Architecture Commons^™

On Nothing, Rutuja Ganoo

Architecture Senior Theses

In southeast Asian philosophy, artha, kama, dharma and moksha are said to be the four major goals in a Hindu's life. While artha (monetary) and karma (sensory) are physical and psychological, moksha is the ultimate destination. In this worldview, the soul goes through endless cycles o existence on various planes, until it grows spiritually; moksha is the release of the soul from the cycle of birth, life and death to the ultimate reunion with "god". The entity being released from this "binding," the soul, is said to work symbiotically with the human body to engage in worldly learning and experience. …

An Argument For Ornament: Louder Than Status Quo, Marda Zenawi

Architecture Senior Theses

There is a pervasive silence in architecture today - one created by methodological monolingualism, the limits of core and shell logics, and the emphasis on marketable iconicity. Broad moves like curtain walls, fixtures like mullions, or comfort systems like air conditioning become an assumed part of the environment. This is problematic because these artifacts are heavy with ideology. Their ubiquitousness and the complacency in their use leave us with an increasingly seamless and self-similar global architecture, such that it becomes a dogmatically assumed part of the environment - such that we have no awareness of what we subscribe to by …

Public Space With Character: A Late, Late, Entry- Chicago Library Competition, Kokeith Perry Ii

Architecture Senior Theses

The city of Chicago has a complex relationship with the aesthetics of civic monuments and infrastructures. The cities most canonical projects validate its apparent biases - an oscillation between iconic modern and postmodern figures proliferate the urban fabric. The dynamic between these two paradigms creates a complex relationship between architecture, urban space, and the public mirroring the cities longstanding and complex history of segregated urban space and peoples. This project draws precedent from the format of the 1980 Stanley Tigerman exhibition Late entries to the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition, a then radical competition set to reinvigorate the discipline the way …

Political Archipelago: Repoliticizing Post-Umbrella Revolution Hong Kong, Dora Yui Kei Lo

Architecture Senior Theses

This project aims to re-politicize the public sphere of post-Umbrella Revolution Hong Kong. Umbrella Revolution was one of the latest defining events of democratic struggles in Hong Kong. Like other protests, civil disobedience and revolutions, Umbrella Revolution was more than just “organized public dissents”; it was an experiment of an alternative democratic sphere for agonistic struggles. The occupation temporarily altered, reoriented, disoriented or debilitated the existing boundaries and thresholds in the city; it resisted the logic of the city to create a space of exception. However, these temporary alterations did not leave significant permanent imprints to the city. At the …

Falling Ground: Underground Osmosis, Byungryoung Lee

Architecture Senior Theses

Highly urbanized areas over the world must prepare for another huge population inflow. According to the UN, around 70 percent of the world population will likely live in urban areas by 2050. Big cities such as New York City, Tokyo, and London already face land scarcity and high property costs in their main urban regions.

This thesis explores a new underground typology, adapting into existing urban contexts as a potential solution for these growing issues. Existing infrastructure elements such as parks, subways, and water tanks or sewage systems, which are omnipresent in urban regions, become part of the underground space …

Atmospheric Architecture: Virtual Possibility Of The Picturesque, Yuqi Jin

Architecture Senior Theses

In the 18th century theory of the “picturesque,” imagination substitutes reason. That strategy was profoundly captured in artists’ use of the Claude Glass as a device to distort natural scenes and reproduce reality. A later and more “unreal” variation of this imaginary occurs in picturesque landscape drawings. The result was a recasting of the perfection of nature as an aesthetic of nature. The picturesque thus enacted a transition from reality to virtuality, and that alteration was then reflected back onto reality.

Today’s “atmospheric” architecture pursues similar objectives by taking elements of nature, such as light and air, to produce a …

Xiong'an,Minglu Wei Baita: Towards An Alternative Urbanism, Minglu Wei, Ying Zuo

Architecture Senior Theses

In 1978, with the onset of economic reform, the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) started to accelerate in China. Beyond the success of these mega-cities, if one starts to relate the history of SEZs to the political history of China, one may find that SEZs have always been utilized as a method for the leaders of CCP to manifest their authority and to fortify their achievements. Such state projects are inevitably founded on a paradoxical claim. While being announced as monumental undertakings capable of glorifying the country and benefiting people, they also demand sacrifices of citizens for a higher …

Playingground: Towards A Seriously Playful Architecture, Anita Lamisi Karimu

Architecture Senior Theses

"playGround" is a study of the fundamental rules and organizational logics seen in popular board games and an exploration of their potential applications towards the manifestation of utopian ideals of the built. This thesis is interested in the restoration of user freedom in the built environment by reintroducing the concept of "play" as the fundamental principle of design, giving equal agency to all users in utilizing and modifying transitional and extended-use circulation space. Play in this thesis acts as the antithesis to the normative systems of order and regulation from which contemporary architecture is derived.

"playGround" posits that every ground …

Modern Chinese Architectural Restoration, Tengkui Xie

Architecture Senior Theses

All over the world, there are always buildings to be built and buildings that become old. Should buildings that catered to older needs but are now obsolete be torn down and replaced with new buildings or can we do something to balance the value of the present and the past? All buildings have historic and aesthetic values of their own times, so it is not wise to wipe them out of history completely. It would be better to preserve, restore and reuse them. Restoration has a long history in the West and since the beginning of the 20th century there …

Plastic Revolution: Reuse Of Marine Plastic Garbage, Jingshi Zhang

Architecture Senior Theses

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific trash vortex, has been getting more and more attention recently. It is a gyre of marine debris particles in the north central Pacific Ocean, with an estimated size range from 700,000 square kilometers (about the size of Russia). In 1992, 28,000 rubber ducks were plunged into the ocean after a shipping crate was lost at sea on its way to the US from Hong Kong. Many years later, the rubber ducks have become a vital tool in our understanding of ocean currents, as well as teaching us about ocean pollution. …

Topologies Of Historic Typologies: Radical Transformations To Historic Preservation, Ian Masters

Architecture Senior Theses

In direct opposition to whitewashing and absolute preservation, this project expos­es the darkening: an array of possible in­terventions upon a historic building that progressively enrich existing typological experiences to provide groundwork for ex­ploring, reconfiguring, and relearning from architectural typologies overlooked and under-investigated as a result of zeitgeist.

By way of selectively oversaturing spaces with the most fundamental building components of a historical build­ing, Topologies of Historic Typologies addresses how more thoughtful approaches to intervention can concurrently yield [figuratively] modern spaces and visual­ly-taught historic architecture.

Topologies of Historic Typologies considers old, antiquated constructs the foundation for purposeful intervention, capable of disrupting …

Paintings Without Frames: The Role Of Augmented Reality In Art Galleries, Laura Clark

Architecture Senior Theses

Art and architecture define one another; the way we can move through an art gallery is defined by the architectural space that has been created, but the actual direction of travel is dictated by the art itself.

This thesis questions both architecture's role in an art gallery and the role of technology, which is changing our perception of space. Augmented reality can be used within the art galleries as a way to provide context, to distort and add to the perception of artworks, as a means of way-finding, and as a tool to allow visitors to curate their own gallery …

Built In Weather: Architecture In Ephemeral Landscape, Hanseul Jang

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis wishes to push the spectrum of how architecture as a built form can be fixated in an ephemeral environment. A camera serves as both analytical and representational tool to capture the ephemeral process of landscape transformation. Visualization of temporal elements of natural landscape forces- through the production of motion images- aims to stimulate variability of the perceptual process into awareness of the changeability of architectural objects.

Examining and visualizing landscape forces at the coastline of Jeju, the thesis aims to further examine architecture's potential as an infrastructure to amplify and adapt to its ephemeral landscape process. The proposed …

Eldgos: The Terra-Forming Earth, Sangha Jung, Young Joon Yun

Architecture Senior Theses

The core of this project is the idea of humankind as a geological force. By imagining the active ground in relation to creation of new ground and environment, this thesis seeks to reclaim the formal language of the geological through volcanism. As we create a series of spaces within this new ground, using lava as our natural tool for architecture and landscape that reconciles the geological and the biological merging the natural and the artificial. Architecture can be formed naturally, like a stone built over time, through sedimentation and erosion. This idea of architecture as natural processes is applied to …

The Postmoder Hermits, Xuechen Li

Architecture Senior Theses

Metropolitan cities to grow at unfathomable rates, forming a new scale of geography know as Megaregions. And as these settlements continue to develop with the principal focus on the consequences of economy and environment, the psychological, mental health of the inhabitants becomes neglected. Japan, the archetypal example of a highly developed country, despite its economic and technological advantages, has been plagued by social isolation, suicides, and mental health issues among its people. With 541,000 young Japanese labeled as hikikomori, a term describing young people who isolate themselves in their rooms for months or years at a time, their memories of …

Adaptive Layers: Preservation In High Speed Urbanism, Yuanyue (Alex) Chen

Architecture Senior Theses

With a population density of 20, 191.5 people per square mile and 279 square miles of land, Singapore is the world's third densest country. One hundred percent of the population lives in an urban area. Every year, the population increases by an average of 100,000 people, while land shrinks due to rising sea levels. For Singapore, the only option is densification. Singapore's historical identity is often secondary to the pragmatic need for densification.

In a city built in 30 years, the rapid rate of modernization has created a disconnect between our historical background and architecture today. Buildings in Singapore have …

Building Industry: Relinking Tangible And Intangible, Weibin Lao, Xiaobai Zhao

Architecture Senior Theses

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage includes two spectrums of identity: tangible and intangible. Tangible culture includes buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts. Intangible culture includes folklore, traditions, language and knowledge, atmospheric conditions, etc.

Syracuse, as part of Upstate New York, used to be an essential economic center of the United States. This resulted not only from its once-influential salt industry and its easily accessed canal infrastructure, but also …

Bridge: Fantasy Of The Demilitarized Zone, Lan Li, Yifei Li

Architecture Senior Theses

Architecture can do many things and solve many problems of the local condition. For example, skyscrapers meet high demands of housing and offices; sustainable green buildings are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient. When it comes to bigger topics like dealing with social and cultural conflicts which influenced by national and political decisions, the usual architecture types may not resolve or help as much as expected. So, for dealing with these topics, we find that architecture has limitations. However, when we look through other fields like art, we can find an opportunities to address them. For example, Ben Shahn was American artist, …

Subaltern Virtuality: Virtual Hegemony And Domestic Architecture In Postcolonial World, Nusrat Jahan Mim

Architecture Senior Theses

Antonio Gramsci coined the term “subaltern” to reveal the presence of small social groups of people on the fringes of history. Subaltern can be perceived as negative space or position of disempowerment, a position without social or political agency, and access to the power or hegemony. Today the emergence of ubiquitous computing, virtual social network, and globalized image culture has created a new group of subalterns in the virtual world. Amounts of tweets, likes, views, shares etc. have started to appear as a dominating factor in determining the “status” of a person in the virtual world and hence, have created …

Living In The Shrinking City: Making A Case For An Urban Resurgence In Syracuse, Sou Fang

Architecture Senior Theses

The focus of this thesis is the City of Syracuse. Understood as a city undergoing population decline since the 1950s, this thesis attempts to engage with the effects of city shrinkage by evaluating the socio­-economic and material reality of the city. This project challenges the pedagogy of architecture to both broaden and be very explicit on how its disciplinary questions enter the frame of discussion surrounding the shrinking city discourse. The aim of the research / investigation and analysis (phase 1) is to understand the underlying principles, characteristics and effects of city shrinkage in the case of the City of …

Reshaping Reality: From Disneyland To Dismaland, Lina Wang

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis deals with hyperreality as a key concept to reassess contemporary socio-cultural conditions. Jean Baudrillard once described Disneyland as one of the main examples of hyperreality. By presenting imaginary as more realistic than reality itself, Disneyland draws visitors into the world of escapism and happiness achieved through simulation; it makes the troubles of the real world less relatable. If we wear glasses to view Disneyland more closely, however, we might see many issues behind it. Dismaland is an important reference in this thesis. When asked about the idea and inspiration for his Dismaland project, Banksy stated, "theme parks should …

Atmospheres And Bureaucracy: Challenging Everyday Perception And Regulation Of Public Space, Philip Claghorn

Architecture Senior Theses

It is common for us to overlook the everyday elements encountered in the city such as public Wi-Fi beacons, aestheticized benches, bike-sharing stations, and other items which have colonized street-scapes. In reality, these components are cosigned by business investment districts, private businesses, and city governments who stand to profit by maintaining control of public space. This struggle between formal and informal urbanism has been played out globally. The best example of informal urban contention can be found in street vending policy. An increasingly congested sidewalk, in conjunction with convoluted policies in places such as New York City, has made street …

Soft Tectonic/Adaptive Joint, Kuo Jui Lai

Architecture Senior Theses

In Taipei, more than 70% of buildings are older than 30 years. 1 The rate of illegal additions to existing buildings (wei zhang jian zhu) in Taipei is over ten percent.2 Excluding legal issues, illegal construction can potentially lead to significant safety issues. As a response, the Taiwan government is undergoing demolitions on illegal additions throughout the city. In recent years, the number of demolished building additions has surpassed the number of that being constructed. Despite this radical effort, Taipei city is finding that illegal additions continue to be a mainstream practice.3 Illegal additions and the issue of renovating old …

Suicide Normal Absurdity Foxconn Utopia, Yenhsi Tung, Yuchi Kuo

Architecture Senior Theses

Suicide normal absurdity Foxconn utopia is a study of modern architecture and urbanism in the information age. It posits that the metropolis spectacle that can be infinitely extended as a sprawling and systematic intervention. Snafu narrates the spectacle of high-efficiency in the Shenzhen and Hong Kong region, as represented by the existing Foxconn technology group in the Longhua campus. This manufacturing panorama is utopian. It consists of normal and all-inclusive phenomenon for each occupant in the form of productive cell that is embedded within an efficient coordinated system. Additionally, the standardization, optimization and hierarchical manipulation formulated by snafu generates a …

Hatch Is Hatch: Building Building Drawings, Thomas Kuei

Architecture Senior Theses

The hatch is a series of marks on a page laid out systematically. It is a representational technique that has evolved, taken up different values, and has been utilized in different ways over time as technologies and practices changed. Today, the hatch is used symbolically as a way of communicating a drawing and has no direct relationship to the represented subject. However, by looking back at drawing practices, we start to understand the hatch has material consequences and is no longer solely illusory. The act of making a mark allows for the process to be read in the final image …

Unimaginable Form Semantic Exploration In Digital Turn 2.0, Yang Wang

Architecture Senior Theses

Bill Bryson cited in 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' that "We live in a universe whose age we can't quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances we don't altogether know, filled with matter we can't identify, operating in conformance with physical laws whose properties we don't truly understand." Using Big Data-Driven algorithm based on the Self-Organized Mapping (SOM) and Convolutionary Neural Network (CNN) to do the Computational Generative Form Design with huge complexities of Form Reality. The initiatively avoidance on the complexities of form has imprisoned architects' creativity.

Learning instinct of human being is seeking common information. Artificial intelligence …

Breaching The Divide: An Inquiry Into Border Passage, Russell Scheer

Architecture Senior Theses

This project is an inquiry into the existing threshold that currently separates Israelis from Palestinians in the West Bank. Through the dismantling of the Israeli border checkpoint and reinterpretation of its parts, this project reimagines the sequence of passing through the threshold. By framing the mundane activities of border passage through dramatic scenes, this architecture can reveal themes religion, resources, and surveillance. This architecture also intends to highlight the imbalance of the current conflict and those involved in it, by creating an architecture equally absurd.

Configuring Narrowness: Formulating Vertical Vernaculars In The Forgotten, Teriya Lee

Architecture Senior Theses

The thesis is convinced that a memorable narrowness can be achieved in an urban void if the architect shifts focus from the horizontal plane to the vertical plane. Indeed, a large portion of what can be seen when approaching a narrow street is not "the front," but "the sides." By using the current vernacular palette to develop vertically-oriented shacks, the thesis proposes two alternative designs to reimage these cracks in the city, in order to fill these cracks in memory.

What Is Sacred, Maxwell K. Baum

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis aims to reinterpret the notion of sacred space and explore architectures role in the creation of sacred space. Stripped of the religious connotations of the sacred, this thesis hopes to create an architecture that balances between the individual and the collective, fosters both introspective reflection and extrospective contemplation, and proposes architecture for the experiencing of the sacred.

Architecture can serve as the platform for the transcendental experience. This can be achieved through a thorough understanding of criteria this thesis has identified as constituents in creating sacred space. The concept of Le Corbusier’s “L’espace Indicible,” the ideas of phenomenology …

Ruin-Naissance, Fatma Gonca Tunc

Architecture Senior Theses

Ruin-naissance is the term I use to describe not only the resurrection of an archeological site, but also the rebirth of an idea about how we think about ruins and how new construction can enhance the experience of these kinds of sites.

The principle contention of this thesis is that a better understanding of the fragmented evidence presented by an archeological site can be seen through the lens of a contemporary architectural intervention that responds sensitively to an ancient site. In doing this, the intervention needs to address issues of identity, narrative and historiography. The new architecture should not ignore …