Architecture Commons^™

Social Discourse Between Humans And Animals, Sara Honeycutt

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

My project is to investigate social interaction through design. I am exploring to understand the social discourse between humans and animals. I propose an animal facility which houses adoptable dogs and cats as a method of bridging gaps in social interactions that are a result of the fast-paced media society we now live in. My thesis is an attempt to prove that the notions of architecture, animal and human, are interdependent of one another—that architecture is the vehicle working towards building a new relationship between humans and animals. Our domesticated animals rely on humans but we also lean on our …

Advancing School Environments Through Research Synthesis In Design, Callan Hoeve

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

While schools are still being constructed based on antiquated research and design strategies, this thesis project aims to take advantage and respond to all three of these areas of research: well-being, safety, and learning environment design.

The project began with the analysis of a newly constructed school that follows antiquated research methods: East Cobb Middle School. This proposed project will use the same site in it’s state prior to the current school’s construction in order to compare the proposed school design to the current one. This will reveal how the three areas of research can influence a cost efficient design …

Spring 2019, Joëlle Walls

The Investigator Research Magazine

We are excited to launch The Investigator, a new magazine which will be produced annually by the Office of Research at Kennesaw State University. You will find stories that span the spectrum and which impact the community through the research, service and creative activities conducted by KSU faculty, staff and students.

One feature describes how Jonathan McMurry and John Salerno partnered to create KSU’s first incubator company, New Echota Biotechnology. Another feature details the first year success of KSU Upward Bound programs, implemented in Polk and Paulding county high schools which help prepare students for college.

You will read how …

Virtual Reality As A Pedagogical Tool To Design For Social Impact: A Design Case, Tiffany Roman, Jon Racek

Faculty Articles

Three-dimensional (3-D) virtual environments have key affordances that can improve learning, particularly when context, culture, and pedagogical aims are aligned to a given learning situation. One challenge in detailing effective uses of 3-D virtual environments in teaching and learning contexts is that the design judgments involved are not always made explicit. We argue that the transparency of design judgments, as it relates to the use of 3-D virtual environments, are critically important. This article advances scholarship of emerging technologies by detailing the design judgments of a university instructor within a Design for Social Impact cross-disciplinary course. To address learner needs …

Housing For All In India And Its Future In Sustainable Development, Nadia Shah

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The Government of India has been challenged with a growing housing demand for more than half a century, since its independence in 1947. The shift in the country’s population from rural to urban creates an emerging dynamic in the housing gap. While India continues to move forward, already the world’s fastest growing economy, in the realm of manufacturing and services, the housing demand continues to increase. This paper investigates the causes and consequences of the housing shortage in India, by examining the country’s past policies that have been public housing, sites and services, slum upgrading and self-help programs, and …

Authentic Learning Environments: Designing A New Standard For Public Education, Stephanie Griffith, Stephanie J. Griffith

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The intention of this thesis is to explore the architectural problems of public primary school learning environments and propose possible solutions. This thesis draws from various public blog and public web article accounts and experiences of those working in or studying the institutions of primary education and the problems they are struggling to address. The architectural focus brings to light that while most educators argue that teaching can happen anywhere, this body of research will propose an optimal learning environment in which a set of ideal values are defined as authentic learning and is used to encourage and support a …

Rag Time Revival, Michael Myers

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The adaptive reuse of buildings within culturally rich historic city centers where urban regeneration solutions are crucial. Leveraging cultural heritage through architectural means as a vital mode of revitalization at the building scale…which will propagate out to influence the urban condition. Currently in Treme, New Orleans the beginning phases of major gentrification are taking place unchecked by legislation. It is kicking lifelong residents out and destroying the local culture. The principles of jazz culture sets up a good template for how Treme should grow; depending on collaboration & serendipity. This will be investigated through a catalyst site, the Louis Armstrong …

Atlanta: Reconstructing A Fractured History, Clayton Odom

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Today we live in a world where the development of our cities has resulted in the destruction of historical and magnificent architecture that stood as monumental symbols of human achievement and evolution. This has been a problem for Atlanta in which the foundations of the city's architectural heritage and legacy has been destroyed as a result of Atlanta's fragmented development over time, leaving the city's architectural legacy and history in a state of fragmented ruin. For Atlanta, it is important to restore this lost architectural heritage by reconstructing the memory of the city's destroyed architectural icons by recreating and reassembling …

Urban Oasis, Hailey Wilkins

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

We are living in the society with basic needs for connection, meaning, and purpose. This is because our generation is experiencing its highest level of documented mental illness patients in years due to a rise in urban sprawl, causing pollution, traffic, anxiety, depression and more, this is known as urban stress. The majority of our built environment is designed and constructed by architects and urban planners who disagree with the programmatic identity of the spaces that they are creating and how it starts to affect the user of the environment. The spaces they are creating without establishing a connection to …

Papine Market: Culture, Climate, Resource, Denique Lindsay

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Markets maintain a setting for communities to make a living as well as provide daily life essentials. It is an act common in the culture and economy of places all around the globe. In the Caribbeans Greater Antilles it has prevailed historically as a necessary operation for the regions inhabitants. But many of the present day market settings, like that which is found on the island of Jamaica, have promoted unhealthy and uninviting environment for the market in habitants and for the surrounding contexts. One in particular has played a very important role in my family’s daily life, Papine Market …

Atmospheric Resiliency: Enhancing Environmental Air Quality Through Bio-Architecture, Francesca Boakye

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The theory of purifying a city’s smog filled atmosphere by using green microalgae can be architecturally realized through a designed building envelope composed of multiple units of microalgae filled perforated panels. The nature of this project is bio-architectural. Precise execution of it relies on deep research in vehicular emission pollution in terms of molecular composition. This research will help identify the most prominent pollutant in the smog composition and match it to a species of algae that can completely process it during photosynthesis. In addition to air pollution research, research on algae typology, growth and environmental impact is also essential …

Meandering Structures | A Theatrical Take On Sonorous Environments, Jamilah-Renay Bouges

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This project studies the distinct patterns of sound created by specific activities on our day to day lives. Ways in which these sounds travel and impact the receptor will directly influence how this project performs and reacts to a given source's stimuli. Once this is understood, the environment of the final proposal will be more easily manipulated into a reflective and absorptive form which molds itself in order to provide more adequate clarity to its audience. This flexible form is applied as an interior skin for a travelling theater supplying a myriad of performing arts and musical acts as determined …

Cardinal Divide: Inverting The Stigma Of Borders As Dividers, Evan Murray

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The United States border delineation with Mexico has always been at the center of controversial thinking. The proposal for a wall intended to seperate the two nations is tied to ideological differences and comes with connotations of sectarianism and intolerance. While reasons do exist to consider and implement border policies that protect against illegal immigration, constucting a wall becomes a physical manifestation of those aformentioned connotations. One region along the 2,000 miles stretch of border is a perfect model of strong border relations. The dichotomy of San Diego and Tijuana is proof of the strength gained from integrated border logistics. …

Civil Architecture: The Neglected Youths (Adaptive Re-Use And Sustainability), Victor Chibuzo

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Civil architecture for the neglected youths is an attempt to address a social issue of the growing homelessness youth population through architecture in Atlanta Georgia region. Architecture establishes a platform to influence the way in which we interact with one another; However the commercial architecture of the 21st century has forged a boundary that encourages segregation of economic classes. These issues are apparent in gentrified areas. Characteristics of most of these gentrified communities include: sustainable designs, high standard of living, safety, etc. Sustainable designs can provide long run savings and cost-effectiveness in home energy usage but are mostly applied in …

"Auto-": A Design Strategy For The Autistic Child, Holly Pagel

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis aims to explore autism and the architecture of autism. Research focuses on the biological hyper- and hyposensitivities related to autism. The project manifest as a best option elementary school for children with autism living in Atlanta, GA.

Beyond Flat Space: Representing Architecture In Virtual Reality, Holden Holley

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

As architects, most of us go through years of training and experience just to read and draw plans, sections, and elevations. As students, we are taught how to read a plan and dissect the information we need to understand the spatial relationships. There are many times, however, that a plan doesn’t really tell us what experiencing this space is like. And how is the untrained client supposed to understand how this space really works? Isn’t that our job as architects, to represent our designs well enough to our clients that we communicate to them everything necessary for understanding this space …

Architecture Of Adaptation: Structure In Nature, Salman Sajwani

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The concept of a piece of architecture taking on adaptive qualities is based on the ability that a system can effectively respond to the environment and the evolving programs. Architects strive to create designs that respond to external changes, creating a challenge with kinetic and the immovable aspects of a building, which can be identified as the systems of walls, ceilings, and columns. This system however, creates the foundation of a successful built environment but also hinders the adaptive and flexible qualities. These systems are implemented permanently and confined to the site and program that has been defined to them. …

Undeveloping The City, John Jones

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

What will the city of the future look like? This thesis investigates the ongoing growth of the city of Atlanta and proposes design strategies that responsibly manage future growth with an ecological mindset. The current metropolitan area occupies thousands of square miles of land with low-density development that blankets many natural ecosystems with little consideration to the impact of this sprawl. By utilizing the applications of transit oriented development and low-impact design, a section of the city can be used as a test bench for responsible future development. This growth would need to be managed from a two-sided approach: retracting …

Reawakening Quality In Architecture: A Contemporary Idiom Of Pattern Language, Christopher D. Richardson

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

“Life peeks out of a thousand masks, One of these is architecture.”

As technology advances forward architecture has continuously tried to find its place within the production of each new technology. This has led to thinking of architecture as causalities as an attempt to make it closer to a production line of efficient outputs. This has caused the problem a lack of evocation, the poetics, connection to memory, the idea of mind, body, and spirit being captured in the design.

This inquiry began by looking at a missed opportunity within Christopher Alexander’s work A Pattern Language. Pattern Language introduced the …

Verge Of Erosion: Adaption To The Coastal Climatic Change, Jamison Barger

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Today the question of coastal erosion and the devastation that it brings is no longer a matter of if, but when.

This project aims at developing an adaptive approach towards design in attempt to develop a new coastal typology that adapts to the dynamic condition of coastal erosion, and addresses future projections of sea level rise. The proposal will be applied in Fuveme in the Volta Region of Ghana, West Africa, which is presently on the verge of being wiped out entirely due to a vastly reseeding shoreline. The thesis will center on elements such as the environment, ecology, society, …

Transfused Architecture: Ascent Of A Developing World, Sandy Ferrier

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Because there is a lack of adequate health care facilities in developing countries, there is a substantial amount of unrealized, optimal health gains and effective, architectural interventions which are not fully realized. With 80% of its population living below the world poverty line, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. The United Nations Development Program’s 2014 report shows the extents of poverty at 75% mainly in the rural areas of Haiti. Only 25% of households benefit from adequate sanitation, thus people become more susceptible to infections and diseases. Reoccurring natural catastrophes have also dented the country's …

Performative Threshold, Jin Park

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Threshold is defined by Limen as transitional between two fixed states in cultural rites of passage or between two dissimilar spaces in architecture. The study of rites of passage provides an analogy from which principles can be drawn for the design of a transformative space. The experience of liminal space poses a discontinuity and leads the occupant to question their surroundings, thus leading to heightened awareness of the space as a transformative threshold between distinct spaces. All buildings have in-between space, the quality of life is directly affected by these spaces. The way of using space cannot be changed as …

[Re]Defining Chandigarh, Dhruvee Patel

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Chandigarh is the first planned modern city in India as a symbol of nation’s faith in the future designed by Le Corbusier in 1951 in the East Punjab. Through investigation it became apparent that Le Corbusier proposed design principles for Chandigarh that were already theorized for Bogota in Colombia and Marseille in France following his concept of Radiant village that was never built. His design for Chandigarh was more of a prototype model, which failed to capture the spirit of Indian culture and community, making it harder to navigate and familiarize with the city. If architecture is a reflection of …

Cultural Embrace, Jeremy Penja

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Cultural embrace creating an identity on a larger scale in modern society. Architecture is a symbolic catalyst of a threshold, it is bound by the physical presence as well as “enriched by both the memory and dreams, past and future” Juhani Pallasmaa. It captures the sensibility of expectation and fulfillment, sense of symbols that resonated within. It evokes the absolutely necessary association of visual-tactile and identity to connect the history to present. It is an absolute cultural responsiveness and symbolism that cultural embrace strives for. Spaces have become empty container lacking true essence. The current architecture does little to address …

Hurricane Communities, Katie Masters

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Hurricane Communities: An Analysis of Florida Housing is a thesis that aims to reexamine how we can, as architects, design for hurricanes more effectively at the residential scale, through investigations of lateral forces, form, structure and site. The intent is to minimize the physical and emotional damages that are left behind. The thesis examines wind uplift and changes in water level as hurricane category rise.

Post-War Learning Environments: Redefining Schools Designs In Iraq, Rana Al Rawi

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The learning environments in Iraq have been greatly affected by war and ongoing conflict in the past two decades. As a result, the drop-out rates have increased, academic achievement is low, and the students are suffering from stress. Architecturally, the existing school typologies in Iraq were designed more than 70 years ago and does not reflect the needs of the 21st century students. The new design does not only provide a physical function - an elementary school and a pedestrian bridge, but also presents a community gathering space for the parents and families of the two separated neighborhoods. Programmatic functions …

Vertical Essence, Didier Porter

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In the late 1800s, the technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution created a new typology of architecture, the high-rise. Through architecture, people could truly live and interact with one another in clouds, while experiencing breathtaking views of the world around. To accommodate the urbanization of cites, architects and urban planners adopted the concept of vertical living within the social housing sectors. Ambitious desires towards desirable, vertical living became undermined by poor construction and problematic living conditions. Built in deprived areas and isolated locations, these experiments of social housing became a concentration of poverty, crime, and violence. Dysfunctional social environments resorted …

Interlace: Designing An Inclusionary Architecture For Alzheimer's Sufferers, Alexander Fashinasi

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis intends to address the increasing challenges the Alzheimer’s disease poses for our growing American population. The research begins by looking at the brain as a combination of components which make up the individual. Following this, the research compiles information on the Alzheimer’s disease and its symptoms, followed by an analysis of the built environments effects on the condition.

Through analysis of precedent cases and the combined Alzheimer’s research, I chose to propose an experimental community in which those with Alzheimer’s can live a life with greater autonomy while simultaneously slowing the progression of the disease. I place this …

Social Inclusion Through Art, Christian Aguilar

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

My thesis project aims to develop an Art Center, which will provide art and its many forms to the residents of Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods. The art services will provide the residents with the opportunity to enhance creativity, promote economic growth, and bring people together; allowing themselves and the community to overcome the challenges of segregation and unemployment present in these neighborhoods. Since, art is often a non-verbal process, it will also provide individuals the platform to raise awareness about inherent issues in the neighborhoods.

Geofutures L Urban Integration, Adam Leicht

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Bring nature back to the city. Integrate neglected migration patterns in sprawling cities such as Atlanta. Mend urban fragmentation. The purpose is to make a cleaner environment in the city. My project looks at the Anthropocene as a fence. And how place has been fundamentally “displaced”. Resulting in a boundary or separation between man and nature. To study and research the Anthropocene (age of man) and how man has taken over as the main force behind the change of the environment. Looking through an architectural lens of ecology, how can we use this lens to help us slow down society …