Digital Commons Network^™

Solastalgic Ecotone: The Critical Zone In Suspension, Bareeq Bahman

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the concept of critical zones of the shoreline to study the littoral ecosystem as a mechanism to unfold multi-scalar approaches to land-water interfaces. The investigation of the littoral is used as a tool to further understand the ground and situate it within wider landscape conditions. It focuses on the zone from the desert to the sea, its natural processes and its many layers that make it into a productive eco-infrastructure, here read through the lens of a critical ecotone where all living organisms interact. A lexicon curated from the study of the ecotone is developed to work …

Blur The Boundaries: An Aerial Coexisting System For Birds And Humans On Rooftops, Yu Fang

Masters Theses

This project takes the relationship between birds and humans in the city as a starting point and raises questions about the characteristics of the ideal relationship between humans and non-humans in the city. After analyzing Manhattan as an example of typical grid cities, an aerial ecosystem on the rooftops is proposed to answer this question and it forms the beginning of future research. As a toolkit project, I propose design strategies that can be applied to many cities by classifying and analyzing the building types and their suitability for avian habitat. Humans are a part of nature, and cities are …

Synthetic Undulation: Improving The Marine Life Quality On The Indonesian Island Of Seleyar, Shreeyaa Shah

Masters Theses

Beginning with a study on the properties and properties of plastic, this thesis examines perspectives and experiences of coastal communities forced to deal with overwhelming quantities of plastic pollution in their waters. With a focus on Indonesia, the second largest plastic polluter in the world, the study examines Selayar island’s vernacular ways of being and making as a possible way to understand and deal with the problems affecting their local marine health. Through different research methods, a complex set of factors are identified besides plastic pollution, including the decline in farming and practices that contribute to overfishing.

Through design investigation, …

Reimagining The Damage: An Exploration On Urban Brownfield Regeneration Strategies, Jun Jiang

Masters Theses

Residents of the Olneyville neighborhood in Providence, RI are at the cusp of being gentrified and forced to relocate. Revitalization of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway and the redevelopment of adjacent neighborhoods such as the West End and Federal Hill are attracting investors' attention on undeveloped post-industrial properties in Olneyville. This study aims to determine how gentrification can be reduced to minimize the impacts on the inhabitants of Olneyville Specifically, it investigates the social and physical conditions and designs potential solutions that can regenerate the urban brownfields in a way that fortifies the neighborhood from gentrification. In this context, "Regenerate" is …

Eco-Waste: Household Waste Material Flows In A Circular Economy, Erqi Meng

Masters Theses

The thesis aims to contextualize household waste on the more complete material flows it belongs to, including reciprocal relations between its landscapes of production and landscapes of landfill. Current one-way processes of waste treatment are repositioned within more circular economies which, it is argued, may also bring ecological benefits to our cities. The study focuses on a local community at Mount Hope district in Providence, RI. As part of a wider landscape framework that includes a study on consumer behaviour, a series of modular strategies are developed based on this community’s main characteristics, with an eventual goal of integrating community …

Filmic Landscape: A Performative Space With Multi-Medium, Zhihong Ke

Masters Theses

This thesis explored the idea of interdisciplinary study between film media and landscape architecture. Through the study of film theory in narrative and cinematography, and experimentation with multi-medium, in order to discover the contribution of media study and film theory in landscape architecture, and further explored a way to drive and reshape the perception and focus of humans’ experience in landscape, in order to develop a new typology of performative space with filmic experience.

The project was divided into 3 phases and 6 chapters. It started with the study of precedent cases in the field of film and landscape. Through …

Eco-Concrete: Reimaging Nantucket Infrastructure System, Huaiwen Zhang

Masters Theses

This thesis examines how issues related to the increasing erosion and inundation of coastal wetlands across New England due to sea-level rise and more frequent storms threaten public and private property as well as valuable natural resources in these important coastal ecosystems. Current coastal barrier solutions are often constructed with concrete hard revetments, which have limited effectiveness, and may exacerbate erosion. Furthermore, these solutions are also not able to support cradle-to-cradle design approaches.

In studying these issues and how they affect marine and coastal life, including human and non-human coastal communities, this thesis investigates alternatives to conventional concrete solutions. Material …

Negative Carbon Growth In The Atmosphere: To Reverse The Growth Of Carbon In The Atmosphere Through Urban Reforestation, Hanchao Zhang

Masters Theses

Since the industrial revolution, with the expansion of cities, the global climate problem has become increasingly serious. The world is paying more and more attention to carbon emissions, and many landscape projects also take emission reduction and carbon sequestration as concepts. But there seems to be a lack of quantitative research in the field of landscape architecture. According to the global goal of net-zero by 2050 and emission reduction plan of Providence, RI, this project started with calculating how much carbon dioxide needed to be removed by biomass in order to achieve net-zero. It puts forward the requirement for urban …

Eco-Corridor For Wildlife: Reclamation Of Wildlife Habitat In Rhode Island, Xiaodong Yang

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to reclaim the fragmented habitats of wildlife and natural environments under the current human-dominating world. Through a series of landscape interventions, an ecological wildlife corridor will be proposed to not only help wildlife migrate without being impacted by the constructed infrastructure but also arouse humans to rethink and revalue the relationship between humans and wildlife.

The researches focus on the infrastructure’s negative impacts on wildlife, Interstate 95, and coyotes in specific in Rhode Island and ecological approaches that could potentially remedy this issue. Human infrastructure, like highway systems, has caused great fragmentation in the original wildlife habitat …

The Second Identity: The Human-Otters Ha-Ha - Utopia For Urban Animals, Yuxin Zhang

Masters Theses

The question of proportion between humans and urban animals is always existed but had been ignored for a while. Through COVID19,the early balance, which human as a dominant sign in the urban area seems been slightly broken and many “invisible” animals start to show up. This makes me think that is there another living mode between humans and animals.

The thesis project locates in Singapore. Asa country around by water, Singapore has countless river canal, with some of the rivers are more residential and quieter, some are famous hot tourism point. However, some of the rivers are similar, which because …

Feeling At Home: Working With The Rhythm Of The Day To Support Seniors In Urban Villages, Guoxi Zhou

Masters Theses

My focus is on the continuously growing aging population. We know the world is rapidly aging. We know countries and cities are experiencing a demographic shift. But we keep neglecting and underestimating those changes. Cities do not pay attention to and prepare for the needs of the elderly. Given that China has a huge number of seniors living in the city, I am working on the topic of how landscape architecture can support the seniors’ needs within the city’s aging population in Shenzhen. Using the urban Village of Gangxia in Shenzhen, China as a testing ground, in my thesis, I …

The Tek-Way: Traditional Ecological Knowledge: A Catalyst To Building Resilient Communities, Smera Rose Jacob

Masters Theses

“In an era of both utopian high tech and unprecedented climate extremes, we are drowning in information while starving for wisdom.^" The TEK-Way is a challenge to the long arm of globalization by looking into multi-generational wisdom, the hidden strength of every community but forgotten in the endless race for “modernization”. It inspires a new relationship of justice and coexistence by exploring and rebuilding an understanding of traditional ecological knowledge and spreading awareness of its importance and role in this era of climate change.

This thesis questions the band-aid recovery strategies of disaster mitigation through an exploration of long-term …

Live-Work Autonomy System On Mars: China's Collective Living Onto Mars, Lishunxiang Luo

Masters Theses

Our Earth is in big trouble; Our Mother Nature is in big trouble; We humanity are in even bigger trouble. The resource shortage is not an unfamiliar word to most people in the era of social media. As many ecologists and environmentalists have shouted out, we are in a time when some of the significant resources are getting consumed and wasted quickly and it will eventually being used up and lead us to nowhere if no replaceable resource has been found. Simply saying, there are just never enough resources to meet all our needs and desires and this condition is …

Translated Architecture, Ruiqi Zhang

Masters Theses

“Translated Architecture” is an unique psychological implication space that is translated from the spatiality camera language. Its significance lies in the ability to better approach and understand the psychological condition brought by the living environment.

To better understand what the camera language could lead us to, this thesis chooses to take phobias as an entry point to analyze the subtle changes in human psychology under different camera views.phobias like social phobia, Claustrophobia, Agoraphobia on a certain level is a form of mental illness that is related to architectural space. Take Claustrophobia as an example, Claustrophobia is a situational phobia triggered …

Paperwork, Romik Bose Mitra

Masters Theses

This thesis is about the politics of identity and belonging. It is about the impact that practices of identification, government surveillance, and global systems of citizenship and nationality have on the people that live by them. Inspired by the various borders (both real and imagined) that I maneuvered around to get to Rhode Island, and enriched with perspectives gathered in conversation with theoreticians in the field, Paperwork is a set of documents and debriefs that details the work that I made in response to a migratory and investigatory journey. Through this thesis, I attempt to better understand various bureaucratic practices …

Insecurities: Tracing Displacement And Migration, Hammad Abid

Masters Theses

“Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Migration,” the title of both my thesis work and thesis book, calls attention to displacement and forced migration as a disruption in the continuity of place, relationships, identity, memory, and time. Through a collection of textiles, I try to capture the psychological, social, and physical effects of forced migration and communicate the impact of political violence on identity and coexistence.

In this book, I position myself within the context of how the current Indian government is attempting to rewrite the nation’s history and distort India’s pluralistic story. I tell a personal narrative of displacement in harrowing …

Kitsch Study And Chinese Kitsch Market, Jiaqi Ellie Liu

Masters Theses

From the old industrial age to the new information age, the accumulation of capital has led to the monopoly of the assets and technology of large enterprises, and the pressure of the middle class is increasing day by day.

At the same time, informatization has led to a substantial increase in the next round of energy and material needs, and therefore human needs for thinking, physical and emotional needs have also increased. Kitsch can meet the thinking and emotional needs of the public. Therefore, it has become the mainstream contemporary aesthetics.

Kitsch art & design are easier to be loved …

Inclusive Multi-Sensory Landscape: Directing Visually Impaired People In A Perception World, Tianqi Chen

Masters Theses

_{This thesis explored the use of inclusive landscape design to provide visually impaired people and normal people with enhanced multi-sensory experiences, and for recognizing space, navigating move through spaces. Inclusive design is human design, inviting people in and giving the communicative power to space through stimulating one’s intuition and senses by repetition, sequencing, or patterning in design that signals time, space, and movement through the layouts of walking trajectories between important nodes or places of refuge. Through the visually impaired issue studies, solutions, and methods exploration, I developed principles as a solver, applied them on one site to transform space …}

The Sixth Migration - Rural/Urban "Heterotopia", Pan Chen

Masters Theses

Written during the pandemic of 2020/2021 ,as people moved out of cities with new options to work remotely, we have witnessed a new trend of urban-rural migration. This study looks in detail at rural /suburban communities in southern New Jersey and asks how a planning framework and community engagement strategy can come together to coordinate urban-rural development at different scales. This thesis project applies two types of design strategies - “top down” as planning guidelines communication and “bottom up” as community-oriented design to bring residents in the conversation of town development, and in the long term stimulate regional development to …

Holding: Speculative Infrastructure For Fire Mitigation, Ian George

Masters Theses

This thesis proposes permanent and deployable infrastructure and devices for wildfire mitigation at different scales. Designed with consideration to the conditions in the western United States, but primarily Oregon.The primary approach to infrastructure is designing water retention systems for fire suppression and prevention. Some strategies are familiar and proven, while other proposals are new, but build off of existing practices. Interventions need to be site specific, so the types of proposals will vary in scale, location and timeline.The infrastructure should be adjustable, because the needs of a region may change periodically. Landscape systems take time to establish. Speculated infrastructure is …

Transforming Islands: A Living Memorial For The Marshall Islands, Chengwen Jiang

Masters Theses

Does Utopia exist? If so, I believe it is a state of mind, a way of thinking. This thesis speculates on future uncertainties. As such, my work punctures an illusion, examining history to reveal underlying tensions and, finally, conceive a brighter future for the Marshallese. Using the Marshall Islands as a case study, this thesis examines how a population might face traumas, both historical and climactic, and demonstrate how new infrastructures can build resiliency to support minorities and create new memories. My proposal introduces two potential “visitors:” Marshallese people ( future generations as well as indigenous) and the rest of …

Re-Foresting: Cohabitation Of Human And Trees, Chengyu Ke

Masters Theses

This thesis starts with the ideological thinking of the interconnected and interdependent relationship between humans and non-humans. Taking the tree as an example, this research focuses on rethinking our urban built environment, and dynamic urban ecotones where humans and trees cohabitate.

It reframes the city from the bottom up with the consideration of root ecology and canopy ecology, focusing on this important metaphor for the infrastructure of the city. The goal is to develop healthy, productive co-dependencies between natural and man-built environments.

It proposes a utopian point of view for our cities and imagines a forest city with an asymmetrical …

Rewilding Seattle: A Green Network For Both Humans And Non-Humans, Zhouqian Guo

Masters Theses

More than three hundred years ago, Seattle City was a place of wilderness, occupied by non-humans and the Duwamish Tibe and Suquamish. After the continuous human habitation of the village site, the dominance of Seattle has eventually shifted from non-humans to humans. While non-humans have been lived in the city all the time and seek a better living space.

The project proposes a multi-functional green network operating at different scales to cohabitate and reconnect between humans and non-humans. It restores natural habitat patches in existing locations of urban green spaces in Seattle City and connects them with co-habitation corridors in …

Virtuality, Reality, Community, Siqi Rao

Masters Theses

With the popularization of the Internet and the development of technology, virtuality has penetrated into our lives and has taken up an increasing proportion of our time. However, while bringing convenience and benefits, virtuality also brings many problems, such as polarization, radicalization, cyber violence, and social isolation. In the face of these problems caused by virtualization, this thesis studies the importance of the sense of place in a community and uses some virtual technologies to enhance real-world relationships, working to alleviate problems caused by virtualization. At the same time, it explores the role of virtual tools in shaping the sense …

Post-Industry Brownfield Renewal System: Precision Strategy And Design Via The New Methodology, Sirui Li

Masters Theses

Industrialization has brought economic development, but industrial zones can also bring depression if the opportunity for transformation is not seized. Industrial areas in the post-industrial era are often referred to as rust zones, which not only hinder urban development but also bring a series of problems. This thesis book wants to explore the problems brought by post-industrial land, to find possible directions for post-industrial industrial land through new methodologies, and also to guide landscape architects to have clearer design goals and methods.

This project focuses on the Allegheny area of the American Rust Belt, where the city of Pittsburgh was …

Wandering Land: Landscape On Space Station, Xin Wen

Masters Theses

When the exploration of the universe and the colonization of the universe are getting more and more attention, this thesis book focuses on the question of “What role will landscape play in space resettlement?”, and conducts research and design based on this, trying to explore the possible landscape attempts and experiences on space stations in the future.

This thesis starts with the background research of space habitats and clarifies the definition and advantages of the space station landscape. And through the study of the physical models of the future space station, Stanford Torus was selected as the subsequent design site. …

Community Steward Of The Deep Bay: Staging Lau Fau Shan For Resiliency Through Collective Participation, Lauren Tam

Masters Theses

This thesis explores tensions of utopian ideals through the lens of stakeholders living and working in the Deep Bay coastal region of Hong Kong, Using Lau Fau Shan as my case study, I have worked on ways to build socio-ecological resilience through bottom-up strategies of community engagement through first hand experience of interacting with a local oyster farmer. In understanding how the different forces of climate change and development pressures are currently impacting the community and the daily workings of the fishing community, my goal is to demonstrate how design can advocate for the importance of community driven strategies to …

Fluid Ground: Imagining A Floating Future For Tuvalu, Yuxi Liu

Masters Theses

Climate change is posing great challenges to Tuvalu, a small archipelago in the center of the Pacific Ocean. With low elevations above sea level, poor soil, and limited land resources, Tuvalu is considered to be one of the smallest countries in the world, as well as the most vulnerable nation under climate change. About 2000 years ago the seafaring Pacific Islanders inhabited the archipelago and developed its unique culture following the fluid geographies of atoll islands––a culture that was once associated with the notion of paradise, and which gradually faded away with the arrival of western colonizers in the 19th …

Affordable Green: What Cause Landscape Gentrification And How We Deal With It, Siyu Pan

Masters Theses

The topic of this thesis is to figure out how landscape gentrification happened and what we can do to decelerate the process. The first phase of this thesis includes a brief introduction and definition to the term “Gentrification“, its history and the process. Discussions about how such a situation would influence communities and related people would also be mentioned in this part. The last part in this phase is the analysis of some recent research about gentrification world wide. The second phase is a transition from gentrification to landscape gentrification. This part analysis of the cause and effect of landscape …

Mother River: Restoring Transiting Producing, Rui Yang

Masters Theses

The Fen River, located at the Loess Plateau in Shanxi Province, is one of the most important life sources for local people. Most residents in the past relied on farming to make life. As the only riverway that could serve for irrigation in the region, Fen River provided a huge amount of water and fed plenty of people. In addition, nearby lands were vastly used for agricultural purposes. The river acts as a spine to support people’s life for a long time. It is also called as the Mother River in the region.

However, as cities in the region quickly …