Architecture Commons^™

Into The Seam: The Architecture Of Boundary, Erik T. Leahy

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The current conflict occurring in the State of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is representative of a trend which is becoming common in the modern political era: the walling off of the ‘first world’ from the ‘third world’; ‘civilization’ from ‘wilderness’. Examples of this include (but not limited to) the US-Mexico border, the 38th Parallel between North and South Korea, the economic remnants of the Iron Curtain, the subdivision of the Balkans, and the division and nationalization of the Indian Subcontinent. These border zones reflect cultural, political, and economic differences. Recently, however, through infrastructural definition and physical manifestation, many …

Rail (Re) Connection, Benton J. Cooper

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The primary goal of this project is understand why the passenger rail industry in the United States has fallen short of the rest of the world over the last several decades and to promote the revitalization and re-connection of the passenger rail industry within the United States, with the focus starting in the Midwest. The overall scope of the project is to use existing rail infrastructure, track and existing smaller depots, and new hub terminals to integrate passenger traffic back into the rail industry. As the existing infrastructure becomes outdated and/or worn new infrastructure to support new rail technology will …

Ecotourism, Grant M. Ronchi

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The idea to design a fully functioning ecotourism lodge was conceived as a result of two projects, the first being an academically organized team assignment and the second, an actual venture of one of my relatives. The challenges that arise in designing solutions for an environmentally-conscious uniform facility are especially stimulating when they are to be executed abroad. The marketability of such a facility needs to be contemplated carefully, respecting a well established culture. Deliberate attention to a triangle of three components will drive this design as a thesis project: the natives and their culture, construction methods and materials, and …

Design Capitalism, Emily Van Court

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Social business examples are few in the architecture profession. In fact, humanitarian architecture as a concept is new to the field. Left to non-profits and academics (Architecture for Humanity and Rural Studio respectively), humanitarian architecture is not traditionally regarded as a profitable business.

However, other fields have found ways to combine a social initiative and a profitable business. Grameen Bank founder Dr. Muhammad Yunus not only defined the term, but created the model for social business. Subsequently, many non-profits have followed suit and applied the successful system, increasing the capacity for social change within their fields.

My thesis will aim …

Permanent Impermanence, Craig A. Weflen

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

"This is the real news of our century. It is highly feasible to take care of all of humanity at a higher standard of living than anybody has ever experienced or dreamt of. To do so without having anybody profit at the expense of another, so that everybody can enjoy the whole earth. And it can all be done by 1985." -Buckminster Fuller, 1971

41 years later, we still have people living in abject poverty, forced into situations where the politics of displacement actively prevent them from improving their living situation. For an organization that puts out a "Handbook for …

Fused, Abby A. Baumert

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Since the 1800’s, the consolidation of rural schools in the United States has been a controversial topic for policymakers, school administrators, and rural communities. Primary concerns with consolidation include budget, efficiency, student achievement levels, school size, and community identity. In the history of American education, consolidation has been an alternative way to solve rural issues. Currently, rural schools and communities facing declining enrollments and financial cutbacks are challenged by the growing trend of consolidation and school reorganization.

Debates continue today, whether the consolidation movement is considered a success. Opponents of school consolidation point to research that suggests consolidation may not …

A Computational Response To Arrested Development, Nay Z. Soe

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Current improvements in transportation, communication technology, and a steady rise in globalization has lead to the effect of suburbanization. While the exact effects and implications of suburbanization remain a matter of great controversy, it is undeniable that substantial qualitative changes are taking place in the world economy, with major spatial and social implications. These conditions pose significant challenges to the normative design practices in concern to planning and housing, requiring an approach that operates beyond the quick fix or the local solution.

In order to operate critically and design effectively to these conditions, an examination of socio-spatial urban processes and …

The Impact Of Interior Design On Hospital Cleaning: Can Good Design Decisions Help Cleaning Staff Achieve Better Outcomes?, Julia Graves Williams

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Evidence- based design is commonly recognized as the best practice for the interior design of healthcare facilities. Research indicates that careful planning and design can have a positive effect on hospital staff and patient outcome. However, there is a lack of existing research on how interior design effects the cleaning of healthcare facilities. More research is needed to determine the impact of interior design specifically on the cleaning and maintenance personnel of our hospitals and clinics. If designers can make the important job of cleaning and disinfecting healthcare facilities easier then healthcare acquired infections can be reduced saving lives and …

In.Form: The Journal Of Architecture, Design And Material Culture Volume 11: Design Process, Brian M. Kelly, Randall Teal, Timothy Hemsath, Sean M. Rotar, Lohren Ray Deeg, David Karle

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The College of Architecture and the Kruger Collection are proud to co-sponsor In.Form, the scholarly journal of the University of Nebraska College of Architecture. Each volume seeks to explore a different theme or concept relating to architecture, design and material culture. In.Form is a peer-reviewed journal.

Encouraging Creativity In The Workplace Through The Physical Environment: Focusing Of The Office Workstation, Dale R. Landry

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

People can be creative anywhere but how can designers and organizations encourage this process to occur at an office workstation through the physical work environment? This four stage study investigated what Interior Designers, experts in a field that judges creativity, felt they needed to enhance their creativity while occupying a workstation in a commercial or home office.

An exploratory mixed method of social science qualitative and quantitative research was employed that applied methodological triangulation validating the data through cross verification of codes produced through the narrative process that were perceived to influence the creative phenomena in office workers. In stage …

Experiential Interior Design: Branding Entertainment And Nightlife For The Postmodern Young Urban Professional, Niccole S. Skomal

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Past study on Interior Design has been primarily looked at through the lenses of aesthetics and functionality. Only recently have scholars begun to see the influence marketing, in the form of branding, can have on the Interior Design process in targeting specific lifestyle groups. The purpose of this research is to understand the fabric of the postmodern Young Urban Professional lifestyle as a marketing tool for branding and designing services in the form of entertainment and nightlife. With an increasing lack of community and social connectedness in today’s postmodern society, Young Urban Professionals tend to consume entertainment and nightlife as …

Corporate Office Employee Analysis: Transformation From Closed Office Layout To Open Floor Plan Environment, Stephanie J. Fanger

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The office workplace within the United States has undergone monumental changes in the past century. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has cited that Americans spend an average of 90 percent of their time indoors. As human beings can often spend a majority of the hours in the day at their workplace, more so than their home, it is important to understand the effects of the built environment on the American office employee. In order to stay current with modern times, General Dynamics, a corporation located in Scottsdale, Arizona implemented a renovation of interior space. This thesis examines the transformation from …

Barriers To Implementation Of Sustainable Construction Practices In The Homebuilding Industry: A Case Study Of Rochester, Ny, Heidi S. Tomkiewicz

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

This study will evaluate the current barriers to standardization and widespread implementation of sustainable practices in the residential homebuilding industry. A literature review evaluates and defines the relevant tenets of sustainability creating a cohesive definition of sustainable building practices for the purposes of this study. These defined features were used to evaluate current practices and certification programs. An analysis of the current scholarship on barriers to sustainable development combined with this information to create a framework for a case study of homebuilders and their practices in the greater Rochester, New York area. This study was conducted in order to ascertain …

Women's Specific Soccer Training Facility, Tockook Sabrina

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

My original intentions were to focus on healthy eating and designing a building that corresponds to the concept of cooking. Diving deeper into the concept I had come to discover the correspondence was not reaching the level that I desired. I knew that I enjoyed the concept of healthy nutrition, and exercise has been a constant theme in my life as well. This lead me to deal more stickily with nutrition and exercise.

Personally I have played soccer for 16 years of my life, and soccer was the first idea that came to my mind when thesis projects were first …

Harvester 1.0, Andrew Sorensen

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

One critical topic has always remained constant throughout the life of this thesis: efficient and multi-functioned urban land use.

It began with the questioning of golf courses and how much land they consumed for typically only a single, recreational function. After realizing the more direct and architectural programmatic relationships, the project shifted to the incorporation of farming into the urban environment while also linking it to today’s growing digital infrastructure needs. This thesis is a means of exploration through process and not necessarily an end result. The questions and potential that this project raises about the architectural relationships is what …

Intermodal | Multimodal, Adam J. Andrews

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The intent is to confront waste on both a global and local level using architecture to engage and educate the public. Global waste, in this case, is defined as intermodal containers and local waste is defined as municipally collected solid waste. I intend to show through my designs that architecture need not be the source of yet more energy use and material waste. Instead, design can be the vehicle through which we begin to lessen our impact on Planet Earth by reusing the materials already at hand to create architecture and energy.

A waste to energy approach [both architectural and …

Vertical Void, Trumble Maura

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

As architects, we continue to add enclosed spaces to the market in every city on a nearly daily basis, yet millions of square feet of viable, designed space lie empty around the world. While the responsibility of the surplus of leasable square feet is most often assumed to be shouldered by the real estate market, as designers, we must as some point begin to ask ourselves if the blame for the continued ignorance of this issue of vacancy cannot be laid at our feet. Spatial needs change with the economy, technology, and social needs, but have they changed so much …

Place [For] The Children, Heather Hudson

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Due to changing social and economic trends, enrollment in child care has become customary for the large majority of children under the age of five in the U.S. Although the importance of the early years has slowly begun to gain more recognition, early childhood development and education is still not viewed as the imperative societal issue that it demands. As the widespread environment for raising children in the U.S. has gradually moved from the informal atmosphere of the home to the formal settings of a child care center, the impact of the built environment on children’s development has often been …

Dead End Urban Corridors: Reconnecting Urban Space, Molly Macklin

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

This proposal seeks to look at urban renewal through the analysis of main street thoroughfares that weave through the urban fabric connecting neighborhoods and people as vital life-lines within cities. How does history, culture, economics, and existing infrastructure feed these corridors? And what happens when this artery is blocked by development?

Specifically, this thesis is focused on exploring a non-urban oriented, dead-end corridor typology that has been forced onto the urban main street resulting in an area that has become blighted, underutilized, and disconnected from the surrounding urban environment.

The main argument is aimed at critiquing overlaying typologies onto …

Agri-Remnant, Audrey Burns

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Along the lonely stretch of Highway 69 just west of the York and Seward county line close to Gresham, Nebraska, lies a site which has become of keen interest in my search. Two decrepit barns, placed irregularly on the site, have fallen victim to neglect. Most likely the owner of the land has erected newer steel structures to hold his equipment and is letting time be the only factor in the process of deconstruction to these barns.

Constructed entirely of lumber and fasteners, and constructed by the handiwork of the landowner, these barns are some of the few remaining salvageable …

Optimizing The Urban Landscape, Kristin S. Harbert

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

While road infrastructure is at the forefront of the thesis, patterns of Omaha’s road history were studied to get an understanding of the deeper issue. The research suggested that the problem with road infrastructure is largely based in the creation of arterial streets. Wid­ening roads and creating additional arterial streets initially reduces costs and reduces delays, however the perceived benefits are far less than the actual cost: more home-sprawl, more business-sprawl, more big-boxes, more strip malls, new construction, more cars. On the other hand, if the congestion can be managed rather than cre­ating arterial streets, the opposite occurs: initial increased …

Altruistic Infrastructure, Derik Eckhardt

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The evolution and expansion of cities necessitates a concurrent proliferation of the modern tools of growth. These tools, or infrastructure, are currently programmed to perform one functional operation, when in reality their presence alone brings forth consequences in our urban fabric. That is, they mark, divide, and obstruct movements in the city while simultaneously creating peripheral spaces of marginality. Furthermore, in developing countries cities struggle to expand while providing adequate infrastructure. The provision of infrastructure has the opportunity to be an architectural contribution beyond the current model of idiosyncratic structures.

How do pieces of infrastructure adapt to provide more than …

Reactivate, Kelly Hiskey

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

[Question]

How can communities be incorporated onto the site of a closed military base?

[Signifcance]

The Government owns billions of square feet of unused property across the United States. In fact, the United States Government owns over 50% of the land in the Western half of the country.  Military facilities

occupy the largest area of federal land, aside from parks and forests.  Many of these military sites are being left to their own demise. In fact, 27% of the nation’s military installations have been closed by the Department of Defense, via the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) initiative, leaving millions …

A Museum Of Self Archaeology: Exploring The Potential Of Narrative In Architecture, Jonathan Martin

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The intent of this thesis project is to question the methods of translation between narrative text and architectural space and to examine new questions and creative directions of infusing text and story into architectural practice. It must be critical of the conditions of use where this type of method have been and can be used. Is it merely appropriate in the circumstances of culturally significant or memorialized buildings, or is there a broader use by which it can affect architecture? It must also be critical of how much influence and integration this method can have on architectural practice and the …

Sustainable Development, Matthew Gulsvig

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The goal of this thesis is to research, design and document an architectural project that address the realities of the current and future social, environmental and economic issues of the United States. Specifically, the intent of this venture is to produce a project which can obtain two levels of self-sufficiency within a dense urban context. The first level of self-sufficiency would be obtained by not requiring the acquisition of energy from nonrenewable external sources. The second level of self-sufficiency would provide the permanent occupants the means to sustain the basic needs of life without requiring financial support from externals sources. …

Disaster Relief And Reuse, Beth R. Valenta

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

the human state in the aftermath of a crisis is at its most vulnerable.

the goal of disaster relief is to evaluate the needs of a community and options available for creating shelters for displaced persons in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

after a disaster, more than at any other time, people are concerned about their safety and security. architecture has the ability to provide a level of comfort through dwellings, which provide shelter,

privacy and security. once safety and stability are established, a healing process can begin.

architecture has two basic solutions for disaster relief. the first is …

Hydro[Lodge]Ic, Brittany Mcclure

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Over 70% of the world’s surface is covered with water, making it seem uninhabit-able. Or is it? From very early accounts in history man has been able to survive living on water for extended periods of time. Historically this time was a result of traveling, not necessarily a desire to live on the water. Even today, structures built for the aquatic environment fit more into the realm of tourism and leisure or a type of science / maritime study space, than a permanent dwelling. Living under or on water is certainly not a new idea. There are many science fiction …

Inform Form Perform, Nathaniel Holland

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Architecture as a profession has always concerned itself with finding beauty in built forms. In the digital age beauty is changing; information controls our lives and true beauty is found in the way we interpret it. Architects have developed and employed parametric design strategies to both interpret this information and increase their production. Though these strategies have improved architectural design, they are not being used to their full extent in the design process. I propose taking the use of computers in aiding architectural design one step further; site information and program data should INFORM the project, driving the creation of …

Interior Designer's Attitudes Toward Sustainable Interior Design Practices And Barriers Encountered When Using Sustainable Interior Design Practices, Leigh Bacon

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The objectives of this study evaluated whether interior designer’s had a positive or negative attitude toward sustainable interior design practices.  Next, it evaluated the three areas of perceived barriers interior designers encounter when using sustainable interior design practices (project capabilities, transition to sustainability, and knowledge and skills associated with sustainable design).  The final objectives determined if attitudes and barriers affected the use of sustainable interior design practices, and determined whether the attitudes of interior designers and the barriers encountered by interior designers were related.  Overall, attitudes toward sustainable interior design practices were positive.  Barrier scores indicated that factors affecting project …

Bim Applications In Conceptual Design Phase: Exploring The Abilities And Limitations Of Autodesk Revit Architecture Through The Generative Geometric Design Approach, Sara Ben Lashihar

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Autodesk Revit Architecture as one of BIM applications has shown recent improvements in creating complex forms in conceptual design phase. These improvements have been published lately in reports (Autodesk 2010; Autodesk 2009) and books (Krygiel et al. 2010). The presented abilities were introduced within a general scope, and they were not examined in detail with various generative design approaches. The generalization and the ambiguity of these publications lead designers to avoid using Revit in conceptual design phase, and use other 3D modeling softwares that are more compatible with their way of thinking.

This thesis examines the abilities and limitations of …