Architecture Commons^™

Panda-Monium: A Panda Environment For The Henry Doorly Zoo, Roseann I. M. Masek

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The project that I am proposing to accomplish would be to design a Panda Exhibit located at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, NE. John Armknecht from Stanley How Architects in Omaha has been contacted for consultation and mentoring purposes since their firm handles the Zoo’s designs. Previously he has also helped another student with his thesis design for the expansion of the Gorilla Complex, and he said he would be glad to help out again. Work has preliminarily begun on the panda design by their firm; however, only the site location has been decided. Over the summer I would …

Adaptability In Architecture, Lucas J. Kielion

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

For too long, architecture has stood as an expression of permanence, recording a specific moment in history. This project begins with an idea that the adaptation of architecture is eminent, thus changing the process in which we design. The information age resulted in a highly mobile society, where modernization became more generic, the specificity of place changed, and time became more abstract. Mechanic invention supplied ‘generic’ standards to improve common application for tools. Strategies of a general building system could be familiarized with a local place, inherent with the idea of versatility. Through this design, it is important not to …

Surface Awareness, Evan M. Gunn

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

My design thesis is an exploration of surface articulations through digitally fabricated constructs. One of the most fundamental acts of architecture has been the construction of a surface to delineate a territory. How architects conceive and make surfaces is primary to my investigations. Most certainly, it begins with the ability to invent new surface qualities through the act of making an inherently two-dimensional material into a three dimensional construct. The designer’s ability to invent new surface qualities and ultimately experiences is directly related to their ability to work with materials. My personal belief is that the architect should have knowledge …

Biodynamic Dwelling Picking Up The Trailer Trash, Amber A. Ellett

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

BIODYNAMIC DWELLING is a graduate design thesis which explores the current status of the “mobile home,” its ubiquity, and its history, ultimately seeking to innovate this commodified housing type. Millions of Americans reside in “mobile” residences of varying types, harbored in an environment which is neither healthy nor appropriate in a post-fossil fuel era where energy independence is paramount.

As the most humane and personal of all built spaces, the dwelling affords the unique position to at once provoke, question, and inform the position of architecture within the realm of society. This proposal for a biodynamic dwelling—at once both bioclimatic …

The Ritual Experience, John F. Walker

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

What initially attracted me to this project was a combination of several factors. The first be¬ing that I have had a growing interest in the de¬sign of religious structures, wondering why are churches designed the way that they are? How do a religious affiliation’s beliefs affect the de¬sign of a place of worship, and how are they reflected in the place of worship?

Regarding the site that was chosen, Messiah Lutheran Church has recently gone through a strategic planning process and, within the last couple weeks, has adopted a new strategic min¬istry plan document. A vision statement within this document …

Overlooked By The Skyscrapers: The Creighton University Ballpark Complex, Kristopher M. Tourek

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

At the Collegiate level, a stadium represents more than just a sporting event. The stadium has grown to become a symbol of university pride and often reflects its accomplishments. The proposed project involves combining sports and entertainment in order to create a Baseball Stadium that will serve as home to the Creighton University Baseball team. The first intention is to generate a building that exhibits the connection between the experiences of a game with the architecture of a stadium. The secondary objectives are 1)Establish the stadium to be a source of civic pride in Omaha, 2)Design the stadium to be …

Submercial: Research At Its Closest Proximity, Kristin L. Ubben

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Located off the coast of Northern California, just west of Eureka and Humboldt Bay, it is the intention of mine to design a site specific research facility to primarily study oceanic activity. Responding to the planet’s current environmental conditions, I feel it necessary for solutions to manifest themselves within the realm of sustainable, as well as in an interest for future energy sources. The planet’s oceans hold one possible answer for this. By committing to a project that focuses on researching water at an extremely close proximity, it will also strive for the ability to be dependent on water for …

Urban Essentials, Ruthie G. Gould

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Industrial development throughout the world has led to a global society. Although sharing of information and technology is beneficial in many ways, these global means have also created many issues that are not always contributing to economic and social societies. International business is not only unsustainable for environmental reasons, but it also often means that many unethical decisions are made for the purposes of cheap labor, mass revenue, and other un-amiable intentions. The Urban Essentials project’s purpose is to create an urban area that searches for a solution against these capitalistic means of business. This idea is realized in the …

Contrarian Urges, Jason W. Cave

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Historically, the default space of architectural design has been one of neutral Cartesian coordinates. However, in other design fields, (such as aeronautical, automotive and naval) the design space is conceived as an environment of forces and motion such as flow, turbulence, viscosity and drag. Architecture, as a static object, has much to gain from a design process that con¬ceives of form in a virtual environment in motion.

The focus of this thesis will be to develop an iterative architectural design process that utilizes techniques in animation software. The purpose of generating architectural form through animation software is to allow architectural …

Eduvironments, Mathew T. Smith

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The goal for the middle school is to create a place which first looks at the way in which we learn and then uses these findings in its design decisions in a way which will best maximize a students ability to learn not only in an educational sense, but physically and more importantly socially.

Bien-Ètre: Transcending Into The Reflective Moment, Michael L. Bettis

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

My THESIS PROJECT IS AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLORE THE USE OF ARCHITECTURE IN DEFINING PRIVACY AND CREATE A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT WHICH ASSISTS THE HUMAN BODY IN ACHIEVING SELF AWARENESS, SELF CONSCIOUSNESS, AND SELF REALIZATION WHICH SUPPORT ACHIEVEMENT OF A REFLECTIVE MOMENT. THE VEHICLE FOR THIS PROCESS IS A COED SPA LOCATED ON NORTHERLY ISLAND ACROSS THE BAY FROM CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. I HAVE USED A VARIETY OF APPROPRIATE SOCIO/PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES AND PROCESSES IN CON.JUNCTION WITH A SERIES OF THRESHOLDS AND SPACES IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT TRANSCENDENCE INTO THIS REFLECTIVE MOMENT.

I HAVE CREATED AN ARCHITECTURAL FORM THAT IS BOLD AND …

What Is The Generative Role For Music In Architecture?, Cole A. Wycoff

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The origin of my design thesis project interests had its first identifi able origin on November 2nd, 2006, shortly after attending a lecture on the life and works of Antoine Predock. Predock talked in great detail about not only his designs, but also his design process. The descriptions he provided of his methods and creative intuition began an internal assessment of my own design process, which, in fact, is where this thesis investigation begins. Methodology is central to this framed investigation, and the design thesis project will allow me to develop a latent and more implicit design thinking regarding architecture. …

Thinkfloat, Kent R. Rasmussen

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Today’s Communication Age has provided people more ability to share and process information. This has much to do with the technological advancements in the latter of the last century such as the telephone, the computer, and the internet. These technologies are a brilliant resource for discovering knowledge about anything, at anytime. Therefore, with all of this information accessible, it whets our appetite for the exploration of the unknown. We are standing at a new threshold of curiosity and movement which is poised for more than idea-sharing over vast distances; we are ready physically to actualize these explorations.

As inquisitive social …

Lot 30: Rerouting Suburbia, Daniel A. Siedhoff

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

In architectural practice professionals deal with a number of fascinating issues daily. From clients to contractors, politics to energy concerns, material usage to money management, architects of the world have the amazing task of delivering a product that influences the physical and mental environments of its users. Evolving from a conversation regarding urban sprawl and suburban housing, this project is aimed at finding a way to inform as well as plant a seed of impact in our rapidly expanding cities. Whereas in local contemporary developments like Fallbrook, (a residential development on the northwest side of Lincoln) the single family house …

Eco-Lodge Lumahai, Dustin L. Wekesser

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Every year, millions of vacationers escape their daily routines to find peace and relaxation in tropical locations that differ from the worlds they come from. Vacations are becoming more elaborate and the list of destinations is continually being enlarged as the availability of air travel reaches more and more places. Yet as commercialism enters these regions and investors begin cornering the market, the essence of these once exotic locations seems to get overlooked and in time, ultimately forgotten. Places that once consisted of straw huts and bamboo bungalows are now being confronted with crude, insensitive designs that neglect the landscape …

A Bus Center, Troy D. Keilig

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Bus stops and bus shelters vary throughout the world reflecting the environment around them and the needs of the community. From a hard stick in the ground in India, hammocks hanging from a tree in Galapagos, or a rounded glass and steel structure in London; bus stops are simultaneously a gathering place and a place to depart from, a place to watch others and a place to be watched, a place to be protected from the elements while being integrated into the environment. Bus stops are both the beginning and the end.

Doug Suisman (1997, pg. 80) has called bus …

Designing An Urban Meditation Centre, Joliette M. Gadeken

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

When we, as students, design architecture we tend to conceptualize built space as form and gesture - as one grand, unified whole. However, that is not how the built environment is experienced. Architecture exists not simply as architectonic expression or as conceptual meaning, but also as an experienced series of physical spaces connected to each other and to their surroundings by the movement of people through these spaces. In approaching this project, I chose to experiment with a process based on designing spaces in much the same way that they are experienced. The entire development of this project was informed …

Ager Apparatus, Alexander M. Jack

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Methodology: Agriculture is as indigenous to Nebraska as tall prairie grass. It was the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1850 that made over 10 million acres accessible to farmers. Dually, with the installment of the modern railroad, a network for the movement of Nebraska goods was founded. All this could not have been possible without the evolution of the agricultural machinery by modern invention. At the birth of the state, the steam tractor (an adaptation derived from locomotion) was a modern farmhand. This piece of machinery (that only pulled) spawned many tributaries of agricultural equipment today. GPS driven combines, plows, balers, and …

Hadrian's Wall Museum , Matthew T. Whaley

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The remains of Hadrian’s Wall constitute the greatest Roman frontier in all of Europe. The stones left behind tell the story of Roman Britain, and provide the physical evidence of one of Rome’s greatest engineering triumphs. Despite this, visitation to the wall has been falling over the past thirty years. The numerous museums that exist along the wall are not linked with each other and are operated independently—a fact that leads to a spirit of competition rather than cooperation. The exhibits at the museums themselves typically focus on archeological finds at their respective sites, rather than the stories behind them. …

Memorial_Museum For The Vietnamese Expatriates In America, Tam Minh Vo

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

IMPETUS
Over the past 30 years, Vietnamese expatriates living all around the world continue to struggle with their collective identity. These people loss their original authentic government, have a “home” that they cannot live in and carry a nationality that they can no longer affirm. Nonetheless, these Vietnamese, including myself, are segregated citizens resettling amongst many countries. I fear that these issues about the Vietnamese can potentially be damaging to the vitality of future Vietnamese-American generations. Although, I believe these issues can be harmonized with serious commitments to unify these enclaves of displaced Vietnamese.

IMPLEMENTATION
In early 2005, Immigrant Resettlement …

[Urban]_Design , Jason M. Goetsch

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Design is a term that is used often in our culture. It is often thought of as a thing; an image or duplication of something seen elsewhere. There is often a heavy influence from popular culture and advertising telling us what is “designed”; what is fashionable. I am arguing that design is not an object, rather it is an ideal; a process. It is defined as “to have a goal…intent.” I intend to show the benefits of design by showing the economic, ecological and social impacts that “good” architecture can have. The extra time and expense of design not only …

Light Everlasting: A Concert Hall For St. Olaf College, Elizabeth A. Leach

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

St.OlafCollege is a small, private Lutheran college with, among other programs, a lively, well-respected music program of which I have first-hand knowledge. It is a school where one-third of the 3,100 students are involved in at least one music ensemble. The problem is that the campus does not have an adequate performance space for the numerous quality musical events that happen on campus throughout the year. My project will attempt to solve this problem by providing a concert hall for this campus where music is such an important part of the school's identity and the daily campus fabric.

Since I …

Reuse & Reinterpretation, Lisa M. Satter

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Throughout many areas of the country, buildings are beginning to fall into disrepair and abandonment. Due to changing technologies, requirements, and adjacencies, these buildings are being demolished and replaced with new structures. Previously, much of the effect of abandonment was only felt in cities large enough to accommodate warehouses or industrial buildings. However, more recently smaller communities have begun to reach the same problems of empty buildings falling into disrepair. Schools are especially at risk of this fate. Various issues can cause these schools to become abandoned, including a lack of space for increased numbers of students, a lowering enrollment …

Learning From The Pass, Kylee M. Anderson

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

My project is not one which can be presented simply as a design issue and an appropriate architectural solution. There are many architectural issues raised throughout the project and the goal is not to wholly solve them but to bring the issues to light and to analyze and interpret them in hopes of reaching some greater understanding of architecture’s role in a physically unstable environment.

I first became interested in the topic of architecture and natural disaster in the year following Hurricane Katrina. There seemed to be a lot of ideas on how to rebuild the gulf coast and repair …

Re Use Ful, Aaron P. Tvrdy

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

My terminal project is an exploration of reusing materials, developed in prototype and implemented into a practical scenario as part of an effort to limit waste in our society.

Limit the amount of waste we produce by reusing materials rather than discarding them.

I believe that the amount of waste we produce is a serious issue that must be addressed through creative reuses instead of larger landfills. I will utilize reused materials to create architectural components that can be adapted and inserted into any design solution. If we can gather materials in bulk that typically get discarded as waste, we …

Rancho Siloe’ | Instituto Misionero Transcultural, Jeff H. Davis

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

“Rancho Siloe’,” as called by the missionaries of New Tribes Mission-Mexico, is a missionary training school named for its place, Siloe’: a 19 acre piece of ranch land North of Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Still in its infancy with only 15 students, the current school is a composition of need based additions created over the time of its existence. Its future student population and rate of growth are unknown.

As a non-profit Christian mission organization, NTM-Mexico relies on donations and voluntary labor to sustain Rancho Siloe’s construction. Some of these volunteers bring with them professional experience, while others are often …

In The Loop: Infrastructural Landscape In Chicago's Urban Core, Erin E. Mumm

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Transportation facilities are compelling architectural structures because they are not built as a destination but rather as a facilitator towards its inhabitant’s destination. People from every background interact through chance encounters within transportation facilities. Because these facilities are not considered destinations their upkeep is often neglected and architectural aesthetic is not always a major concern for their design. This is most likely due to the fact that these structures are often funded by the local or national government and as long as these facilities continue to function at a mediocre pace, authorities find no reason to improve upon it. However …

Distribution Concourse: Concepts For A Post-Commericalized Landscape Within An Increasingly Networked Culture, Nathan P. Miller

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

DISTRIBUTION CONCOURSE is design research thesis which proposes a reconfiguration of large “emptied-out” blocks of commercial space. Space planning strategies which have led to the emergence of commercial artifacts, such as the dead mall, are evaluated against new commercial models which rely on distribution and digital networks.

Under the premise that digital commercial practices are changing how we consider the private-sector in relation to urban infrastructure, DISTRIBUTION CONCOURSE promotes a new urban organizational scheme which may thrive in post-commercialized areas of the city.

Services such as Amazon.com and the availability of wireless internet across entire city grids have made ambiguous …

Parametric Methods: Wyoming Renovation, F. Britt Woolf

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Primacy will be given to the objective of rediscovering process through utilizing parametric methods for design thinking. What will be explored is the relationship between thinking and doing in architecture, proposing a process which does not separate one from the other but instead removes the distinction between the abstract and the pragmatic. Through these considerations, an emphasis will be placed on processes themselves including; data collection, environmental analysis, scenario prototyping, manufacturing and fabrication methods, material production and assembly techniques. Each one of these processes has a relationship to parametric methods. Parametrics communicates and responds to these processes in an effort …

[Re]Considering The Refugee Camp, Matthew C. Stoub

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Abstract:

Conflict and disaster occurs throughout the world every day. The aftershock of these situations gives rise to millions of stateless persons: refugees. Today, the Camp is virtually synonymous with refugee situations. These institutional establishments are intended as a transitory center for sustaining life until the inhabitants can safely Return home. The tangible reality of these situations is that they become permanent fixtures in the landscape. The current system of warehousing refugees in overpopulated wastelands creates a strong dependence for the victim upon humanitarian aid. The camp is seen as unwanted, parasitic, and as a necessary evil.

Utilizing a diagrammatical …