Architecture Commons^™

Robotics In Architecture <> Robotic Architecture: Why Can’T A Building Be As Smart As A Car?, Josh Vermillion

Creative Collaborations

The built environment is rich with opportunities for embedding and integrating digital technologies and sensors to create responsive and adaptable systems—to become smarter. This poster outlines selected moments from a thirteen-year body of work in research, design, and prototyping of responsive systems that act spatially with the environment at installation scale.

Robotics, sensing, physical computing, and digital fabrication are all topics that have been prioritized by U.S. funding programs such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Education. This poster presents the start of a framework--based around the concept of tinkering--for introducing these systems …

Visualizing The Operative And Managing Complexity: Communicating The Design-Fabrication Feedback Loop With The International Tile Industry, Josh Vermillion

Creative Collaborations

School of Architecture faculty members Joshua Vermillion and Paul Morrison led a multi-disciplinary group of students from Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Theater in a design-build elective, sponsored entirely by companies in the tile and coverings industry. The key to these sorts of collaborations between industry and academe is to see the production, fabrication, and assembly process as something that can inform design, and as a result, the design can augment production by strategic design decision-making. This feedback loop, connecting both ends of the design-production continuum, can yield interesting design research questions. One such question arose repeatedly throughout this semester of …

Iterating The Design Process Using Ai Diffusion Models, Josh Vermillion

Creative Collaborations

These studies span research and creative work to interrogate the generative capacity of text-to-image diffusion models that leverage artificial intelligence to produce architectural concepts, ideas, and imagery. These systems can generate an enormous amount of imagery in a very short amount of time based entirely from the written word, and we are still just beginning to understand how these digital tools might augment and/or disrupt, both, the design process, and design pedagogy within the discipline of architecture.

These AI models occupy a quickly evolving technology space with tremendous implications for how we design, as well as how we visualize—and verbalize—our …

Nashville Trail Of Tears Memorial, Jason Thomas

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

The Nashville Trail of Tears Memorial honors the Cherokee Native Americans, implores its visitors to reflect on a challenging moment of our nation’s history, celebrates the resiliency of the Cherokee nation, and reweaves the broken social fabric by creating a place for all to gather in community with each other. Sitting on Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage site, the estate of the president who signed the Indian Removal Act into law, the memorial serves as a reminder of the journey the Cherokee took through Tennessee while on The Trail. The project specifically tasked students with highlighting the experience of a young Cherokee …

Smart Technologies To Support Contractual Dispute Resolution In Construction Projects: Trends, Challenges And Application Reality In Ksa, Eisa Soliman Al Faify, Ahmed Omar M.S. Mostafa

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

Coping with the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, Saudi Arabian construction sector has witnessed a major qualitative leap in recent decades, and is considered one of the highest performer in the construction markets in the Middle East with a value of about $37 Billion. Despite the numerous efforts made by the project authorities in the Kingdom to support this sector to finalize construction projects in accordance with the approved scope, budget, and time schedule, and to avoid the causes of delay or stumbling, the reality of construction projects in The Kingdom shows that the rate of delayed and stumbled …

Optimization Of Mixture Parameter For Physical And Mechanical Properties Of Reactive Powder Concrete Under External Sulfate Attack Using Taguchi Method, Umut Bakhbergen, Chang Seon Shon, Dichuan Zhang, Jong Ryeol Kim, Jenny Liu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is defined as a cementitious composite material with an optimized size of granular constituents, very low water-to-binder ratio (w/b), pozzolanic materials like silica fume (SF), and discontinuous fiber reinforcement. RPC applications include bridge decks and girders, seismic columns, wind turbine towers, and pile foundations. Especially, a durable and robust RPC pile foundation with long service life is essential in building construction because continuous maintenance is impossible. Moreover, natural in-situ conditions such as water table, temperature, and sulfate concentration in soil to which the pile foundation is exposed are critical and related to deteriorating the pile foundation. …

The Saudi Households’ Requirements Of Dwelling Unit’S Components: A Case Study Of Riyadh, Ahmed Abdullah Alghamdi, Ali Salem Bahammam

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

Abstract

Due to the large number of dwelling’s components and their big sizes, the size of a single-family dwelling in Saudi Arabia is big, which leads it to high costs. Such phenomenon has been shaped by the society during the period of economic ease, when easy access to free grants of residential plot and affordable Real Estate Development Fund loans were available, which later has been continued through the regulations of land division and building.

The study aims to determine the real needs (of the dwelling’s components, their number, and their areas), of the Saudi households who are wishing to …

Skilled Labor Challenges And Automation In The Construction Industry, Olugbenro Ogunrinde, Rapheal Ojelabi, Opeyemi Oyeyipo

Mountain Plains Business Conference

The construction industry remains one of the most labor-intensive industries worldwide, creating an average gross domestic product (GDP) of 8% for the global economy and helping reduce unemployment. However, the last few years have brought a plague of skilled labor shortage and retirement, the most recent pandemic also playing a part in hastening retirement due to the present age cohort (baby boomers). Therefore, the need to begin to source viable alternatives to mitigate these issues that could be catastrophic is critical. One possible option is automation, but the industry remains lethargic toward innovation adoption and its use. Past and present …

Upcycling Steel Slag In Producing Eco-Efficient Iron–Calcium Phosphate Cement, Yue Ma, Yunlong Luo, Hongyan Ma, Xintao Zhou, Zhongqiu Luo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the present study, steel slag powder (SSP) was utilized as the raw material to prepare iron-calcium phosphate cement (ICPC) by reacting with ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP). The influences of the raw materials (SSP/ADP) mass ratios ranging from 2.0 to 7.0 on the properties and microstructures of ICPC pastes were investigated. The compressive strengths of ICPC pastes at all ages firstly increased and then decreased with the increase of SSP/ADP, and the SSP/ADP of 6.0 gave the highest strength. Crystalline mundrabillaite and amorphous phases [i.e. Fe(OH)₃, Al(OH)₃ and H₄SiO₄] were formed as the …

Collaborative Constructions: Designing High School History Curriculum With The Lost & Found Game Series, Owen Gottlieb, Shawn Clybor

Articles

This chapter addresses design research and iterative curriculum design for the Lost & Found games series. The Lost & Found card-to-mobile series is set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the twelfth century and focuses on religious laws of the period. The first two games focus on Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, a key Jewish law code. A new expansion module which was in development at the time of the fieldwork described in this article that introduces Islamic laws of the period, and a mobile prototype of the initial strategy game has been developed with support National Endowment for the Humanities. The …

Shear Behavior Of Reinforced Concrete Shallow Beams With Lightweight Infill, Ahmed Mohamed Tahwia, Mohamed El Saied El-Zoughiby, Mohammed Hany Hassan

Mansoura Engineering Journal

This paper presents the effect on the shear behavior of reinforced concrete shallow beams due to infilling by using the Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) as a lightweight material to decrease the weight of the beams. Three reinforced concrete beams were fabricated in the lab to study the effect of infilling the beams with AAC blocks. The first beam is a solid or reference beam, SB01. The second beam was in filled by four AAC blocks having 100mm thick ribs, SB02. The last beam was also in filled but with eight AAC blocks having 40mm thick ribs, SB03. Based on the …

Russell-Ekstrom House: Email Correspondence Between Lincoln Ekstrom And James Russell

Documentation

Email correspondence between Lincoln Ekstrom and James W.C. Russell concerning Russell family genealogy and ownership of Russell-Ekstrom House in Dartmouth, MA.

Russell-Ekstrom House: History Of Ownership

Documentation

Document giving the dates and history of the ownership of the property located at 1193 Russell Mills Road in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Russell-Ekstrom House: Scope Of The Work - Relocate Bath And Enlarge Kitchen

Documentation

Draft document outlining the scope of the work for the relocation of Russell-Ekstrom House Bath and Kitchen with drawings showing the ground floor layout and plan for the new Bath.

Russell-Ekstrom House: Scope Of The Work, Roof Remodeling

Documentation

Scope of the work for the roof remodel at Ekstrom House with drawings of ground floor plans, and rear, east side, and west side elevations.

Book Review: Creating The South Caroliniana Library, Ron Stafford

South Carolina Libraries

No abstract provided.

Drafting A Methodology To Identify Local Indicators Of Environmental And Social Sustainability In Heritage Sites Al Diriyah Supervisory Area In Al Riyadh City As Case Study, Noha Ibrahim Kassab, Elsayed Amer, Faisal Fahad Bin Sulaiman

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

The traditional residential neighborhoods represent the tangible memory of peoples' history, so they must be preserved and sustainable. Al Riyadh city has witnessed rapid urban development, which leads the government to preserve its heritage by developing the historic center ‘’Diriyah’’ and its surroundings over ‘’Wadi Hanifa’’, which includes setting environmental and social sustainability standards to ensure the continuity and prosperity of that region. The problem of the research lies in identifying the sources of environmental and social sustainability indicators and the mechanism of eliciting local ones by identifying the components of the traditional neighborhoods as well as the environmental and …

Analyzing Residents’ Satisfaction With Residential Neighborhood Gardens Within The Framework Of The Quality Of Life Program, Muhanad Alsaedi, Waleed Alzamil

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

This paper deals with analyzing the extent of residents' satisfaction with the role of residential neighborhood gardens in the framework of enhancing the applications of the Quality of life program document. The problem of the research lies in the incompatibility of the current status of neighborhood gardens with the principles of the concept of livability, which are infrastructure and transportation, health care, economic and educational opportunities, security and social environment, housing, urban design and the environment. Therefore, the research paper aims to elicit the most prominent problems facing neighborhood gardens from the point of view of the residents and within …

Homogenous Flow Performance Of Steel Fiber-Reinforced Self-Consolidating Concrete For Repair Applications: Developing A New Empirical Set-Up, Naimeh Nouri, Masoud Hosseinpoor, Ammar Yahia, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, a new empirical Square-Box test was employed to evaluate the homogeneous flow performance of fiber-reinforced self-consolidating concrete (FR-SCC) under confined-flow conditions that are typical of repair applications. The Square-Box set-up consisted of a closed-circuit box, providing 2.4-m flow distance and a closed-surface cross section of 100-mm width and 200-mm height, equipped with 0 and 4 rows of reinforcing bar grids with 45-mm clear spacing. The flow performance was assessed in terms of dynamic stability and passing ability. The investigated mixtures were considered as diphasic suspensions of fiber-coarse aggregate (F-A > 5 mm) in suspending mortars containing particles finer …

Nashville Trail Of Tears Museum, Emily Schiedemeyer

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Architecture is the manifestation of artistic expression which can serve as both a storytelling device and a mechanism to evoke an intentional emotional reaction of its occupants. The Nashville Trail of Tears Memorial is intended to reflect the story of the Cherokee nation and give visitors the opportunity to consider the horrific journeys taken. The Trail of Tears was the route taken by many Native Americans following the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of their lands, leaving many dead and families separated. Native to the southern part of the Appalachian chain, the Cherokee tribe is the group of people that …

The Museum As Object Of Display: Experiencing The Ashmolean, Jack Z. Chen

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Conventionally, museums are most often considered as a series of objects displayed, but I argue that the museum itself should be seen, first and foremost, as the object on display. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, built at the high tide of British Imperialism, is a very interesting case study. Interested in its engagement with its own past, I do not seek to investigate the actions it takes as an institution, for instance, as regards to the politics of repatriation. Instead, I want to explore the whole experience it facilitates as an object in its own right.

This experience begins with …

Synergistic Effect Of Shrinkage Mitigating Materials On Rheological Properties Of Flowable And Thixotropic Cement Paste, Kamran Aghaee, Ricarda Sposito, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates the effect of individual and combined additions of CaO-based expansive agent (EA), shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA), and super absorbent polymer (SAP) on key characteristics of flowable cement paste mixtures proportioned with a water-to-cement ratio of 0.40. Of special interest is the effectiveness of these admixtures to mitigate shrinkage of cementitious materials for 3D printing. Static and dynamic yield stress, plastic and apparent viscosities, and thixotropy were evaluated at 20-min intervals up to 90 min. Compressive strength development and autogenous shrinkage were also determined. A factorial design approach was developed to evaluate the synergetic effects of the shrinkage …

Spiral Deployment Of Optical Fiber Sensors For Distributed Strain Measurement In Seven-Wire Twisted Steel Cables, Post-Tensioned Against Precast Concrete Bars, Yanping Zhu, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

On-time monitoring and condition assessments of steel cables provide mission-critical data for informed decision making, ensuring the structural safety of post-tensioned concrete structures. This study aimed to develop a spiral deployment scheme of distributed fiber optic sensors (DFOS) and to monitor/assess the post-tensioned force in seven-wire twisted steel cables, based on the pulse-pre-pump Brillouin optical time domain analysis. Each DFOS was placed in a spiral shape between two surface wires of a steel cable and glued to the steel cable by epoxy. Image observations were conducted to investigate the entireness and bonding condition between the optical fiber and the steel …

The Future Of Architecture: Measuring The Sustainability Of Paradigm Shifting Architectural Interventions, Jake M. Cohen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sustainable development in the built environment seems paradoxical given that the architecture, construction, and buildings sector is one of most polluting, wasteful, and inefficient industries. Despite this notion, the role of the architect is evolving and their influence on design is expanding beyond ideas for physical structures and into designing interactions between the built environment and components such as policy, material usage, sustainability, and urban regeneration. Architects that are able to implement paradigm shifting design ideas that improve the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability can be catalytic for systemic change and act as a vehicle to move away …

How Spirituality Intensifies Sustainability: A Case Study Of Ananda Valley In Northern Portugal, Mia Handler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The religious affiliations of citizens in the West are currently shifting away from the fundamentalist, traditional structures of the past towards more alternative spiritualities. Furthermore, as a result of the climate crisis, ecovillages are becoming increasingly popular. Ecovillages are intentional, “sustainable” communities that seek to reduce consumption, live in harmony with nature, and create strong social bonds. They are characterized by varying levels of spiritual involvement (Greenberg, 2014, p. 274). As such, the objective of this paper is to study the relationship between spirituality and environmentally-friendly practices and attitudes, using the ecovillage Ananda Valley – an Ananda Marga Master Unit …

Characterizing And Modeling The Coupled Hydro-Mechanical Cyclic Behavior Of Unsaturated Soils Using Constant Water Content Oedometer And Direct Shear Tests, Beshoy Riad, Xiong Zhang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Most transportation infrastructures are constructed on compacted soils that are typically unsaturated above the groundwater table. The soils are subjected to cyclic traffic loadings and seasonal wetting–drying cycles. Although problems associated with unsaturated soils are ubiquitous in the US, coupled hydro-mechanical analysis is rarely included in the design/analysis of transportation geosystems. This can be attributed to two main reasons: (a) there are no simple devices/methods which can be used to rapidly characterize stress–strain behavior for unsaturated soils, and (b) there is a lack of a constitutive model to study coupled hydro-mechanical cyclic behavior for unsaturated soils in a consistent way. …

Benefits And Drawbacks Of Using Multiple Shrinkage Mitigating Strategies On Performance Of Fiber-Reinforced Mortar, Kamran Aghaee, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Shrinkage mitigating strategies have been successfully used to prevent concrete cracking. Numerous studies have demonstrated the efficiency of shrinkage mitigating materials (SMM), such as expansive agent (EA), shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA), and superabsorbent polymer (SAP) on reducing shrinkage and cracking; however, few studies have addressed the limitations of using these materials. In addition, the mechanism of negative effect on microstructure and mechanical properties when these materials are used at high contents or in combinations is not well defined. This study investigates the effect of CaO-based EA, SRA, and SAP on compressive strength development, fiber pull-out strength, and shrinkage of fiber-reinforced …

A Novel Iron Phosphate Cement Derived From Copper Smelting Slag And Its Early Age Hydration Mechanism, Yunlong Luo, Xintao Zhou, Zhongqiu Luo, Hongyan Ma, Yu Wei, Qin Liu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Copper slag (CS), a by-product of copper smelting, is normally stockpiled, leading to wastes of resource and space as well as environment pollution. It has not been massively reutilized as a supplementary cementitious material in Portland cement due to its low reactivity. In the present study, CS is for the first time utilized as the base component to prepare an iron phosphate cement (IPC) by reacting with ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) at room temperature. The influence of the raw materials mass ratio (CS/ADP) on the microstructure and performance of IPC pastes are investigated. It is found that the compressive strength …

The National Register Of Historic Places Nomination Process For The Dow House (Ypsilanti Historical Society) Ypsilanti, Mi, Tim Sabo

Historic Preservation Final Projects

No abstract provided.

A Ray Of Light For The Black Community: Preserving The Aray Family Legacy Through Museum And Archival Practice, Rebecca Murphy

Historic Preservation Final Projects

This project applied museum and archival theory and practice in order to document and preserve the Aray Collection according to best practice. The Aray Collection is an important Black history collection found at the Ypsilanti Historical Society. The Aray Collection belonged to an affluent, free-black, farming family in Pittsfield Township and is made up of textiles, decorative arts, culinary instruments, tools, photographs, and archival documents. Tasks performed included artifact tracking which aided in the identification of unmarked collection pieces. Photographing, cataloging, labeling, and preservation were performed on the existing and newly located collection artifacts. The photographs and other archival material …