Architecture Commons^™

Animal Interiority: Sentience And Spatial Perception, Raymund Königk

Interiority

Interior design has traditionally prioritised human experiences, often neglecting ecological and nonhuman perspectives on interiority. This anthropocentric focus limits the discipline's ability to address the spatial and sensory needs of nonhuman persons, including teleost fishes. It overlooks interiority as a universal and relational phenomenon shared by all living beings. This research challenges these boundaries by proposing a biosemiotic framework that integrates the body, interiority, and inhabitation as interdependent constructs shaped by physiological, mental, and environmental interactions. By developing Jakob von Uexküll's (1982) biosemiotic schema, the study investigates the sentient experiences of teleost fishes to establish interiority as a capability inherent …

Interior As Ecosystem, Paramita Atmodiwirjo, Yandi Andri Yatmo

Interiority

The idea of interior as an ecosystem views the emergence of interior as a dynamic and relational environment. Rather than viewing the interior as a static or enclosed environment, the ecological perspective considers the interior as an ecosystem, constructed by the systems of relations that involve a multiplicity of actors and entities. This issue of Interiority presents the emergence of various interior occupation and adaptation models that have emerged as an integral part of the ecosystem. The collection of articles in this issue presents a range of cases, ranging from traditional, modern, to contemporary lifestyles and contexts. The works demonstrate …

Future Interior Of The Past: An Air Terminal Comes Of Age At Detroit-Willow Run, Joss Kiely

Interiority

After the Second World War, manufacturing plants were no longer needed for wartime production levels, prompting the closure and repurposing of industrial facilities that became obsolescent overnight across the United States and in the manufacturing region of Southeastern Michigan. Located twenty miles west of Detroit, the Willow Run airfield in Ypsilanti was one such case. Best known for the massive B-24 Liberator manufacturing plant designed by Albert Kahn that opened in 1942 as Air Force Plant 31, the airfield played a key role in ending the war. Just to the south, a Kahn-designed hangar was loosely repurposed in 1946–1947 as …

Revisiting The Post-Tsunami Aceh School: A Community-Based Evaluation Framework For Improving Build Back Better Projects, Muhammad Naufal Fadhil, Aji Sofiana Putri, Muhammad Fadli Muslimin

ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement

This study proposes a community-based evaluation framework to assess and improve the existing conditions of post-tsunami schools based on the occupants’ evaluations. Rapid, donor-driven reconstruction often defaults to ‘fit-for-all’ solutions that bypass community needs, resulting in facilities that are misaligned with local contexts. This project focused on Lampageu State Elementary School in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, which was reconstructed in 2009 by a German NGO after the 2004 tsunami. The project began by observing the school’s physical condition through the community engagement team, followed by a review and exploration of the school’s design needs with the school community. The community-based evaluation …

The Representation Of Indonesian National Identity In Syuhada Mosque, Kotabaru, Yogyakarta, Muthia Zahri Mardhiyah, Ali Akbar

International Review of Humanities Studies

This article examines the concept of national identity as embodied by the Syuhada Mosque, located in Kotabaru, Yogyakarta. Completed in 1952, the mosque was established as a monument to the independence of the Republic of Indonesia. This research addresses whether Syuhada Mosque genuinely represents national identity. The study aims to describe the architectural form of Syuhada Mosque and elucidate the representations of national identity embedded within its structure. The research methodology aligns with the framework proposed by Sharer and Ashmore, encompassing formulation, implementation, data collection, data processing, analysis, interpretation, and publication. Based on its historical background, the foundational ideas and …

Collaborative Class Zine: Weekly Reflection Assignment With Powerpoint Template, Brett Whysel

Open Educational Resources

Abstract

This collaborative class zine assignment uses a shared PowerPoint format to deepen student learning while building community. Students contribute visual reflections (graphics, diagrams, quotes, or doodles) weekly or periodically throughout the semester. Faculty provide reflection prompts about key takeaways and unclear concepts (sample prompts included). The resource includes both sample LMS instructions and a ready-to-use PowerPoint zine template that works across all disciplines. By combining metacognitive reflection with creative expression, students consolidate learning by finding new connections and applications. The collaborative format creates community connections and joy while students learn from peers' diverse perspectives.

Ghost Highway: De-Touring Albuquerque's Route 66, Madison A. Garay

Art & Art History ETDs

Route 66 was a U.S. Numbered Highway stretching from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA, rising to fame through music and popular culture. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Route 66 has a troublesome twin life as Central Avenue, a highly politicized space where bodies are contested. In this thesis, the function of public arts and architecture of Albuquerque’s main street thoroughfare, Central Avenue, will be analyzed as visual devices of U.S. Highway 66, or known in popular culture as “Route 66.” I employ a critical Derridean framework through Mark Fisher’s theorization of hauntology and Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Ojibwe)’s theory of …

A Historic Context For House Moving: Why Moved Houses Are Eligible For The National Register Of Historic Places, Ian Tomashik

Historic Preservation Final Projects

Structural moving, the process of moving complete buildings to new sites, has shaped American landscapes for over two centuries. Thousands of wood-frame houses were moved with surprising frequency between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Yet, moved buildings are “ordinarily” ineligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This project explores this exclusion two parts: an analytical essay that argues for their inclusion for nomination and a historic context survey that explains the prevalence of house moving. The essay first explains the National Register’s rationale for questioning the historic significance of moved buildings. It also examines why large-scale house …

Mutualistas: La Sociedad Auxiliar De Mutua Beneficiaria, Antonito Colorado, 1937-1994, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

Mutual Aid Societies proliferated in the American Southwest during a period of rapid social change, 1880-1930. In Hispanic towns, these societies were referred to as mutualistas, with a large number concentrated in the San Luis Valley of Colorado and rural counties of northcentral New Mexico. One of the men’s organizations, La Sociedad Protección Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos (SPMDTU), started in Antonito, Colorado, and quickly spread to other communities of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico and eventually to a few mining towns in Utah. With a tri-state model in place, women formed their own mutual protection societies: Sociedad Protectora …

Graduate School Blog - July 2025 Volume 1, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The July 2025 UofM Graduate School Blog – Volume 1 continues the Cost of Graduate School Guide with a deep dive into hidden and variable expenses such as residency-based tuition differences, program-specific fees, and differential tuition. The blog provides practical tips for prospective students on how to ask the right financial questions when comparing programs. It also features a student spotlight on Billy Brooks, a dual MHA/MBA candidate motivated to transform healthcare access and equity. Upcoming events include a Virtual Fall 2025 Open House with Financial Aid and USBS, a Dissertation Writers Retreat, and both in-person and virtual Graduate Student …

Siliciclastic Cave Or Diamond Mine? Multiapproach Investigation In Igatu Village, Chapada Diamantina, Northeastern Brazil, Raphael Parra, Ricardo G. F. De A. Pereira, Leonardo F. Vieira, Rubson P. Maia

International Journal of Speleology

The territory around Igatu, as that of many villages in southeastern Chapada Diamantina (Bahia, Brazil), was deeply modified by diamond mine activity. Caves were special targets for miners, since they can act as diamond-bearing sediment traps, and the Canal da Fumaça Cave was one of the most important and rich of them. The question that arises is whether the formation is a natural cave or an artificial diamond mine. In order to answer this question, we developed speleological and geological studies with detailed cave surveys, remote sensing and field measurements for structural analysis, optical and electronic microscope for petrographic characterization, …

Arts-Based Sustainability: From New York To Malawi, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Recognizing that libraries serve multiple constituencies and subject areas, this chapter documents and advocates for development of transdisciplinary arts-based research (ABR) and culture-related projects linked to environmental challenges. Libraries contribute collections and spaces, as well as the research of library and information scientists. Libraries are currently among invisible contributors to sustainability planning and services. The chapter will link this invisibility to the value of what visual arts refer to as negative space elements in subjects ranging from traditional ecological knowledge to environmental science. Library collections, projects, and research contribute to education for sustainable development (ESD) as required to achieve the …

Graduate School Blog - June 2025, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The June 2025 edition of the UofM Graduate School Blog helps prospective and current students make informed financial decisions with Part 1 of the Graduate School Cost Guide, breaking down tuition structures such as per-credit hour versus flat-rate models, highlighting UofM’s tuition cap for in-state students, and explaining key university fees and cost differences between online and on-campus formats. The blog also features Brianna Reilly, a Doctor of Musical Arts graduate from New York, who shares how a graduate assistantship and her passion for music education led her to continue at UofM through the pandemic. Additional resources include an …

R.A.C.E. Matters Precast Concrete Bench Construction, Jack Alexander Ritchie

Construction Management

This senior project details the collaborative design, fabrication, and installation of three precast concrete benches for the nonprofit organization R.A.C.E. Matters in partnership with the San Luis Obispo Conservancy. The benches were designed to act as platforms for public art, amplifying diverse racial narratives through murals. A multidisciplinary team of students from Construction Management, Architecture, and Architectural Engineering worked together, with each discipline contributing to distinct phases of the project. Bench installations took place at the Pismo Preserve, the Octagon Barn, and Kathleen’s Overlook. This paper reflects on the hands-on construction process, the challenges of interdisciplinary coordination, and the real-world …

Iberian Origins Of New Mexico's Community Acequias, Jose A. Rivera Ph.D., Thomas F. Glick Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

When Spanish officials first entered the northern region of New Spain in the late sixteenth century, they realized that irrigation would be a necessary development in the establishment of permanent communities. To sustain the early settlements, they built irrigation systems following the Iberian model, itself an extension of Arabo-Berber traditions from north Africa and the Middle East.

75 | Cana Of Galilee: Excavations At Karm Er-Ras 1999–2011, Yardenna Alexandre

IAA Reports—Monograph Series of the Israel Antiquities Authority

This volume describes the results of multiple small-scale salvage excavations that took place at the site of Karm er-Ras in the Lower Galilee between 1999 and 2011. Archaeological remains of ten strata were revealed, dating from Iron Age II to the Byzantine period, including architecture, pottery, glass, coins and special finds. The archaeological data reveals the history of settlement of this site, and its changing ethnic and religious affinities over some 1500 years. Following detailed analysis of the archaeological data and the literary sources, the author argues for the identification of the Roman-period village at Karm er-Ras with ‘Cana of …

Infrastructure From Below: Mediasi Dan Politik Pembangunan Infrastruktur Air Di Kota Balikpapan, Muhammad Althaf Nandiati Yusfid

Antropologi Indonesia

The city of Balikpapan is experiencing a water crisis. The discrepancy between the city's water supply and Balikpapan's demography put pressure towards the city's capability of supporting its own citizens. This issue is exacerbated by the development of Indonesia's New Capital (IKN) which is located just outside Balikpapan. Therefore, the development of water infrastructure is imperative for the city. Yet, there's no recent visible development of water infrastructure in the city. However, I argue that water infrastructure development actually exists, though in a subtle form. The informal water suppliers that are prevalent in the city is tied with how the …

The Arch And The Looking Glass: Umbli Cu Cioara Vopsitǎ, Ana Popescu

Masters Theses

The Arch and The Looking Glass: Umbli Cu Cioara Vopsită (You Are Walking Around with a Painted Crow)

A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in the Department of Ceramics of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

By Ana Popescu, 2025

Approved by Master’s Examination Committee:

Lesley Baker, Shoji Satake (Chair), Heather Bhandari, Tucker Houlihan

Date: May 17th, 2025

Location: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island

To be opened for self-reflection in 10 years, on May 17th, 2035:

I’ve been mulling over how to make …

Untitled, Seung Ho Jeon

Masters Theses

We are, by our very own nature, confined within our own lived experiences. To transcend our inherent loneliness, we seek ways to fulfill a fundamental sense of belonging through symbolic interactions. The external world we navigate is a subjective framework constructed through repetitive, mundane interaction, and as actors, we participate in such monotonous performances as a means to create shared meaning.

Such performance manifests as a collective entity - an intangible force that is not bound by institutionalized systems, emerging organically from grassroots beliefs and practices. Throughout the performance, there are symbols - artifacts, space, and interactions. And these transformative …

Cohabitation At Threshold: Carpenter House Reimagined For Multispecies Living, Zhixiao Yang

Masters Theses

With the rapid growth of the human population, we are encroaching further into wildlife habitats, particularly those surrounding urban environments. This accelerating urbanization leads to biodiversity loss, the degradation of ecological services essential to human health and well-being, and a diminishing connection between city dwellers and the natural world.

Today, urban planners, architects, economists, and other advocates for the future of humanity and the health of the planet are actively questioning how we might build greener, more resilient cities. While much of the focus has been on large-scale interventions — such as the use of sustainable materials, the creation of …

Unseen, But There, Xinyu Dong

Masters Theses

Pedestrians often arrive at the Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge in a hurry—rushing through daily routines—only to slow down or stop at its center. Here, they are drawn by the openness of the view, the rhythm of the wind, and a sense of pause that floats above the surface of the Providence River.

This thesis is an ongoing experiment in direct, sensory experience. It centers on this pedestrian bridge not just as a site of circulation, but as a space of unintentional stillness and layered perception. While many passersby are drawn to its scenic beauty, few pause to consider …

Buddha, Resituated, Min Sun

Masters Theses

The Asian Arts Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art presents significant cultural artifacts in a minimalist, neutral environment that disconnects them from their original historical and spatial contexts. By proposing display techniques that emphasize the origin and background of objects, it asks whether audiences from diverse cultural backgrounds can be enabled to connect empathetically with and learn from the heritage represented by these objects displayed out of context.

This thesis explores how exhibition design can reframe decontextualized artifacts to restore cultural meaning. By unpacking the room chronologically and geographically, and drawing from the spatial language of the Yungang Grottoes, …

Stranded In Time: Reawakening The Crook Point Bascule Bridge Through Temporality, Zhipeng Wang

Masters Theses

Many urban structures fall into a “stranded” state—physically present, yet socially invisible. The Crook Point Bridge in Providence is a prime example: a decommissioned piece of industrial infrastructure, too large and symbolically heavy to vanish entirely, yet gradually fading from public awareness. This thesis explores how temporary, experience-driven interventions can reawaken the social relevance of such neglected spaces. Rather than proposing a fixed future, the project seeks to prompt public reconsideration through fleeting spatial experiences that require no irreversible transformation. The first intervention utilizes balloons—fragile, inflated, and inevitably collapsing—to embody the theme of accelerated disappearance, echoing how memories fade faster …

From Industrial Building To Affordable Senior Housing: An Idea Book Beyond Code, Weiyi Ma

Masters Theses

This thesis envisions a proposal to adaptively re-purpose Rhode Island’s extant industrial building stock into affordable housing tailored to the needs of its older and more vulnerable citizens. Architectural dignity, in terms of older citizens amidst this housing crisis, is the creation of living environments that honor their autonomy, comfort, and identity through design interventions that provide accessible, luminous, breathable, and socially enriching spaces, reaffirming their rightful place within the community. With humanistic care and logical rigor, it establishes a mathematical framework for assessment and execution, anchored in five criteria: light, air, space, accessibility, and livability, and presents itself in …

Notes On Revivalism, Elana R. Kates

Masters Theses

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Fire Fossils: Biomineral Infrastructures In Untangling Climates, Tanmayee More

Masters Theses

Diatoms drift, sediments sink, wildfires generate their own weather. Lightning strikes can blast sand into glass, and microscopic organisms do the same in the cold recesses of the ocean. What alchemies and metabolisms catalyze space, time, and energy? What are the thermodynamics of infrastructure in Climate Change?

Places, materials, and beings are afterimages. Through alchemical experiments, and multi-scalar imaging, I develop simulations of wildfires, and their profound, reverberating effects. In this thesis, a glass-meets-landscape experimental process enters these obscured conditions and renders new material relations for the built environment.

Bodies Collapsing Together... Together As Dust., Catherine J. Wang

Masters Theses

I welcome you to a pedagogy of collapsing bodies: the teaching and learning practice between surviving occupants of Institutions.

From the villainizing of trans- bodies in K-14 public schools to the bodily removal of Palestinian discourse from universities, the 2025 presidential takeover of the Department of Education unearths systemic urgencies over the fragility, complicity, and agency of academic institutions—survivors of wars, recessions, shootings, climate disasters—that have always been collapsing. As long as educational campuses stage political and industrial performances, Institutional marriage to capitalism collapses the future of the university. Our architectural pedagogy shoulders this weight of confrontation: design education as …

Objects Into Things: The Ordinary Into Extraordinary, Michael K. Yirenkyi

Masters Theses

The most intimate experience of architecture starts at the scale of the object, from the slight grazing past the sofa to the painful bump of the toe against the legs of the sharply angled table. These objects have become a huge part of our everyday life and how we navigate the world around us, especially in the home where we spend the most time with them. Yet how many of us are truly aware when we engage with these objects. In a methodology deeply rooted in the design of objects into things, ideas investigated through this process are situated in …

Tree Story, Jia Hu

Masters Theses

What is Nature?

Nature is a system of intelligence. It means designing for efficiency—often by learning from strategies that have evolved over time. In my research, I use patterns to interpret and decode nature.

To explore nature, I began with the red cedar tree, aiming to simulate and predict its growth patterns—forms shaped by both internal biology and external forces. By analyzing its geometry, I sought to understand how trees embody the dynamic relationship between organism and environment. These patterns reveal the adaptive logic of life.

Patterns are central to understanding nature. While tree geometry may appear chaotic, it follows …

Immersive Stillness In Poetic Space: Textiles For An Uncertain World, Dora Hyunjung Kim

Masters Theses

In an era shaped by environmental crises, the erosion of seasonal rhythms, cultural uncertainty, and the accelerating pace of technological shifts, this thesis explores how textiles—through their tactility, atmosphere, and quiet presence—can serve as vessels for meditative and emotional spaces, which I refer to as "poetic spaces." In the midst of countless unpredictable variables and a rapidly evolving cultural landscape, there is a growing need for environments where silence and quiet reflection can unfold. Within this broader context, poetic space functions not merely as an aesthetic concept, but as a vital site for emotional grounding and inner restoration.

This research …