Architecture Commons^™

Implementing Net Zero Energy Into The Construction Innovations Center, Marlo Arleen Castro

Construction Management

As the environmental status of our planet declines, it is becoming more and more important for the construction industry to adapt. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is becoming an unspoken requirement for all new and tenant improvement construction, and now, with the goal of Net Zero Energy (NZE) for all new commercial buildings by 2030, NZE is becoming the way of the future. As of late, California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) has made grand efforts to retrofit several of the older buildings on its campus in order to achieve LEED certification. One of …

Awareness Of Psychological Based Strategies And Modes Of Perception By Landscape Architects In North Texas, Randy Glenn Mclain

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses - Archive

This research presents a study of the diffusion of innovation (Figure 2.8) as it relates to the manipulation of psychological responses through landscape architecture that enhance the user’s experience and achieves the design intent of an outdoor environment. This research also tests the level of awareness of psychological based strategies (Table 1.2, 1.12) and modes of perception (Table 2.1) by landscape architects in north Texas. Design solutions focus heavily on function and/or aesthetics within the profession of landscape architecture (Norman 2009, Ortony 2014). The functional design solution satisfies the rational and analytical mind while the aesthetic design solution facilitates short …

Awareness Of Psychological Based Strategies And Modes Of Perception By Landscape Architects In North Texas, Randy Glenn Mclain

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses - Archive

This research presents a study of the diffusion of innovation (Figure 2.8) as it relates to the manipulation of psychological responses through landscape architecture that enhance the user’s experience and achieves the design intent of an outdoor environment. This research also tests the level of awareness of psychological based strategies (Table 1.2, 1.12) and modes of perception (Table 2.1) by landscape architects in north Texas. Design solutions focus heavily on function and/or aesthetics within the profession of landscape architecture (Norman 2009, Ortony 2014). The functional design solution satisfies the rational and analytical mind while the aesthetic design solution facilitates short …

Lighting : An Atrium Core To Reconnect With The Sun, Quan Lei

Masters Theses

At the Rhode Island School of Design, students work so much that they treat their studio as home; the majority stay in studio past midnight, which leads to lack of sleep. How to improve students’ physical and mental health is a question demanding immediate investigation, particularly as relates to rest. According to the scientists at the Lighting Research Center (LRC) in Troy, N.Y, engagement with daylight environments increase occupant productivity and comfort, and provide the mental and visual stimulation necessary to regulate circadian rhythms, encouraging more restful sleep. Students cannot function healthily because their busy schedules remove them from the …

Inhabit The Storm : Emergency Evacuation Route, Anastasiia Isakova

Masters Theses

Today a lot of design research is concentrated on problems of resiliency and performance in conditions of hazardous events, such as sea level rise, hurricanes, tsunamis, cyclones, earthquakes and drought. And while designers, architects and engineers try to convince people to care about these issues, offer building higher seawalls, recreating marshlands, reinforcing shorelines and various ecosystems, they never really address evacuation, which remains a big problem for vulnerable areas prone to cyclical occurrence of natural disasters.

More people die during evacuation - escaping the disaster site, rather than from the disaster itself; more people die because of the consequences of …

Super Natural : Hybrid Strategies For Urban Flood Protection In Coney Island Ny, Georges Fischer

Masters Theses

How will inundation change the design of city coastlines? This thesis is an investigation into strategies to mitigate urban flooding from storm surge in Coney Island NY.

In Phase 1, dynamic phenomena are identified and deconstructed, the result are properties that can be assembled to make a machine that applies forces to wet plaster, which solidified to yield insights into the sectional forms of waves. This process was used to inform a conceptual model documenting the site’s physical form, and the relative differences between land and water in terms of its density and porosity.

In Phase 2, a catalog of …

Wayfinding Streetscapes : How To Integrate A Wayfinding System Into The Streetscape, Improving Public Transit And Pedestrian Mobility, Lu Zhang

Masters Theses

This is a thesis investigation in 3 phases, integrateing wayfinding system into streetscapes by effective spatial planning and environmental communication, aiming to improve public transit and pedestrian mobility. Considering streets as one of the major sites of city life, they play a critical role in the process of daily information flow and communication. This entire thesis tests the possibility of adding a new layer into streetscapes as both a city infrastructure and a method to raise people’s awareness towards a certain site.

Alleyways As Avenues, Rebecca E. Ladd

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the possibilities of in-between spaces bounded by the realms of public and private experience in an urban environment, specifically situated in Downtown Providence, RI. This thesis begins by questioning the meaning of what public space is and how we as humans choose to inhabit space that has been given a particular program or quality. What allows a person to feel that he or she has ownership over a public space? Through the interdisciplinary lens of Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture, the subsequent phases will analyze how people in Downtown Providence perceive and utilize space within the city …

Twilight Revelation, Shuwen Xu

Masters Theses

The first inspiration came from the thrilling phenomenal nuance caused by the natural light, especially the diffused and cool light — that’s why I am so fascinated with the dawn. Also, the “conditional” idea proposed by Robert Irwin in his book “Being and Circumstance — Notes Toward a Conditional Art” influenced my attitude towards landscape and public art: the design could be a tool to “reveal” the phenomenal changes and make people become more aware of them, instead of changing the existing condition arbitrarily.

Then I chose “threshold” — the space between private and public condition, interior and exterior, which …

Thrive In Sea Level Rise, Xiang Zhao

Masters Theses

Port Morris has played an important role in the industrial realm of New York City since 1842. After the construction of the first Railroad in Port Morris, the area became an accumulation zone of factories and warehouses. These settlements, over time, though, have caused certain problems.

The waterfront area cannot be reached by the public: traffic is dense, air pollution is prevalent. The particle pollution in Port Morris is 2.6 micrograms per cubic meter, the highest in New York City. Across the three miles of shoreline, there are only three spots where people are able to access the waterfront. Besides …

Thresholds : Natural Phenomena, Urban Form, Equilibrium, Peiyi Liu

Masters Theses

My research topic is finding methodologies to address thresholds between natural processes and the urban network to achieve equilibrium between the two at Battery Park community.

Phase 1, In this phase, this investigation will seek to look at the definitions of thresholds, and then generate a system to categorize the operations of thresholds in order to understand and access more possibilities for thresholds within landscape.

Phase 2 will build on phase 1 by looking at the existing features and subtle processes of the site in order to understand its potentials and problems.

Phase 3 will build on phase 2 by …

Hill Study : Re-Energize Highly-Programmed Hill Study Space, Di Qiang

Masters Theses

Sloping sites present a variety of difficulties to the structures on which they are built: difficulty in access, difficulty in delineating the space, difficulty in reaching specific functional areas. These problems aren’t caused by the sloping site itself; the sloping site is a natural terrain. The problem lies in the contradiction between the natural sloping site and the traditional hillside architectural forms which evolved from flatland architecture. The College Building of the Rhode Island School of Design exemplifies the use of flatland architectural typology on the hillside . During the expansion of Rhode Island School of Design in 1935, RISD …

Building Community : Network Within Grey Space, Lingfei Liu

Masters Theses

Buildings constitute the city, but at the same time isolate people from the action of the city by delimiting the activities within. Considering the relationship between buildings and public urban areas, is there a missing characteristic which could blur the boundary and create a smooth transition, a grey space gradually mediating between the outside and the inside, exterior and interior? Perhaps a type of connection within the city which contains more flexibility and accessibility would reduce the isolation of people from the activities of their own cities.

Isolation of this type exists on the urban scale, but also affects institutions …

Updraft : Crafting A New Passive Cooling, Hobin Song

Masters Theses

To comfortably inhabit historic buildings we have developed mechanical devices to manage the internal environment so that it is possible to keep the room temperature stable despite season and climate. However, enormous energy is necessary to sustain these machines, which poses practical and environmental problems. To overcome and prevent this waste, efforts have been made to control the internal environment of contemporary buildings using natural principles. Is it possible to use this approach to improve the performance of historic buildings without compromising character or significance?

This is an ideal topic to test against RISD campus buildings. The campus is made …

Writing A City : A Self-Reflexive Exploration Between The Lines, Po-Ming Chou

Masters Theses

My thesis investigates the dialogue between the act of writing and the process of making: the spatiality of the literary dimension versus the architectural dimension, through creating an invisible city. It is a self-reflexive process in which the storyline and the structure of writing affects how the casts are designed, while in reverse the process of making directs the trajectory of the story. It is a narrative project that lives in both media, and deals with the difficulties that come out of the different directions.

Consciously working with intuition, and exploring roots in every decision made, as if diagnosing my …

Proximity, Interaction, And Evolution : Taking A Deeper Look At The Systems Around Us, Rachel Back

Masters Theses

In the new age of the sharing economy, the society is more connected than ever, but humanity has never been more disconnected from the environment and the natural world. This thesis begins with studying the dynamics of physical and non-physical systems, at all scales. Additionally, this thesis explores the physical and emotional connection to place, time, and memory. Finally, the goal of this thesis is to create spaces that reintroduce nature into architecture, and allow the inhabitant to experience the mystery and awe of the living systems.

Cultural Infrastructure, Public Space, And The Contemporary Library In Toronto, Zoë Ritts

Masters Theses

Public space is an aggregate of differences, a place of exposure and adjacency to other lived social realities. The potential of public space is the confrontation or mediation of differences through interaction.

Public spaces are therefore about intersections and visual transparency between publics. Through architecture, we can create the conditions for contact with difference: with openness, transparency, density of program, and merging and splitting trajectories, we can work toward greater engagement in society.

As civic institutions, the bus station, an affordable method of transportation and movement, and the library, a crucial component of cultural infrastructure, can collide to create a …

The Flood : Another Note Of Humanity, Muyi Fan

Masters Theses

Site is an inhabitable system, in which forces are generated by sets of rules which dictate all the natural and human histories, perceivable and unperceivable. The manipulations of these existing forces are always based on the comprehensive understanding of this system, rather than the willing of a single (group of) inhabitant(s) of occupying, ruling and colonizing. This process is always suggestions rather than solutions, and allows further editing. Through continuous manipulations, site is evolving.

Living On The Edge : Failure By Design, Odile Schlossberg

Masters Theses

This Thesis Project starts a conversation between the coastal edge and the built environment in order to develop a new approach towards transformable architecture design.

Erosion has an inevitable impact on coastal inhabitation. Over time, the water edge erodes and the shoreline retreats, pushing back development or causing existing buildings to collapse. Raised architecture has been a proposed solution to mitigate the impact of oceanic forces on buildings, but I believe there can be a different alternative to this approach.

Erosion could be seen as a ‘transformation that takes place over a period of time’, rather than as an environmental …

Resilience On Wall Street, Rahul Ghera

Masters Theses

On October 29th, 2019, the most substantial economic depression of the modernized world abruptly began, as the international financial market and the global GDP took a plunge. Over the course of the next decade, all that continued to rise were unemployment and suicide rates.

The Wall explores the question of what happens when the lights go out on a society that is irrevocably halted. Questions of responsibility, reparations, and conviction are all weighed as ‘Wall Street’ is revealed as ground zero, and the once-powerful bankers are uncovered as the addicts who have gone too far, gambled too much, and are …

Motion And Architecture : Transition Between Spatial Fluidity And Body Language, Tong Li

Masters Theses

Architecture is always changing. Seeing birds flapping the wings, horses running across the grassland, leaves falling down from the tip of the tree, clouds being blew away by a gust of wind, a drop of water sliding down from a flake of flower...I see architecture.

Killing The Angel, In The Mind, Body And Home, Vaishnavi Ramesh

Masters Theses

There is something reassuring about belonging to a space. In patriarchal societies, there is a perceptible manifestation of gender that is constructed into spaces. The street and a public life contain within it the notions of movement that is unrestrained and free. These are attributes of a space that men identify with and an unintended consequence has resulted in public spaces being demarcated as male domains. This notion is embedded in how women experience life everyday, as they are accustomed to the idea that public spaces and streets are only spaces they pass through to reach destinations and not enjoy …

Unfolding : Architecture As Dwelling In A Folded Space-Time Continuum, Feiyi Bie

Masters Theses

Architecture can be described as the relationship between exterior form and interior space — typically a representation of desire by both architect and inhabitant. However, when architecture responds specifically to issues of transportation, it must unfold in time and space, creating different spatial experiences that provoke an evolution in human habitation.

Perceptible Ambiguity : Learning Center, Zhurong Qian

Masters Theses

This project investigates the possibility of using the concept of projection to blur a boundary, as well as the potential to create an ambiguous transition between various spaces. In this project, the differentiation between floors, inside and outside, solid and void, starts to fade away.

Projection is a way to understand the world. Through “looking”, we “collapse” the original object, and reconstruct the image in our head.

Learning is in the same way, we “break down” the phenomenon in order to comprehend the logic, and through experiments, we examine the theory repetitively. Learning is also about seeing the same thing …

Room In A Forest, Amelia Millan Osma

Masters Theses

This thesis is an exploration of the frictions between the self and the external worlds, using architecture as a woven structure that oscillates between the two worlds. This structure allows us to understand our individual intimacies in the midst of constant exposure. It is the sum of this encounters that will constitute the final form of the architecture.

Spanish Ambassador’s House: The endless outsider

“I am the center of the house, but in control. I am the center under observation”.

My thesis proposal is bound for the Spanish Ambassadress in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The house is a dwelling …

Into The Open : Blurring Building Fences, Chun Qiu

Masters Theses

When an urban college campus is open to the surrounding community, students benefit from a closer engagement with the resources of the city: entertainment, markets, living arrangements, more cultural and professional experience. At the same time, local residents enjoy a stronger regional economy from all of the people attracted to study or work on campus, allowing closer contact for locals with the world beyond the boundaries of their own city.

Though it is clear how valuable communal engagement is to urban life, we live in a society obsessed with separation. The near-universal practice of extruding backyard parcel lines has created …

Wellness Within Reach : Life / Work Balance Within The Risd Campus, Kyunghwa Kang

Masters Theses

Academics often overlook the importance of a balanced life and even encourage a competitive work environment. However, life balance, health and mental wellness have strong influence on academic performance, social relationships and even life satisfaction. Working environments matter, too: lack of natural light and ventilation, noise and lack of privacy often contribute to elevated levels of stress, anxiety and depression. In the case of students from the Rhode Island School of Design, most devote almost all time to work without satisfying the body’s need for rest. However, studios do not integrate spaces for relaxing, resting and refreshing and do not …

Sharing : A Synergy Of Natural Forces, Existing Urban Conditions And Human Characteristics, Zhen Meng

Masters Theses

"Sharing is a synergy which produce a combine effort greater than their separate efforts. It based on the dependency of independent material(s), object(s) or structure(s), and can generate more possibilities.

There always be one dominant, one compliant, one gives the direction, one follows the order. Sometimes the direction is selectional and compliance can be multiple. By following the characteristic of objects, with the superposition of selected orders, the result can be complex and diverse.

When design complient to the natural forces and existing urban condition, then meeting different human characteristics, taking advantage of the restrictions, carefully making small changes that …

Culturally Integrated Space, Jing Wang

Masters Theses

The topic of this thesis is the urban public space responses to new residents in old neighborhoods. In phase 1, the GIS collection of demographic changes of New York and typology studies about existing urban parks asks the question: how might urban parks better integrate the new residents into old neighborhoods? This question helps choose the Sunset Park Neighborhood as the study and test site. In phase 2, the site analysis including history, climate, and the park usage of Sunset Park Neighborhood, leads to a preliminary proposal of a new urban park typology for better integrating the new residents into …

Healing Landscapes, Siyi He

Masters Theses

This thesis divided to three parts; it mainly looks at the scenario of healing landscapes in the Financial District. Phase one focused on the overall history and site condition of the Financial District, and tried to combine it with the typology of a traditional healing landscape. New typologies of healing landscape for high density and unhealthy urban areas were explored. Phase two evaluated various site conditions and documented the flow of people in the Financial District. The typology of healing practice forms was developed. Phase three tried to locate the specific location of healing practice paths and the area of …