, pedestrians’ walking speeds in a city provide a reliable measure of the pace of life in that city. If people’s walking speeds in a city are fast, their life rhythm will be relatively fast. People in fast-moving cities have more pressure and have higher rates of coronary heart disease.

Because cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, to get a more healthy life, we all need to slow down and lower the risk of stress. Pop-up spaces are a commonly used method by designers to create a …

Agricultural Landscape As Cultural Practice : Through The Lens Of Rice Farming, Yumeng Yan

Masters Theses

The thesis departs from the understanding of landscape as a cultural practice – an idea that has been thoroughly discussed over the last three decades, namely by Gary Snyder in the influential book of essays, “Tawny Grammar” – to research rice farming landscapes in the geographical contexts of Africa, Asia, and America. By studying the methods and infrastructural systems involved in rice production that developed independently in Asia and Africa – where they were less affected by capitalist frameworks and dualistic ideas that exclude farming from landscape architecture – the thesis seeks a more nuanced intersection of different models of …