Architecture Commons^™

Framing: Embracing Trauma In Your "Surrounding World", Zheng Xu

Masters Theses

Have you ever stayed alone and immersed yourself in memories? Have any fragments made you uncomfortable? It was a nightmare. Guilt, self-accusation, inability, exhaustion, and escape took my body and mind. They grew from my traumatic experience. They taunted me and tried to drag me into the abyss of the infinite past when I was stressed out and lost control of the external environment. The shadow struck me until my defense and control system collapsed. The scenes of loss, neglect and pressure became the violence to my psyche.

Unoptimistically, trauma always exists because of natural disasters, bereavements, cutthroat competitions, economic …

Space Of Ambience : Learning The Relationship Between Environment, Emotion, And Behavior, Xueyun Zou

Masters Theses

I feel like I live life as two different people: one at school, and another at home, and I’m constantly trying to figure out why I feel this way. One of my undergraduate instructors said that he feels I am hiding myself in school, which I hadn’t thought about until he said this to me. I am more social in life, but act introverted in school. I don't want to be attentioned in some context but I want to understand the meaning behind it. This project is a design process for mirroring people in spaces. Mirrors are bridges to connect …

Reclaiming Memory Through Soft Spaces, Wendy Zhuo

Masters Theses

Senses and experiences can make the memories that you are not consciously aware of become more apparent. Your body and muscles have memories that you will always remember. It just takes awakening the muscles to do it.

Our experiences become part of our identity. Memory has plasticity and is constantly changing as we tell them. Our memories are those experiences and by telling those stories, we start to understand and reclaim those memories and add those experiences into our identity. Through telling and triangulating these stories, people are connected, so how can the space become comfortable for them to share …

Domestic Disturbance: Cleaning, Labor And Maintenance Of Architecture, Valeria Portillo

Masters Theses

From a very young age, I saw my mother and father clean houses as well as my Grandmother and Grandfather clean Elementary School as janitors. I began this project as a way to understand how a certain habits could be passed down culturally and socially.

As I reflect, I appreciate the daily cleaning habits that were instilled within me. Moving away from home to go to college, I am always reminded of the ordinary and mundane moments within cleaning my home. These practices became part of my daily life and something that I hope to pass down to my children …

Scalability System: A Tool For Bioregional Navigation, Lulu Hou

Masters Theses

The thesis studies methods for bioregional navigation based on raising awareness and creating an understanding of the existing landscape across scale – from global to local. It examines how the concept of the bioregion can be incorporated into a lifestyle and its daily experiences by allowing a more meaningful recontextualization of daily-used products through the natural resources that sustain them. The thesis takes native bogs for cranberry production in South-Eastern Massachusetts as an example and provides a field guide for different types of users – consumers, workers, and constituents – to experience, test and explore the landscape. In tracing the …

Systemic Design: Experiments To Trigger Pedestrian Empathy In The Urban System, Yu Chen

Masters Theses

It is inconvenient for people with different physical abilities – such as visual or physical impairment – to wander around public spaces. Issues of accessibility deficiency are not caused by single disciplines, like design. They arise from natural, cultural, social, and political dynamics, which in turn cause a lack of empathy in society and an insufficient inclusion of people with different abilities. They are systemic problems that require systemic solutions.

Systemic thinking is an alternative way of thinking about relationships and patterns in systems. When thinking about and with systems, triggers outside the system can play an essential role in …

To Mine Or Not To Mine? Epistemological Development Of The Pebble Mine Landscape In Lake Iliamna Area As A Resilient Commons System, Chenfang (Vincent) Gang

Masters Theses

People of the Yupik Eskimo nation have been inhabiting the area of Lake Iliamna in Alaska for hundreds of years. Their traditional subsistence living practice established a balanced system with the most abundant salmon fishery resource in the world. However, with the discovery of mine resources in the area, mining has threatened local practices. The mine has been identified as one of the most considerable gold-copper mineral resources globally, which can provide significant economic income to the locals and the United States. But with the mining project development, severe damage to the local environment is inevitable. The salmon fisheries are …

Arriving In The City: Reimagining The Urban Footholds For Rural Workers, Xinlei Gu

Masters Theses

China is now experiencing rapid urbanization and a significant movement of migrants from their original villages to established core cities. The homogenization resulting from the massive urbanization led to the identity crisis of the city itself, as well as the rural migrant workers, a phenomenon described as “Placelessness” (Edward Relph, 1976). As one of the Chinese megacities, Chongqing has gradually become placeless due to its fast-growing economy. Still, there are moments and places in Chongqing that reveal the migrant nature of the city and its close link with migrant laborers. In the thesis, such moments and places are defined as …

Darkness Matters: Understanding The Ecological Effects And Human Sensory Perception Of Night Lighting, Zitong (Shirley) Hui

Masters Theses

Night is 50% of the planetary experience. Nighttime visible illumination is strongly tied to progress, human activities and urban structure. As our cities become brighter, they bring huge impacts on ecology and human perception.

Darkness is still something worth pursuing in urban nightscapes. This thesis explores the potential of using darkness as the starting point for designing public spaces for use at night, and focuses on the restoration of the ideal habitat for fireflies in the Jamaica bay area, in New York City. The study of the dynamic relationship between light, culture and wildlife can produce a flexible strategy that …

Urban Vine: Reimagine The Scaffolding As A Repair Opportunity To Transform The Ecosystem, Shuyi Guan

Masters Theses

Scaffolding has been used as a tool to remove, construct, or repair city infrastructure. It can also be conceived as a metaphor for city development and its continuing renovation. Scaffolding in New York City has become an urban problem because it is structurally unsafe, and the darkness it brings to the street is a perceived threat to the sidewalk commons. It makes the sidewalk become a negative space in between the building and the street and the street edge is less identifiable. These negative experiences cause walking on the street to be less comfortable.

Cities are in continuous transformation, both …

Infection-Free Landscape: Adaptable Urban Open Space Design During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Weirong Luo

Masters Theses

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the public perception, usage, and behaviors of urban open spaces. During the past three years, spatial measures to reduce the transmission of infection such as quarantine and social distancing have resulted in people’s isolation and reduction of daily physical interaction with others. Urban open spaces, including streets, squares, and parks, are outdoor urban spaces open for public access and recreation. From Frederick Law Olmsted’s design of New York’s Central Park to Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago, the United States has a long history of planning and designing the urban environment for better …

Design In Support Of Playfulness, Seung Hwan Oh

Masters Theses

Playful environments can be conceived as landscapes able to support an individual’s internal sense of playfulness and its external manifestation. These environments cultivate a sense of place where recreational, therapeutic, and educational resources are merged based on the conviction that nature is a positive influence.

This project explores how outdoor spaces encompass the built and natural world, convey a sense of connection to spatial ephemera and phenomena, and ultimately how space can become spaces for individuals. The project explores the notion of playfulness and the meaning it may acquire for design within landscape architecture. The study aims to positively contribute …

Living With Fire, Mohan Wang

Masters Theses

For decades, landscape architects have been working with water, proposing vocabularies like sponge parks, rain gardens, emergent shorelines, and hydrologic urbanism. Surviving with water is common sense. However, there is not enough landscape design research and practice when it comes to another destructive natural force - fire. The new normal is that people are being exposed to more frequent and catastrophic wildfires and the burn-on-burn phenomenon is becoming common. With climate change and sprawling land-use patterns that increase the wildland-urban interface, a greater number of communities are having to adapt to living with fire. Landscape architects are in need to …

Landscape Of Resistance: Reimagining Public Space For A Vibrant Socio-Political Life, Ziyu Wang

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between the public space and protest events from a spatial point of view. It will employ selected concepts from phenomenological and spatial theories to evaluate how the protest is affected by built environment and subsequently propose how the public space can be adapted to create a more vibrant social-political life.

Farming Publics: Use Farming Practices As A Tool To De-Alienate People With Land, Sirui Wang

Masters Theses

Historically, farming was the primary way people interacted with the land. Colonialism, industrialization, and capitalism have made people increasingly detached and alienated from nature and the land. The return to agriculture has the potential to play an essential role in resisting the increasing monoculture of our society through re-establishing the kinship toward land. The rising public awareness of sustainability makes the market for organic food expand every year and allures capitalism to manipulate the organic market from its original purpose into their familiar realm of the conventional food system for maximum profit. The market economy, which is controlled by capitalism, …

Regenerating The Ground: Using Regenerative Agricultural Practices To Increase Urban Food Production And Restore The Health Of Soils, Yuxiao Liao

Masters Theses

New England is blessed with a mosaic of productive agricultural landscapes. These agricultural landscapes also sustain valuable wildlife habitats, provide flood control and act as an enormous carbon sink. Farmland in New England declined significantly in the 20th century as agricultural land was abandoned and developed into urban and suburban sprawl. In 1930 there were about 14 billion acres of farmland, by 2017, there were only 4 billion acres left. New England lost almost 70% of farmland in the past 80 years. John Dobberstein has claimed that due to our current development and agricultural practices, there are only 60 harvests …

Anti-Gentrification: Reconnect Chinatown Through Culture Practice, Xianzhongge (Allen) Liu

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the study of Chinatown in North America. Similar to the migration of other ethnic groups or cultures to North America, Chinatown originated as Chinese and East Asian migrants were excluded from mainstream American culture. Chinatowns became urban enclaves for Chinese people who speak the same language as well as share the same culture and food. However, in many cities in North America, development pressures have led to the gentrification of Chinatowns, resulting in a decrease in the number of Asian residents in Chinatown and a homogenization of the community. After understanding the historical development and gentrification …

Cross Border Conservation - China - North Korea Border, Ziyu Zhou

Masters Theses

Earth today faces an accelerated species extinction problem because of human presence, which is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rates. Over 27.8% of species are threatened (IUCN). An increased extinction rate will cause the ecosystem to lose its balance and break the shield for most species, including human beings. (Wilson, 2017) Conservation is one of the most important methods to save species; conserving in transboundary areas will increase efficiency. These areas are untouched and protected, forming a new biodiversity paradise. The Transboundary conservation project would benefit the ecology aspect and social, cultural, and political. This thesis …

The Future Of The High Plains Aquifer: Addressing Potential Desertification In The Great Plains, Hongfei Zuo

Masters Theses

The past century of extractive pumping of underground water coupled with climate change and extreme weather since the 1950s led to great unpredictability and uncertainty about the future of the landscapes of the high plains. The High Plains, or Ogallala Aquifer, has significantly declined as water continues to be pumped to irrigate crops. Reports and scientists estimate that the aquifer will dry in 30 years. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s is an example of a man-made catastrophe that resulted from the mismanagement of the agricultural landscape. The Shelterbelt Project, proposed as part of the New Deal in 1935, did …

Block Chain Home, Jonggun Lee

Masters Theses

Studies indicate that every four years urban dwellers relocate. Given this phenomenon, the direction of urban housing development in mega cities now encourages the divestment of personal furnishings to support mobility. While efficient, the singular imprint of furnishings upon individual space is getting severely flattened by suggested shapes and built in furnishings that define the form of dwelling. Also, unlike suburbs, turbulent cities tend to make people live alone, making them lose their uniqueness in the process of adaptation.

This thesis lives in between the ideas of SuperStudio, Andrea Zitell, and Metabolism architecture. In that, the concept of “BLOCK CHAIN …

Rebuilding Collective Effervescence : A "Ballroom" For Post-Pandemic Revelry, Di Ma

Masters Theses

Collective Effervescence is an event that can make a community or a society come together and simultaneously communicate regarding the same thought, or participate in the same action. Such desire happened during the post- World War I period, when people were freed from the depression of war and sought pure and positive happiness, which was also what society needed. Nowadays in the post-pandemic recovery, the public, after suffering from and getting used to isolation and social distancing, has an unexpected desire for physical communications, but still fear to gather psychologically. This reaction can be seen as a “post-traumatic stress disorder” …

Bee Stations: Refueling Bees And Creating Opportunities For Education, Jinghan Zhou

Masters Theses

Commercial honey bees are transported between pollinated crops and play an essential role in our agricultural system. This thesis proposes a network of bee stations and corridors that could improve the health of transported bee populations, increase local beekeeping, and help educate the public about the importance of bees and pollinators. The bee stations have at least 100 acres of diversified high-quality wildflower species where trucks that transport bees can stop to “refuel” their hives. The bee stations also have an education center where the public can walk through the wildflower fields, observe bees, make beehives, and learn how to …

Blurred Lines : Border Crossing Between Macau And Zhuhai, Weiwei Chen

Masters Theses

Since Macau returned to China after ending the colonial era in 1999, the relationship between Macao and the mainland has experienced more in-depth and diversified exchanges. Although Macao and inland cities are located in one country, they have different cultures, politics and economy. This thesis attempts to study the unique architectural types in Macao and show the cultural characteristics of Macao's changes under the historical background of different ages.. Political factors have caused Macau’s sense of nationality to shift several times.

Since its completion, the Gongbei port, which connects the two places, has witnessed historical changes on both sides of …

Dear City, Give Me Some Space; Creating Space For Ephemeral Forces In A City, Abinaya Sivaprakasam Thamilarasan

Masters Theses

Architecture of the past was regarded as a concrete entity, both in its materiality and approach, unresponsive to change within a city. Climatic and societal shifts greatly impact cities ill-prepared to adjust. How can the intractable architecture of the past become flexible? Does the current environmental devastation we’re witnessing demand architecture that can embrace, rather than neglect, such shifts?

Situated in Chennai, a densifying coastal metropolis in India, the adaptation focuses on two key shifts. Firstly, the climatic shifts: the alternating patterns of severe flooding, and periods of droughts. Second, the transient youth population within the city. They both share …

One Land / One Ocean: Reactivate Coastal Commons In Urban Territory, Chengie Zhang

Masters Theses

We all live in the same common -– the ocean common, sharing various common pool resources. With industrialization coming after capitalism, the resource regime is shifting and developing. The Blue Revolution and industrial aquaculture stand out as a strategy to efficiently gain resources to meet the population growth and the resource demands. However, it will reveal another form of cultural exploitation. People in the global south will become a labor resource for the global north and increase extreme coastal poverty brought by the depletion of mangroves for land and industrial places. In this book, I want to discuss the possibility …

Adaptive Reduce: Forging Architectural Futures Through Degrowth, Erika Kane

Masters Theses

There is widespread awareness of the damage caused by anthropocentric habits in the West, and there have been great strides in development of “green” materials and solutions. But what is the point of building more, though greener, if we are still building endlessly without utilizing the abundance within the built environment that typically gets dismissed as “waste”? This thesis seeks to translate the concept of degrowth, the downscaling of production and consumption, into architectural language, for more regenerative, equitable and collectivist futures.

The following proposal explores how an architecture of degrowth can facilitate sharing within a community and reclamation of …

From Invisible To Visible: The Third Wave/Way Of Intervention For Dashilar, Jiali Tian

Masters Theses

The existing community of the Dashilar neighborhood of Beijing is too economically dependent on tourists, who ever grow in number, resulting in the continuous compression of residents' living space. Most of the residents living in the neighborhood today are elderly people who do not want to move and migrant workers who are attracted by the low rents. International visitors are attracted by the long cultural history of Dashilar, which goes back 500 years. I am interested in reviving the cultural + commercial attributes of Dashilar, using craftsman as a medium to activate the productive values of local residents and to …

Dying Differently: Designing A Death-Oriented Psychedelic Treatment Center, Grace Caiazza

Masters Theses

In the context of therapeutic treatment for the terminally ill, psychedelic assisted therapy instigates a direct confrontation with a person’s experience of dying. Over the course of several weeks a patient will arrive at a facility, lay down in a room, and for up to eight hours at a time recommit themselves to the question: how do I comprehend death? Their answer will come in the form of sensations and sounds, visions and abstractions — things that are perhaps not immediately understood, but rather are immediately and vibrantly felt. The answer will follow a non-traditional logic unfamiliar to the empirical …

Last Sunset : Design To Alleviate Social Isolation For Chinese Elderly, Linghui Li

Masters Theses

China has one of the fastest aging populations in the world. The country’s rapid economic development and urbanization have separated millions of older adults from their children, leading to empty nest families where the elderly must fend for themselves without assistance. Design in the modern era caters to the younger generation with more consumption power while neglecting the needs of these older adults.

In China, from the moment a child is born, confinement centers, preschools, and tutoring institutions, those venues are common throughout the urban fabric. Which spaces are mainly designed for the Chinese elderly? Besides meeting necessary physical needs …

Post-Standardization, Hengrong Stanley Ni

Masters Theses

The epistemological ground for Post-Standardization is the pursuit of a humanitarian and egalitarian Utopia.

Marx notoriously argues that the economic Base determines the Superstructure. Objecting to Marx’s deterministic categorization, Post-Standardization brings together the Base and the Superstructure, where social housing and cultural institutions (e.g., museums and libraries) amalgamate. In the context of this thesis, “social housing” is the Base, denoting a specific typology of this architectural category: social housing projects utilizing Standardized Prefabricated Architecture (abbreviated as SPA in the following); “cultural institutions” are the Superstructure, denoting such institutions that require little sunlight and produce little noise (termed as Dim-Quiet Programs …