Architecture Commons^™

Updraft : Crafting A New Passive Cooling, Hobin Song

Masters Theses

To comfortably inhabit historic buildings we have developed mechanical devices to manage the internal environment so that it is possible to keep the room temperature stable despite season and climate. However, enormous energy is necessary to sustain these machines, which poses practical and environmental problems. To overcome and prevent this waste, efforts have been made to control the internal environment of contemporary buildings using natural principles. Is it possible to use this approach to improve the performance of historic buildings without compromising character or significance?

This is an ideal topic to test against RISD campus buildings. The campus is made …

Envisioning Ecological Cities, Carlton Smith

Masters Theses

Our cities are recognized as centers for jobs, entertainment and production; as icons of human innovation. However, they are also recognized as for their consumption. Being that our cities are mechanisms of consumption, they rely on imported resources such as food, water, energy and labor in order to continue to thrive. Though this relationship has fostered technological and mechanical growth, it has also been degrading the natural ecological processes that we rely on to survive. As our understanding of our relationship to the environment deepens, there is a growing push for architecture that embodies an attention to its connections to …