Architecture Commons^™

Atrium, Hasan Hachem

Architecture Senior Theses

Architectural history has overlooked the significance of one of its oldest and most fundamental elements. Present at the origins of architecture and characteristically essential to almost any contemporary design (over two floors), the atrium consistently finds itself in the lapse of history’s judgment - perhaps due to its consistent presence. The atrium has ranged from the hole in primitive shelters for smoke management, to its introduction as a proper space in the Roman domus and finally manifesting itself at its most extravagant in Portman’s hotel designs. However, as the atrium acts as the auspice for all vertical openings in a …

Obsolete Architecture: Revitalization Along A Spectrum Of Utility, Garrett Goodridge

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis project focuses specifically on naval fortifications, which are a particularly unique example of obsolete architecture. Ironically, the naval fort is defined as being not only a military stronghold but also something that is insusceptible to outside influence. Today, most forts are considered defunct or abandoned and are recognized as historical artifacts, such as Fort Gorges and Fort Scammel located in Maine’s Portland Harbor. An artifact, by definition, is something that is deemed to by culturally relevant. As such, the artifact should be seen as something that continually contributes to contemporary culture and its surrounding context, both of which …

Living On The Edge: Landform Resilience, Lauren Festa

Architecture Senior Theses

The program of a resilience center on the site serves as a way to engage the community with the threat of rising sea levels through education and office facilities, as well as providing a location to double as an emergency evacuation center. The community of East Boston is particularly vulnerable due to its identity as a low income neighborhood. An MBTA ferry terminal supplements the emergency evacuation center, providing an added source of public transit. A square, and a recreation building along the city of Boston's Harborwalk creates an opportunity for the public to engage with the waterfront park.

Reimagining Obsolete Underground Infrastructure, Pt. 1, Alexa Hansford

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis aims to tackle the issues of obsolete infrastructure through the creation of a new network throughout the urban center. Networks of abandoned underground structures exist in urban locations everywhere, left untouched or forgotten when building anew was easier. These sometimes iconic structures are left with only small traces of their influence upon their context. Sites like these still have the ability to influence their surroundings on both an urban and a local scale. Due to the elevation of such spaces, they are inevitably at a greater risk for damage. Redesigning the network to accommodate and adapt to the …

Reimagining Obsolete Underground Infrastructure, Pt. 4, Alexa Hansford

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis aims to tackle the issues of obsolete infrastructure through the creation of a new network throughout the urban center. Networks of abandoned underground structures exist in urban locations everywhere, left untouched or forgotten when building anew was easier. These sometimes iconic structures are left with only small traces of their influence upon their context. Sites like these still have the ability to influence their surroundings on both an urban and a local scale. Due to the elevation of such spaces, they are inevitably at a greater risk for damage. Redesigning the network to accommodate and adapt to the …

Affect Of Space: Nature Connectedness, Christian Lee

Architecture Senior Theses

This research will be mainly focused in promoting connectedness with nature through control of light. The “house” will be used as a connector in restoring the relationship. It is because the “house” is not just a shelter, but something more. It is the place where people, consciously and unconsciously, engages with one’s inner mind. It is not only “a machine for living in”, but also a connector linking between the inner world and nature. It is full of sensual quality which could mentally affect dwellers. However, the consequences of modernization are driving people’s focus away from material object of aesthetic …

Efficacy Of Perspective: The Production Of Transitoriness In 21st Century Public Space, Kenny Kim

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis considers the specific relationship between representation of cities and its capacity to promote and construct cities. In the last century, there has been a shift of theorizing in the position of the human eye to organize the new systems of the contemporary city. It has moved away from using these tools to imagine and polemically argue for or against the city.

Re-Forming Prison: Better Mental Health Through Progressive Penitentiary Design, Emily Lodato

Architecture Senior Theses

Prisons are intended to both punish and inform their inhabitants. Complicating this task are the 21.7% of inmates who have serious mental health issues. Most contemporary experts claim that addressing mental health challenges in a progressive manner in prison will promote better results in terms of reduced recidivism through improved therapeutic techniques that foster an enhanced level of general humane-ness in the day to day management of penitentiaries. This thesis can be used as a methodology for rethinking community development and the promotion of mental health through architecture.

Energy Modeling And Implementation Of Complex Building Systems, Pt. 3, Kurt Rogler

Architecture Senior Theses

Complex/dynamic systems and technologies are gaining traction in architecture, but accurate analysis and simulation of conflicting dynamic systems within a building model has yet to be achieved. Most ideas of analysis and simulation revolve around a set process: model one instance of a building (i.e. without changing parameters) and analyze in a separate program. The use of a parametric base for analysis/simulation plugins, as well as an easily manipulatable and responsive model would not only further the accuracy of testing the effects of multiple dynamic systems, but become a new tool that merges model, behavior, analysis and simulation to strive …

Energy Modeling And Implementation Of Complex Building Systems, Pt. 2, Kurt Rogler

Architecture Senior Theses

Complex/dynamic systems and technologies are gaining traction in architecture, but accurate analysis and simulation of conflicting dynamic systems within a building model has yet to be achieved. Most ideas of analysis and simulation revolve around a set process: model one instance of a building (i.e. without changing parameters) and analyze in a separate program. The use of a parametric base for analysis/simulation plugins, as well as an easily manipulatable and responsive model would not only further the accuracy of testing the effects of multiple dynamic systems, but become a new tool that merges model, behavior, analysis and simulation to strive …

Blind Spot, Andrea Macias-Yanez

Architecture Senior Theses

Negotiating between the physical and software means mediating perception, therefore physical space is defined by endo-perception and software space by exo-perception. This project investigates the temporary singularity of a frozen moment. Through means of motion Blind Spot will reveal unalienable, hidden software algorithms, stripping off what is not comprehensible and feed back the output back into the process of creating architectural speculation.

An Architecture Of Dimensions 2d»3d»4d»Et Cetera, Pt. 2, Tiffany Montañez

Architecture Senior Theses

As humans, we see, view, and understand spaces and the representation of space via images. It is natural for humans to have a preconceived notion of existing conditions based on expectation, mental record, and previous experience. This thesis explores the dimensional potential in architecture of the mis-representation of space through illusory, mischievous and precocious means. This is an architecture that questions one’s perspective, perception and placement.

This intentional and productive miscommunication of architecture happens through the creation of the drawing and model simultaneously with strategic but not comprehensive alignments to create an expected image in the mind of the viewer …

The Spatial Implications Of Creative Collaboration Spaces, Omal-Hoda Kassim

Architecture Senior Theses

Architecturally influenced, specialized spaces for storytelling disciplines will create a place of collective learning that promotes social interaction and creative cross pollination. Multifunctional spaces that use architecture to target the social dimension may become a vehicle for testing this contention. The vehicle would be a ‘storytelling incubator space’ that will specialize in film/animation/comics and other storytelling medium, thus resulting in a multi-use space that’s purpose is to create a place of collective learning. Using architecture as a motivator, the space would have highly specific workstations with spatial elements that would directly influence workflow and collaboration between students/people.

Thick Matters: De-Optimizing Infrastructural Redundancies, Pt. 2, Marco Ravini

Architecture Senior Theses

Closed system design methodologies have produced infrastructures that anticipate only a single lifetime use. This approach has burdened many urban areas with defective infrastructures in need of perpetual modification and repair. Rather than continue to over-engineer these vital frameworks to resist the inevitable failure of individual components, the next generation of public infrastructure needs to exceed its

technical specifications and seek ways to create spatial reciprocity among systems. This thesis calls for a renewed understanding of redundancy in order to strategically infuse infrastructure with public agency and diverse utility. Such an approach has the potential to yield greater systemic outputs …

Variable Tectonics: The Project Of The Jig, Steven O'Hara

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis is an investigation into how the means of fabrication and construction influence architectural design. This study intends to question existing relationships between design and making, by proposing that the designer approach the field of tectonics through the lens of the process of jigging. This paper will outline theoretical and practical foundations of such a study by (1) analyzing how the architect engages with construction by looking at the divisions and operations of professional practice of architecture. The analysis will continue by (2) defining the process of jigging, looking into where jigging sits in the practices of fabrication, and …

Thick Matters: De-Optimizing Infrastructural Redundancies, Pt. 1, Marco Ravini

Architecture Senior Theses

Closed system design methodologies have produced infrastructures that anticipate only a single lifetime use. This approach has burdened many urban areas with defective infrastructures in need of perpetual modification and repair. Rather than continue to over-engineer these vital frameworks to resist the inevitable failure of individual components, the next generation of public infrastructure needs to exceed its

technical specifications and seek ways to create spatial reciprocity among systems. This thesis calls for a renewed understanding of redundancy in order to strategically infuse infrastructure with public agency and diverse utility. Such an approach has the potential to yield greater systemic outputs …

Field Urbanism: Collective Form And The City, Pt. 3, Ann O'Connell

Architecture Senior Theses

This project employs a tactical approach to the design process. Spatial patterns and local relationships regulate form and program to facilitate these hybrid social constructions. The development of field elements re-organizes in terms of interrelationships and functions, creating infinite possible combinatory logics in the evolution of the neighborhood. These logics negotiate the threshold between figure and field, accommodating programmatic indeterminacy with architectural specificity to thicken and intensify, producing an alternative "collective" urbanism.

Field Urbanism: Collective Form And The City, Pt. 1, Ann O'Connell

Architecture Senior Theses

This project employs a tactical approach to the design process. Spatial patterns and local relationships regulate form and program to facilitate these hybrid social constructions. The development of field elements re-organizes in terms of interrelationships and functions, creating infinite possible combinatory logics in the evolution of the neighborhood. These logics negotiate the threshold between figure and field, accommodating programmatic indeterminacy with architectural specificity to thicken and intensify, producing an alternative "collective" urbanism.

Perfomance Pedagogy, Dana Hareli

Architecture Senior Theses

The term “performance pedagogy” refers to a method of instruction in which the role of the instructor is one of a scholar-performer in a subverted classroom, implicating notions of theatricality and spectatorship. Evolving from the notion of the architect as a patron-master of an atelier to that of a generalist within a craftsmen workshop, contemporary architectural education practices should foster the notion of the architect as a scholar-performer through performance-based learning. However, current formal and spatial configurations of the architectural studio inhibit the potential for theatrical interplay and improved learning. The deterioration of performance pedagogy in contemporary educational practices, fostering …

The Meat You Haven't Met, Pt. 1, Rebecca Soja

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that architecture can be a tool for exposing the social, environmental, economic, and political problems caused by industrial beef production and excessive cultural consumption of beef in order to promote meaningful change. A narrative is established in which a fictitious beef corporation seeks the expertise of an architect to design a Transparency Tour as part of a green washing campaign. However, while the intent of the corporation is to mislead consumers to gain loyalty, the architect seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the system and expose realities that would have remained hidden. Subversive design interventions within three stops …

The Meat You Haven't Met, Pt. 2, Rebecca Soja

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that architecture can be a tool for exposing the social, environmental, economic, and political problems caused by industrial beef production and excessive cultural consumption of beef in order to promote meaningful change. A narrative is established in which a fictitious beef corporation seeks the expertise of an architect to design a Transparency Tour as part of a green washing campaign. However, while the intent of the corporation is to mislead consumers to gain loyalty, the architect seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the system and expose realities that would have remained hidden. Subversive design interventions within three stops …

The Meat You Haven't Met, Pt. 5, Rebecca Soja

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that architecture can be a tool for exposing the social, environmental, economic, and political problems caused by industrial beef production and excessive cultural consumption of beef in order to promote meaningful change. A narrative is established in which a fictitious beef corporation seeks the expertise of an architect to design a Transparency Tour as part of a green washing campaign. However, while the intent of the corporation is to mislead consumers to gain loyalty, the architect seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the system and expose realities that would have remained hidden. Subversive design interventions within three stops …

Rethinking The Food Narrative, Pt. 1, Danielle Foisy, Taskina Tareen

Architecture Senior Theses

If there is anything to be learnt from developed cities around the world, it is that the private sector will continue to play an increasingly important role in the urban food supply of emerging cities. In the context of Southern Africa, where the informal sector continues to serve a large percentage of the urban poor population, but is losing power due to the advent of modern agribusinesses, it becomes necessary to derive methods to integrate small-scale vendors into formal food marketing systems through the respatializing of logistical spaces of food aggregation and distribution in the city. Through a consolidation of …

Super Levee Breached: A New Infrastructure For Magangué, Nikole Cabrera

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis is an experiment meant to re-imagine fluvial edges as thickened places of habitation. These interventions must exist on land, on the edge, and in the water, acting as a system of infrastructure to spread excess water out, absorb it, and capture it to release it later when necessary. In order to reconcile the relationship between the built and natural environment, the proposed solution requires the integration of water into the overall design. The outcome is a community that can better withstand flooding, recover quickly, and continue on with their daily lives while maintaining their respectable livelihoods.

Reimagining Obsolete Underground Infrastructure, Pt. 3, Alexa Hansford

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis aims to tackle the issues of obsolete infrastructure through the creation of a new network throughout the urban center. Networks of abandoned underground structures exist in urban locations everywhere, left untouched or forgotten when building anew was easier. These sometimes iconic structures are left with only small traces of their influence upon their context. Sites like these still have the ability to influence their surroundings on both an urban and a local scale. Due to the elevation of such spaces, they are inevitably at a greater risk for damage. Redesigning the network to accommodate and adapt to the …

Charon's Passage: A Pyramid For The 21st Century, Maximilian Kronauer

Architecture Senior Theses

Charon’s Passage is the product of nimiety1: a pyramid for the 21st century. By engaging the mausoleum within the context of global urbanization and global consumption, notions of permanence and object-form relationships are challenged and renegotiated through the introduction of foreign agents and spatial products. Ultimately, the agency of the project is facilitated by overlapping autonomies that assume the scale, density, and power structures of a city-state as exhibited by the casino-resort while reinforcing the sacredness of the mausoleum’s objective formal agenda.

Towards A Hip-Hop Architecture, Sekou Cooke, Olalekan Jeyifous, Rashida Bumbray, Michael Ford, Andres L. Hernandez, Craig L. Wilkins, Lawrence Chua, Amanda Williams, Travis Gosa, Hector Tarrido-Picart, Shawn Rickenbacker, James Garrett Jr., Jack Travis

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

Syracuse University School of Architecture "Towards a Hip-Hop Architecture" Event

Shrine Analysis, Anastasia Benko

Architecture Thesis Prep

Shrines are used throughout different cultures to mark graves, sites of importance, and or events that may have occurred, and any number of things that may holds significance to an individual or a group of people. The interest in studying these constructs, however, comes from the shared aesthetic qualities that are utilized in many different families of shrines to create a sense of spirituality, or more specifically, to create a heightened awareness of an individual’s understanding of him/her self. Architecture can learn from the vernacular of shrines in order to understand the inherent spirituality of a structure. This vernacular is …

Violent Growth, Leandro Cortez

Architecture Thesis Prep

Generating mix-use program to meet the housing, economic, and nutritive needs of rural migrants to the "urban periphery."

Obsolete Architecture: Revitalization Along A Spectrum Of Utility, Garrett Goodridge

Architecture Thesis Prep

I am interested in understanding the potential contemporary significance of currently obsolete infrastructures in architecture. I am also claiming that architecture exists along a spectrum of utility. It is insinuated that obsolete architecture is subjugated to one side of the spectrum (uselessness), however, it is not yet (completely) dead. It instead exists in a middle ground between useless and useful. I am contending to exploit the extremes, and in doing so, drawing attention to the ambiguity of the obsolete architecture at hand in effort to generate modern functionality.