Architecture Commons^™

Tethered By Nourishment - Exploring Sovereignty Within An Urban Food Apartheid, Benjamin Bailey

Masters Theses

“Tethered by Nourishment” explores how the principles of food sovereignty could be spatially cultivated within an urban environment afflicted by a food apartheid. The urban environment I explore is the Elysian Fields Ave. neutral grounds (colloquial term for road medians) in New Orleans. Working with a series of food-generating landscapes, the proposal imagines multiple cultivation sites to support neighborhoods and communities struggling with fresh food access. These sites allow for varying levels of engagement from start-up farming plots for urban agriculturalists to food forests for more passive food collection. Approaching a multifaceted problem like equitable urban food access requires a …

Beyond The Visual: The Impacts Of Urban Soundscapes On Landscape Design And User Experience, Beth Sipzner

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine how visual stimuli affect an individual’s perception of the soundscape. Soundscapes are the acoustic environment perceived by people, whose character is determined by the action and interaction of natural and human factors (Maffei & Masullo, 2019), also understood as the overall sound environment perceived by people. By understanding user perception and preferences, designers can create more aesthetically pleasing spaces that align with the sounds of urban life. The research poses two questions: (1) What are aural and visual elements that impact urban soundscape experiences? and (2) How do aural and visual stimuli …

Building Hygge In-Roads Into Incremental Living, Tanisha Kalra

Masters Theses

Housing is one aspect of architecture and urban planning that has constantly been improved and redefined to suit the needs of people during the time periods they have been living in. People have taken significant steps in establishing how they want to live in retrospect to the times, according to their values and needs. Today, more architectural research may address the understanding and production of a healthy way of living than any other aspect of placemaking. It is no surprise that so much effort supports this spatial concern, which contributes to a fundamental building block of shared cultural definitions.

The …

Landscape Interventions For Pedestrian Safety Around Urban Parks: Learning From City Of Dallas, Texas, Ann Mariya Thuruthy

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

Urban parks and their immediate surroundings provide access to nature in urbanized areas. However, they can also be crime hotspots if not properly kept or monitored or provide a safe environment for positive activities (Jones & Robinson, 2008). The local community respects a safe and secure neighborhood urban park as proximity to green spaces (McCormack et al., 2010), which enhances living quality (Iqbal & Ceccato, 2015). Nevertheless, a neighborhood urban park and its context have a negative impact on the quality of life if they cater to criminal activity. Crime rates have increased in urban public parks and buffer zones …

Identity And Placemaking Of Modern Roman Piazzas: Case Study Analysis Of Piazza San Cosimato, Piazza Testaccio, And Piazza Cavour, Lauren Lamker

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The more we understand the patterns of how people use space, the better we will be able to forecast the outcomes of new public space initiatives. Studying public life can be done in a similar way to how meteorologists can fairly accurately describe the weather (Gehl 2013, 2). The goal of this analysis is to better understand the patterns evident in these successful spaces so that more similar spaces can be developed in the future. Can exemplary public spaces be used to forecast new projects? Rome has a high density of successful public spaces, and this case study will focus …

Habitats And Heritage: An Analysis Of The Natural And Cultural Resource Management Of The South Carolina Lowcountry, Patricia Ploehn

All Theses

The South Carolina Lowcountry is replete with cultural landscapes, each one featuring a unique collection of natural and cultural resources. These resources are valuable for their environmental and cultural heritage, a heritage which defines and benefits the communities who call the Lowcountry home. This study presents a comparative analysis of public and private land management organizations operating in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The purpose of this study is to compare how public and private organizations are currently managing natural and cultural resources on cultural landscapes that they protect and oversee. The history of federal and private land management was investigated …

The Industrial Landscape Of Charleston, South Carolina From 1884 To 1955, Elizabeth Bellersen

All Theses

This study investigates the location and density of industrial sites in Charleston, South Carolina across the years 1884, 1902, 1944, and 1955. The purpose of this study is to draw attention to the industrial past of Charleston in order to better understand the city’s historic spatial organization and identify sites for future preservation. To do this, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps were used to find, map, and categorize industrial sites in downtown Charleston, south of Line Street. These maps were then analyzed for locational patterns and patterns of various attributes such as industry type, size, and building material. This research found …

Vacant To Vibrant: Transforming Vacant Lots In North Philadelphia, Olivia Anne Sinclair

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The City of Philadelphia has addressed the need to utilize vacant lots in the city’s comprehensive planning document, Philadelphia2035 (PCPC, 2010). The document encourages designers to use sustainable practices to reincorporate these abandoned lots back into the fabric of the city. Through partnerships with local organizations in Philadelphia, guidelines and suggestions were created to guide Philadelphians while they revive abandoned lot spaces. In the neighborhood of Nicetown-Tioga, Philadelphia, there is a large amount of vacant lots leaving the area blighted and without resilience. This study accepts Philadelphia’s invitation to use design strategies to be applied to vacant lots within the …

Classifying Desire Paths Utilizing A Campus Master Plan Study: A Method For Recognizing Urban Design Flaws, Michael Shuey

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

Desire paths are the informal pathways created from the erosional effect of repeated foot traffic. These footpaths come in many shapes and sizes and can occur in spaces where there are no formal pathways for pedestrians. However, in many developed urban and natural areas, desire paths may appear within a landscape that has been intentionally designed. In some perspectives, desire paths can represent user dissatisfaction with the pedestrian landscape, as well as a failure of the urban design process. Recent literature on this topic considers the environmental, economic, and social impacts caused by desire path occurrences. However, desire paths are …

Inner City Artscape, Michelle Nguyen

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The research of this project deals with multiple disciplines such as art, culture, and social connection that ultimately benefits human development and well-being. Through the architectural urban design of the main street of Hapeville, GA, this thesis aims to solve the issues of vitalization and attraction to a main city street in a design of a residential community to activate public spaces through the work and input of the creative class and local community. Ultimately, this redesign of the main street will be a catalyst of economic growth and well-being of the local community, revitalizing a home into an urban …

In Present Past: Sun Tunnels And The Historic Reconstruction Of Vision, Patrice M. Capobianchi

Theses and Dissertations

The following study investigates how Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels makes effective use of time and land to reprogram the modern viewer’s eye. By utilizing sculpture that is reminiscent of pre-historic observatories as an observational framing device against the landscape topography, the artwork succeeds in presenting a historic reconstruction of vision.

Skater Conscious, Jeremy Bowen

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Skateboarding is made possible by the built environment, but without architecture necessarily being designed for its occurrence. Without knowing it, designers have created environments that facilitate a social and artistic culture to thrive. And this has happened – for the most part – in leftover pieces of landscape, infrastructure, and urban settings. Skaters move through and experience space in unique ways. While their boards enable this experience, there is more; most spaces are not designed for them – and some are even designed to keep them out – but, nevertheless, skaters persevere through invention and creativity. Skaters actively search for …

Vincent Van Gogh's Wheatfields And Piet Oudolf's Meadows: Color, Contrast And Change In The Landscape, Erin A. Cox

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone investigates the unique relationship between Vincent Van Gogh and planting designer Piet Oudolf's vibrant use of color and contrast in their work as it relates to their perception of the landscape. The project is mainly a comparison of the two artists, exploring Van Gogh's use of complementary colors and brushstroke techniques to create vivid contrast in his renderings of agrarian landscapes, and Oudolf's parallel approach to creating painterly meadows and prairie gardens. The project focuses on Van Gogh’s study of wheat field landscapes, which are essentially the same in structure and composition but can be used to compare …

The Sea Ranch: Unforeseen Failures And Statewide Successes Of An Ecologically Conscious Coastal Community, Robert Daley

Senior Theses

The term “residential development” or “planned community” brings to mind images of a stereotypical suburbia. The planned community of The Sea Ranch, along the Sonoma County coast in Northern California is a direct challenge to the suburban ideal. Construction of the nearly 1500 homes began in the late 1960s and continues to present day. All of the homes must meet specific design requirements including being ecologically sound and they must fit within the landscape. The strict architectural elements is what provides the distinct look of the community. The construction of a housing development along a ten-mile strip of untouched and …

Surveilled, Rachel Swetnam

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Debord's "Society the Spectacle" and Delouze’s Deleuze's "Society of Control" both imagine a dystopian future for humanity in a world governed by excessive self-advertisement and mass surveillance. This thesis begins with the observation that, sadly, their two visions have become a reality. Current technologies log our movements through GPS satellite data, and photographs taken by closed-circuit security cameras, or by passers-by on a public street, are constantly cross-checked against databanks of previously-compiled biometric profiles. Every movement and transaction is digitized and recorded, accessible to ever-widening networks of information exchange and surveillance. These data-networks are altering the manner by which people …

Paolo Soleri And Arcology: An Analytical Comparison To Frank Lloyd Wright And Louis Kahn, Henry Millard

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The city proposals of Paolo Soleri, he called them arcologies, are monumental and complex geometric megastructures intended to project great heights above desert horizons. These proposals purposefully abandon conventional notions of the city.

Soleri was physically isolated in his remote Arizona urban laboratory, Arcosanti, and philosophically detached from the professional urban design community. His proposals were often too easily understood as foreign and radical dystopian architectural metaphors meant to provoke thought more than to project an actual future. There is limited discourse on Soleri and this tends to isolate him in a vacuum, ignoring possible connections or parallels in his …

Raaxo: A Post-Refugee Landscape, Bailey M. Riales

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

raaxo: a post-refugee landscape

sited in dadaab, kenya // raaxo is a transformation of the current landscape that works with harsh conditions of sun and wind to provide spaces of dwelling and gathering, improving refugee comfort by initiating a sense of community. tall, mechanical screens protect against the strong desert winds, while also creating a build-up of sand. overtime, the sand build-up forms an exterior barrier around the community and dwelling spaces, and creates a façade on the interior. Other designed screens are placed opposite the formed community spaces, providing shade from the desert sun for the refugees. throughout the …

Mojave Unnerved, Rachel Scarnaty

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

phenomenology is rich in the preserved land of the mojave desert with only a light human touch interfering.

observed through admiration and mainly scientific analysis, it is easy to believe the ethereal qualities of the land are at their peak.

i challenge that architecture may exist within the mojave national preserve to intensify the unique sensory experiences.

tectonics form to measure and analyze the climate components that create the fantastical qualities. the architecture learns from the environmental and social history and future of each site.

i have chose four of nine main sites within the preserve: soda lake, barber peak, …

Culinary Biologique And Cartographic Anxiety, Adam Lamar Buchanan

Masters Theses

The 21st century’s most dominant characteristic, and greatest challenge, is the explosive growth of the world’s population. Swelling at an exponential rate, the increasing physical distance between the acts of growth and consumption yields an agrarian system that is highly unsustainable… a crisis looms in the future!

This crisis is most easily detected in images of the Earth taken from satellites. These recently recorded pixels of reflected light taken from the cherished Icarian vantage point have been acquired and perfected over the past five decades. Ultimately, these lightning speed revelations show patterns that emerge as broken relationships that can be …

The Role Of The Landscape In The Socialization Of Cohousing Communities: A Study In Western Massachusetts, Emilie Marques Jordao

Masters Theses

The cohousing movement started in the United States in the 1990’s and since then has spread to over 160 communities throughout the country. This type of community is characterized by small dwelling units, high housing density, shared facilities such as a common house, shared commons and grouped parking. These are pedestrian-oriented communities with car circulation restricted to the outskirts of the neighborhood. Cohousing settlements have the goal of promoting social interaction and sustainable living through design, programming, and shared ideals. Many design characteristics, such as house proximity, density, building height and size, the location of parking, the availability of common …

Impermeable Assemblages: Flooding, Urban Infrastructure, And Stormwater Politics In São Paulo, Brazil, Nate Millington

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This project analyzes efforts to remake the relationship between water and city in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently experiencing overlapping problems of flooding, scarcity, and pollution, São Paulo illustrates the challenges of managing water in a contemporary mega-city. This dissertation subsequently considers the city’s water management through an approach that borrows from urban political ecology, social studies of science, and post-colonial urban theory. With an epistemological grounding in these literatures, this project analyzes ongoing conversations about water management in São Paulo, and focuses on how water is encountered and engaged with in the landscape by engineers, artists, and activists. This project …

Resilient Future: The Cultural Riverfront Edge In The New Capital, Amaravathi, In Andhra Pradesh, India, Priyanka Malik

LSU Master's Theses

India faced the bifurcation of a united Andhra Pradesh state into the state of Telangana and state of Andhra Pradesh or Seemandhra, on 2nd June 2014. Since the year 1948, the city of Hyderabad remained the capitol of united Andhra Pradesh. However, post the bifurcation, the two states are required to share Hyderabad as their administrative capitol for ten years after which the city of Hyderabad will be the centre for the state of Telangana. The state of Andhra Pradesh is thus building a new capital Amaravathi, along the banks of Krishna River. The name of the capital is borrowed …

Detailed Cost Estimation For Landscape Architecture: An Indicator Of Final Construction Costs In The Dfw Metropolitan Area, Charles L. Shy Sr.

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

This thesis uses quantitative research methods to study detailed cost estimating to determine how accurately this estimating procedure helps landscape architects forecast construction costs in the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex. Specifically, this study seeks to determine the benefits for landscape architects in providing detailed cost estimates to their clients as a deliverable during the design process. Considering how accurate forecasts of construction costs could be used to meet clients' budget expectations more effectively, this is an important field of study for landscape architecture. By evaluating the construction documents costs for each of the study's landscapes, the research determines whether …

Detailed Cost Estimation For Landscape Architecture: An Indicator Of Final Construction Costs In The Dfw Metropolitan Area, Shy Sr. Charles L.

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

This thesis uses quantitative research methods to study detailed cost estimating to determine how accurately this estimating procedure helps landscape architects forecast construction costs in the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex. Specifically, this study seeks to determine the benefits for landscape architects in providing detailed cost estimates to their clients as a deliverable during the design process. Considering how accurate forecasts of construction costs could be used to meet clients' budget expectations more effectively, this is an important field of study for landscape architecture. By evaluating the construction documents costs for each of the study's landscapes, the research determines whether …

Community Perceptions Of Golf Course Landscapes: Lessons Learned From Arlington, Texas Case Studies, Jon-Michael Clothier

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

The purpose of this study is to identify the resident perceptions of golf course landscapes in communities around golf courses within Arlington, Texas. It specifically focuses on the residents’ feelings evoked by the golf course landscapes as well as any impact to the residents’ lives outside of actually playing golf. The study seeks to find connections between traditional golf course design and urban design around the edges of golf courses extending outward to the surrounding communities. The physical relationships between golf courses with their surrounding communities vary. Especially in suburban settings, there is a strong connection between the course and …

Community Perceptions Of Golf Course Landscapes: Lessons Learned From Arlington, Texas Case Studies, Jon-Michael Clothier

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

The purpose of this study is to identify the resident perceptions of golf course landscapes in communities around golf courses within Arlington, Texas. It specifically focuses on the residents’ feelings evoked by the golf course landscapes as well as any impact to the residents’ lives outside of actually playing golf. The study seeks to find connections between traditional golf course design and urban design around the edges of golf courses extending outward to the surrounding communities. The physical relationships between golf courses with their surrounding communities vary. Especially in suburban settings, there is a strong connection between the course and …

Community Identity: Place And The South Knoxville Waterfront, Nicholas Joseph Burger

Masters Theses

“With the loss of tactility and the scale and details crafted for the human body and hand, our structures become repulsively flat, sharp-edged, immaterial, and unreal” (Holl 29). Our built environment is full of constructs which are unsuccessful on a number of levels proving why it is critical to concentrate on a sense of place and identity. A great place is described as one where people gravitate towards, a place for everyone, something that is memorable, and a space which evokes a story (Placemaking Is...). South Knoxville, Tennessee, the selected site of this thesis, will test the concept of place …

The Tendril, Nicole Flinn

Landscape Architecture

This modular vineyard took the traditional understanding of growing wine grapes and turned it on its side. A site that was once covered completely in vines is transformed into a tower-like form to maximize space and growing potential. By performing these practices in a controlled environment every element is carefully manipulated for desirability.

The Green Factor, Hillary Tung

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Agri[Culture]: An Alternate Paradigm For The American Landscape, Melissa Erin Morris

Masters Theses

Throughout the Appalachian region, one can experience the vast disappearance of the American landscape as we know it. Whether driving through the rugged coal mining towns of Virginia, or the suburban sprawl taking over the rural farmland of Tennessee, it becomes clear that this is a spreading epidemic. Without an appropriate balance of urban, suburban, and rural areas, we begin to loose the landscape which has always been so closely linked to this country’s cultural and physical identity.

This thesis focuses on the agrarian Appalachian culture with a proposal for a project rooted heavily in cultural identity. With programs based …