Architecture Commons^™

Threading Puddles : Stormwater Management As A Way To Address The Impact Of Miami's Future Fresh Water Shortage Due To Increasing Water Demand And Saltwater Intrusion, Jing Zeng

Masters Theses

The city of Miami will face significant challenges in the future of changing climate. Compared with other cities in Florida, Miami is lucky to have the abundant groundwater resource from its surficial aquifer —Biscayne aquifer, which provides potable water for 3 million people of the region. But, as climate change progresses, Florida is expected to experience warmer temperature, more prolong drought, higher precipitation events and more intense storms. All these factors will influence the hydrologic system and current water management due to the uncertainty.

Climate variability will dictate the amount of water available to replenish the suificial aquifer. The low-lying …

Wastescape : Stitching The Process Of Natural Decomposition Back Into The Public Realm, Yu Pei

Masters Theses

The research starts with an interest in waste management in New York City which is the most wasteful city in the world. The city spends extra energy and creates more environmental and social problems by transporting them out of the city and dumping them in the landfill.

With the original question of how to bring the waste back to the city and how to get people close to the waste, Phase I investigates the composition, quantity and mobility of the waste management in New York City and raises the objective of bringing waste back into the city within the broader …

Reviving Floodplain In Miami, Shangyuan Li

Masters Theses

This is a thesis carried out in three phases. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are research-based, and Phase 3 is exploring the future design schemes under the principles and criteria that have been set up in Phase 1 and 2.

Phase 1 is focused on understanding the water dynamics and major issues in Miami, questions like why Miami is so vulnerable to flooding, and where the water comes from are answered. The conclusions of this phase are scientific principles of how water behaves and how water is managed in the South Florida region. Moreover, critical issues caused by flooding and …

Guide The Flood : Miami Vulnerable Neighborhoods Flood Adaptation Design, Zhe Zhao

Masters Theses

When it comes to the future of Miami, what else could be instead of waiting to be swallowed by the sea?

This thesis starts with a group pre-research on different aspects related to the rising up sea-level in Miami. By analyzing the existed urban fabric and typologies, the author tries to use the current segregated open space in every block to create a new open space system to reduce the sea-level-rise influence. Therefore, the goal for the thesis is to provide a powerful and gynamic open space system to the rising sea-level.

The thesis is structured in three phases. In …

The Arctic Commons, A. Gavin Zeitz

Masters Theses

The Arctic Commons envisions a world where geopolitical cooperation and transnational friendship generate an ethos of planetary collectivism promoting the future stability in the Arctic and rest of the world. This book will be a guide to understanding the Arctic at a range of scales, from governmental to regional, and finally the experiential and phenomenal that engages the unique ground conditions. The Arctic Commons encourages political action to create a new network of infrastructure that operates as a model for retrofiting global systems which currently fail to represent the common interests of the everyday citizen. Humankind’s current standards for social …

Home · Land : Olmsted's Legacy And Gentrification In Boston, Ma, Jessica Wilson

Masters Theses

Home • land is a master of landscape architecture thesis project encompassing an expansive body of trans-disciplinary research around the issue of gentrification and cultural displacement. The outcome is a proposal for a Community Land Trust (CLT) around Columbia Road in Boston, MA - the “missing link” of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace park system. This book examines the impetus of Olmsted’s Legacy and the mayor’s promise to complete the “final jewel” of the necklace, the vectors of gentrification acting on the site, and the strategies and tactics that might aid in combating rather than catalyzing gentrification in this neighborhood. …

The Long Forgotten City Element, Yun Chu King

Masters Theses

No cities should escape from their history and original features.

Taoyuan, also be called as a city of thousand of ponds, which has an unique landscape in Taiwan. This uniqueness is a victim of the city expansions. Instead of let this uniqueness undeveloped and being a part of victim by filled with soil as the land for the high-rise and high density developments, I would like to purpose a model water friendly community idea and a new living style to Taoyuan city.

This community consist with the one family houses which is the typical living style in this surrounding area, …

Throwing Architecture To The Sea : Discipline Out Of Context, Andrea Kelly

Masters Theses

Architecture as a discipline has the ability to absorb and become other disciplines, often blurring its own boundary. Architecture as a practice is a response to dynamic forces of our world and is embedded in everyday entanglements. Yachts present a unique opportunity to explore these characteristics of architecture.

As a floating vessel meant to travel and spend a significant amount of time out at sea, the project is site-less and out of context to our physical built environment, allowing for opportunities to explore autonomy in the discipline. At the same time, it is entangled in human activity, engaging discourse of …

A Monument Thesis, Graham Rice

Masters Theses

Monuments are to something; people, events, memories, achievements, or tragedies. They are meant to freeze the moment of the builder and save it for the future. Monuments are an attempted cryogenesis, but monuments that preserve the past sever themselves from the present. They are cryogenic. They can be viewed, but are frozen behind the glass of time. All but the most potent of artifacts will fade at these low temps. Their relevance diminishes until they undergo a transmutation from an intentional object into a historical artifact.

These historic monuments are worthy of our suspicion. Do they replicate or preserve what …

Chaos And Order, Jie Du

Masters Theses

Water is my natural place to start seeing what exists in nature. Water has different states as it travels in nature from the ocean to the sky, from the sky to the land, and from the land to the ocean. My thesis lives in this cycle: I create in this cycle from the water cycle governs and highlights all nature has to offer.

Water has a variety of forms. It stays in visible and invisible state. It is the matrix for us. We live in nature, but we rarely pay attention to nature. Because it is hard to care about …

Möbius System : A Pseudo-World Made From Pseudo-Science, Xinye Lin

Masters Theses

In somewhere of a giant universe, there is an infinite world called Zero. She is not only a projection of the universe but also an indication of the form of life. As the beginning of all life, the world begins with a tiny cell and by self-division, it grows layer by layer, space by space, the world by world. Eventually, she sets the rules for her own world. ... the whole journey begins with a waterdrop in the space.

Joy Through Layered Tension : Convergent Fire-Escapes Fulfill A New Community, Luca Rivelli

Masters Theses

The initial curiosity of this thesis was the exploration of the unquantifiable aspects of architecture. How can the emotional experience of one’s design process be manifested into something that physically embodies those sensations? How can the creator and the observer have a more intimate connection through emotional solidification?

In Between, Farinaz Moslemi

Masters Theses

The thesis explores the space between anticipation and experience; The journey from knowing to recognizing the unknown. Series of drawings, models and videos try to illustrate the space in between.

Opine : Positioning Architecture, Kevin Crouse

Masters Theses

Architecture is an ambiguous discipline. We must accomodate this by having clear positions, recognizing the embedded contradictions of polarized thought. This is to opine—to hold, form, or express an opinion; to think, consider, and suppose. 3

The Room : The Space Between, Adelaide Cushing Mackintosh

Masters Theses

As a society we see the urban fabric as fragmentations. Spaces that are in front, behind and between. The urban landscape has been divided by boundaries of infrastructure and vehicular traffic. The pedestrian has been left behind. For the room the space between, I have studied these unwanted spaces and their commonalities. These spaces have become the keepers of our unwanted material. They are the impermeable landscape that roof drains lead to. These spaces are fragmented voids that tie together down narrow alleys and over streets. Why are these spaces undesired?

This thesis addresses the city of Providence, Rhode Island. …

Nostalgia For The Future : Home 2028, Junqing Yang

Masters Theses

to

People I met,

Places I have been,

the past

and future

Gassed Out, Toban Shadlyn

Masters Theses

As the automobile industry continues to evolve with car sharing services, electric vehicles and soon autonomous driving, the infrastructure that supports our present-day car culture will become obsolete. While the current advancement focuses on the future of car design and accompanying policies, there is a need to consider the evolution of our infrastructure from an adaptive reuse standpoint.

Among the different kinds of automotive infrastructure, gas stations in particular, are the most environmentally problematic yet advantageous due to their abundance. The conversion of gas stations, however, is not a new notion. While these sites have been renovated into cafés, restaurants, …

Living With Mega-Cavity, Ankang Xu

Masters Theses

With the future depletion of mineral resource, huge quarry pits will be remained in many areas in Massachusetts. They are like vast “scars” laying beside the urban fabric which create a sense of “urban sublime”. They exist abhorrently but definitely have significant influence on the region at many levels, such as ecology, hydrology, economy and society. Moreover, the abandoned mine pits have become a global environmental issue. How to deal with these “scars” will be a vital topic in the future.

In phase 1, the researcher focused on the study of quarries in Massachusetts and the recognition of “Urban Sublime” …

We Can Host! : Preparing Miami's Neighborhoods For An Amphibious Future, Dongning Huang

Masters Theses

HOST is a thesis investigation that seeks to understand the impact that rising water levels will have on the city of Miami. This investigation will take place within the larger context of global sea level rise and will examine a variety of events including flooding and hurricanes. The goal of the work is to promote a conversation about the types of adaptive strategies that can be applied to Miami, how they can be applied, and how to visualize the dynamic of the impact of rising water levels so that the people who live in, work in, or visit Miami will …

Living With Impoundment, Chuxiong Feng

Masters Theses

This research-based thesis uses Miami as a site to investigate how landscape intervention can contribute to adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and shifts it will bring to this region in the future. The whole thesis is divided into three phases and each phase has specific objectives and builds foundations for research and experiments in the next phase.

Phase One: Possible Future of Freshwater Wetlands in Miami Depict a full picture of the impact that sea level rise has had and will have on the city of Miami with particular emphasis on wetlands. The investigations include overlaying sea level rise …

Ambiguous Surfaces : Dressing The Wall, Dressing The Room, Dressing The Building, Danni Zhang

Masters Theses

Fashion and architecture are the results of configuring surfaces. The surface of architecture is distanced and objective. The surface of fashion is tangible and sensible.

Dressing of an individual provides a definition of private space. Dressing of a group of people provides a definition of communal space.

My thesis interest is to explore the ambiguity between these two disciplines to create the intermedium layer of clothing surface and the building surface. The aim to explore different gradients of privacy between the private and the public, disconnections and reconnections, intimacy and distance to find a way in which they can all …

Columns Of Some Kind : Kinetic, Structural, Formal, Periodic & Interactive Elements Of Architecture, Jhanani Palanismay

Masters Theses

Architects and designers exist within the matrix of artificial intelligence and animate tools, therefore we are faced with the task of examining what it means to ‘humanize’ architecture and foster a tangible and intangible interaction with the spaces we inhabit. The poetics of architecture is now interpreted through the degree of engagement with technological advancements.

As an architectural element, the ubiquitous column exists within the substrate of floor and ceiling. In designing an animate column while retaining structural integrity, an opportunity is created for dialogic feedback between the user and the built environment, thereby activating different spatial conditions.

The generation …

Providence Productivity Framework : Ideas For A Network Of Sites Rethinking Productivity In Providence, Patricia Noto

Masters Theses

This thesis attempts to answer the broad question: “How can designers have a role in creating or enhancing productive systems in cities?”

The focus is on rethinking the function of public and quasi-public space with the aim of building inclusiveness, ecological diversity, and productivity. The project explores the meaning of productivity and works to push the defi nition of urban productivity to include but also extend beyond community gardens. For example, a productive city might include a network of agroforestry sites, sites being remediated so that they can grow food in the future, a nursery on a capped brownfi eld …

Shadow Theater, Yaodan Wu

Masters Theses

In this project, I try to explore the relationship between light and shadow, light and image. From exploring the formula of lens refraction, to observe unique path of object moves created by nature. I am always exploring and trying to use architecture in response to light and to sculpture light, and attract people to come to this space feeling light, interact with light. In this space, people, architecture, light and shadows are as the elements of mutual equality, influence in interaction, waving the space tighter.

Project is located in Pemaquid Point, Maine State. In the day time light are mainly …

Transporting Eating Architecture, Margaret Kiladjian

Masters Theses

For my thesis, I worked on transporting, or perhaps translating, the lavash practice. An Armenian flatbread cooked in a tonir •. A hearth symbolizing the sun in the ground. My disciplinary positioning is one of conservation and preservation.

I looked at the practice of Lavash at three horizontal levels: The land, the refectory and the table. Each of these levels informed me on where and how I would be transporting the practice. The village women, when making lavash, were living next to the field where the wheat is grown and harvested. They were using stone mills, which allowed the grain …

Decoding The Digital Border, Gian Villarruel

Masters Theses

We come to rely on computer hardware and digital software to generate and digitize the world around us and the degree of distortion latent in “street view” and public domain digital representations is rarely brought to the fore. Organized information made up of data scripts and RGB values within an intangible space have now become what many assume to be architecture. But where, between all that translation of information, does our sense of history and culture lie? What impressions remain and what memories are lost from the collective of digital representations when the only things left to define them are …

The Space In Between : Liminal Space, Wei-Chun Cheng

Masters Theses

Drawings are not just a representation of the architecture. We ask questions through drawings and solve questions by drawings. Every line on the paper is constructing a thinking, an idea. The moment you draw, ideas start to evolve. The way you draw reflects the way you think. Your drawings will function as a trigger to stimulate your brain to imagine the world differently.

This thesis is a journey of discovery through draw “boundary”. The site, architecture language, and program will emerge from the process of drawing.

Designing For Disaster Resilience In Puerto Rico, Aislin Mac Donald

Masters Theses

Being hit by both Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in September 2017, Puerto Rico was left devastated economically, psychologically, and infrastructurally. After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico entered into what would become the longest blackout in US history, and the second longest blackout in global history. Forty-eight per cent of the island was left without access to clean water and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people. The lack of federal support and Puerto Rico’s depleted economy has become a dire human rights issue. Federal relief efforts were delayed, disorganized and underfunded. Many people did not know where or …

Open Community : Break Up The "Superblock", Ke Xie

Masters Theses

This thesis proposes a redesign of the "superblocks" of Wuhan (China).

A Third Thing : An Exploration Of Black Hair In Architectural Design, Christina B. Schaller

Masters Theses

“African-American architects have been unable to articulate our own truth or vision of the future except as a reflection of the very culture that marginalizes us. We are so spent by trying to get into the system that there is little time remaining to critique the historical condition that make our climb so difficult. Rather than develop a self-defined praxis of architecture that would make a real difference in the lives of our people, we mimic the values and goals that have created our oppression.” - Sharon Sutton

By looking at traditions, art and architecture in the African American community, …