Architecture Commons^™

Residential Housing Renewable Energy Savings Calculator, Eric J. Robinson

Honors Thesis

Frequently renewable energy investment has been thwarted by principal-agent disconnects. Chief among these is the disconnect in the rental market between tenants and landlords; whereby, the tenant may desire to invest in renewable energy sources but has no means to. An additional disconnect occurs between homeowners and their utilities providers. This study seeks to explore the disconnect between tenants and landlords and better align their motivations through intelligent contract design for sustainable investment. If renewable energy is proven profitable as a long-term investment, landlords will be more apt to invest and collect an energy/utility fee included in the cost of …

A Case Study On The Design Of Safe Spaces In Hospitals Vulnerable To Tornadoes In Central Us, Lucy Owusua Ampaw-Asiedu

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the wake of recent disasters happening around the world such as the earthquake in Italy (January 2017); hurricanes in the United States (U.S.) (September 2016 and 2017); and compounding disasters in Haiti (September 2010 and 2016); to our best knowledge, never has the world seen the need to work on preemptive rather than reactionary measures to address this issue. Tornadoes are natural hazards that commonly occur in mid-western and central states of the U.S. Tornadoes, like all natural hazards, are very destructive and result in massive destruction to building structures, causing billions of dollars in damage and claim many …

[Re]Defining Chandigarh, Dhruvee Patel

KSU Journey Honors College Capstones and Theses

Chandigarh is the first planned modern city in India as a symbol of nation’s faith in the future designed by Le Corbusier in 1951 in the East Punjab. Through investigation it became apparent that Le Corbusier proposed design principles for Chandigarh that were already theorized for Bogota in Colombia and Marseille in France following his concept of Radiant village that was never built. His design for Chandigarh was more of a prototype model, which failed to capture the spirit of Indian culture and community, making it harder to navigate and familiarize with the city. If architecture is a reflection of …

Cultivated Edge: Mediating Rural And Urban Gaps In Informal Settlements, Camila Hellebuyck

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Usually when you think of agriculture, you think of a farm, of production and of profitability and not on how can cities benefit from these practices, specially informal settlements. Urban agriculture is practiced almost as a hobby in industrialized nations, but it’s a response to a need in developing countries. In the case of Ciudad Bolivar, an informal settlement on the edge of Bogota, Colombia, urban farming resulted from food scarcity and poverty. The project develops design placemaking strategies aimed at improving the built environment and, as a result, the social cohesion of the neighborhood. The thesis proposes a community …

Student Mixology, Brandon Arroyo

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In colleges around the country student homelessness is a problem on the rise. Students who are affected often reside in cars, abandon buildings, or shelters. This thesis focuses on integrating underprivileged groups like homeless students and underprivileged youth, with other school related user groups such as traditional students, parent students, and faculty. The unique needs of each of the user groups are defined and a understanding of the building typology associated with each user group will be integrated together to create a project where six unique user groups will be able to live together while gaining a mutual benefit from …

Underground Atlanta Revisited, Salvador Jimenez

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture is commonly thought of as individual buildings, usually someone would think of an enclosure, that we often think of it as an "interior" space, while our surroundings outside of these enclosures are considered "exterior" space. Transitional spaces bridges the gap between solely interior and solely exterior. These spaces, in being transitional, take people from outside and, through the overlap of the outside nature and building, transfer individuals to a destination defined as inside. In doing this, transitional space helps to ease architecture's relationship with the natural environment, creating a relationship with each other rather than a conflict. This thesis …

Emulated Ecology, Erik Graves

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Natural versus built environment. Nature versus man made. Organic versus inorganic. These are arguments that have been stated and debated since the early architectural times of Vitruvius and are still prevalent even in today’s popular practice. As a whole architecture has moved towards a more green direction with the introduction of programs such as LEED and Architecture 2030. We have become more and more strict on the way we grade and evaluate the sustainability of a project, not just in the energy used and stored in the construction and operation of a building, but we have even begun to look …

Architecture Of Democracy, Devin Perkey

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The goal of this thesis is to explore how architecture can play a role in democracy. The traditional “Architecture of Democracy” is a branch of neoclassical architecture called Jeffersonian. This type of architecture is modeled after Greek temples which is not the inclusive space you would expect an architecture of democracy to be modeled after. I believe the imposing, exclusive architecture has played a part in the current state of affairs between representatives and citizens and the solution lies in creating a new Architecture of Democracy based on the principles of democracy.

Modulating The Craft, Lee Martin

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Technology has brought a new paradigm to the act, art and Craft of Making. Digital technologies that utilize optimized production tools have transformed the traditional paradigm of the design-build construct. As new technologies have developed, most makers disregard the tools and skills of the past. Neglecting traditional craft has given rise to the term “fabrication.” Fabrication is a method of constructing which can be described as the absence of soul and character, in other words, one that is disposable in a contemporary culture. This thesis problematizes a design process between the Craftsman of pre-twenty-first century tool making, and those of …

Solar And Rain Catching Canopy. Urban Oasis, Afolabi Ibitoye, Langston Clark, Elena Zimareva, Evan Banks, Alexander Aptekar

Publications and Research

The Urban Oasis is designed to work within existing “pocket parks” in New York City as a combined rainwater collector, personal electronics charging station and resting designation for New Yorkers. Intended to not only lessen the demand on the city power grid by using renewable energy to charge devices, the urban oasis is also intended to mitigate grey water overfill in New York’s combined sewer system and, in general, serve as a model for responsible environmental stewardship in urban areas.

The important technical aspects of the canopy specifically analyzed were:

a) how much rainwater could the canopy be expected to …

A Green Dialogue For Aging Society, Dian Tan

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis addresses the issue about disconnections of communication between human to human, and human to environment. It seems like we got connections with other people via various smart devices, meanwhile we are so disconnected with the people and environment where we are currently living. Technologies sometimes hinder the communicating ability of human. Architecture could become a media that contains more messages send to human, helping on the communication between human to human, and human to environment.

Daylighting Optimization Study: Rock Creek High School Commons Skylight Optimization, Razieh Hosseini Nezhad, Ashley Mcdaniel-Harpster, Nicholas Papaefthimiou, Rosemary Hill

Student Research Symposium

The aim of this study is to optimize the shape of the skylights in order to enhance daylighting. Rhino, Diva, Grasshopper, and Galapagos are the softwares utilized to test differing shapes on top and bottom of the shaft of the skylight, and the findings show preference to those with beneficial impacts on Spatial daylighting autonomy (sDA) of greater than 55% and Annual Solar Exposure (ASE) of less than 10%. Selecting metrics within the above parameters result in optimal skylight geometry with highest daylighting output. The initial purpose of the experiment was to optimize the design of the skylight shaft with …

Shrinking Cities In The Rust Belt: An Ecological Urban Design Intervention In Cairo, Illinois, Dakota Lewis

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Shrinking cities are those which have experienced sustained depopulation over time. This phenomenon typically occurs in industrialized countries around the world as a result of economic downturn, social tension, or climate related change. When depopulation occurs, remaining communities are often met with unsustainable conditions as they are forced to function in a city designed for many times their population. While these conditions could be seen as negative, this design thesis aims to re-frame urban shrinkage as a condition that reveals unprecedented sustainable design opportunities. The United States Rust Belt region contains many shrinking cities such as Cairo, Illinois which due …

Re-Hanok-Ization, Joel Lee

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

South Korea is a relatively small country of roughly 38,000 miles^2 which to put it into perspective is about half of the state of Florida, this country has a GDP ranking of 12 worldwide. From an architectural prospective, this country has the resources to build new & innovative structures. And South Korean’s have been doing so by modernizing commercial buildings and they have enlisted the services of famous architects from around the world such as Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, & Richard Meier. What about their most commonly used buildings? Out of the 30% of land that is buildable in South …

The 21st Century Energy Hub, Farhaan B. Samnani

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Developing countries face problems like pollution, unsafe construction, poverty and lack of clean stable energy. These areas are the most in need of sustainable and net positive design since they lack the resources to design long-term solution. An architecture that can make energy affordable through onsite rapidly renewable resources, help reduce on site pollution and provide stable housing would be a welcome intervention. As we approach the new century, buildings will aim to become an energy hub. Cities do not look at a building as an energy source. Currently Energy production centers sit on the outskirts of the city. But …

Mapping Energy Access In Rural Tanzania: 2017 Summer Internship With The World Resources Institute, Naramena Mccray

Sustainability and Social Justice

This report details my 2017 summer internship experience; both the report and the internship being requirements of the GIS for Development and Environment Graduate Degree at Clark University. My internship was hosted by the World Resources Institute, an international non-profit organization in Washington D.C. As implied by my position title, “Energy Access-GIS Intern”, I spent the duration of my internship (14 weeks) applying my geospatial expertise to address the topic of energy access which is an issue effecting rural areas of many developing countries. I was given the responsibility of creating an interactive map application of Tanzania accessible by energy …

The Rise, Fall, And Revival Of The Moviegoing Experience: The Viability Of Independent Theatres In A Multiplex World, Isabel S. Cruz

Sustainability and Social Justice

Moviegoing has been a leisure activity since the early twentieth century. From their origination, movie theatres have served as a community gathering place for people from different socioeconomic backgrounds to come together for a shared experience. Even as substitutes for movie viewing options threaten the movie theatre industry, independent cinemas are surviving and thriving. This paper includes results from interviews with independent cinema owners and managers on steps they are taking to preserve moviegoing as an immersive and personal experience. Findings are used to explore how lessons can be applied to create a credible business proposal to locate an independent …

A Spatiotemporal Analysis To Identify Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities In Nebraska, Sangho Lee

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study aims to identify the geographic locations of “naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs)” and whether there were spatiotemporal patterns of naturally occurring retirement communities in Nebraska for the time periods of 2000 to 2010, and to 2015. As the American population continues to age, older people generally prefer to live in their own homes for later years of life, instead of moving into assisted living. These demands have resulted in the increase of elderly populations who are “aging in place”. Nevertheless, there have been few spatiotemporal analyses about the distribution patterns of elderly households in terms of NORCs for …

Decentering Neo-Bohemia In The Creative City: Cultural Marginalization, Economic Violence, And An Alternative Agenda Of Diverse Cultural Scenes, James Murdoch

Planning Dissertations - Archive

Creative cities policy is an approach that advocates the planned development of consumption-oriented, mixed-use urban neighborhoods supporting artistic activity and a vibrant nightlife to create economic benefits. The literature labels these neighborhoods 'neo-bohemia' because they combine the gritty, authentic lifestyle of bohemian artists with a contemporary consumption culture of cafes, bars, galleries, and other arts spaces. Many, however, critique creative cities policy, suggesting it leads to gentrification and neighborhood commodification, and ignores the economic and cultural value of places that are not neo-bohemian. I apply the critical theory of J.K. Gibson-Graham (2006) to decenter the concept of neo-bohemia in the …

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 …

The Work Of Living Art, Empathy, And The Creation Of An Aesthetics Of Perception In The Early Twentieth Century, Sarah Peil Winstead

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Adolphe Appia (1862-1928), theorist and pioneering voice of the New Stagecraft Movement in twentieth century theatre, was a transformative influence on the history of scenic design. This paper looks at the links between Appia’s theories in theatre scenic design and contemporaneous German aesthetic theory. At the time German theorists like Adolf Hildebrand and August Schmarsow developed an aesthetic theory, Einfülung or empathy theory, based on the connection between the human body and perception. I will argue this theory influenced not only Appia and his contemporaries it also shaped the landscape of mid-century theatre design. Appia’s own theories revolved around three …

Making Process: The Search For A Personal Language Through A Shared Vocabulary Of Painting And Design, Callie Fleetwood

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

As designers, everything we make is personal. The act of making is a learning experience, as well as a personal act. We learn through this act of making. Making spans many mediums, including painting and architecture. Every designer has a language that is unique and personal to them. There is however, a shared and fundamental basis, or vocabulary, for these languages that span mediums and designers. To better understand the making process, a careful study of the architectural work and personal paintings of two architects has been done. Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto are two architects who practiced in the …

Objektet E Banimit – Objekt Shumëbanesorë Afarist, Art Dubovci

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ndërtesat Shoqërore (Bibloteka E Qytetit), Jona Bytyqi

Theses and Dissertations

Duke parë kërkesat e të rinjëve të prizrenit dhe dëshira e madhe e vetë qytetarëve të prizrenit, ky projekt plotëson nevojën e qytetit dhe studentëve e nxënësve për biblotekë.

Pasi që bibloteka aktuale që ka prizreni është shumë e vogël dhe në gjendje jo shum të mire, gjithashtu edhe shfrytëzimi i vogël i sallave për lexim ka bërë që nxenësit dhe studentët te kërkojnë hapsirë me adekuate për zgjerimin e saj ose ndërtimin e një bibloteke të re në shfrytëzimin e librave dhe dijes që të rinjët dhe ky vend ka nevojë.

Qëllimi kryesor i këtij studimi është ti përmbush …

Kompleks Banesor-Afarist, Puhovc - Pejë, Egzonjeta Ademaj

Theses and Dissertations

“...ndërtesat lindin me qëllimin për t'u shërbyer njerëzve” Ndikimi që arkitektura ka në jetën e njerëzve në hapësirën në të cilën ata jetojnë dhe veprojnë është shumë i madh. Përveç ndikimit vizual e funksional, ky ndikim bartet edhe në pjesën më të rëndësishme, atë humane, mendore dhe psikologjike. Një filozofi e Dizajnit Arkitektural u shfaq në fillim të shek. XX, me pohimin se një ndërtesë duhet të ketë strukturë dhe plan që i përgjigjet kërkesave funksionale, të harmonizuara me ambientin e saj natyral dhe të formoj një tërësi intelektuale të qartë dhe të integruar. Forma, funksioni dhe konstruksioni janë tri …

Ndërtesa Shoqërore" Galeri E Artit ", Dodona Rushiti

Theses and Dissertations

Edukimi është element kritik për zhvillim. Mos edukimi dhe mos njohja e kulturës ndikon në krijimin e një shoqërie të zbrazët dhe të pakompletuar.Një nga objektivat primare të artit është edukimi rreth kulturës dhe vetë njeriut në shoqëri. Galeria e artit modern me theks të veqant po tenton të vertetoj atë se ne mbajm mend më shumë atë që shohim se sa atë që lexojmë.Përveq faktit që galeria e artit modern ndikon në pasurimin dhe njohjen tonë me kulturen,skulpturen,pikutren dhe shumë arte të bukura,shumë njerëz e vizitojn për tu larguar nga stresi,depresioni dhe problemet që po shkakton jetesa bashkëkohore.Prizreni siqendra …

Kompleks Banesor-Afarist, Puhovc - Pejë, Edona Dreshaj

Theses and Dissertations

“...ndërtesat lindin me qëllimin për t'u shërbyer njerëzve” Ndikimi që arkitektura ka në jetën e njerëzve në hapësirën në të cilën ata jetojnë dhe veprojnë është shumë i madh. Përveç ndikimit vizual e funksional, ky ndikim bartet edhe në pjesën më të rëndësishme, atë humane, mendore dhe psikologjike. Një filozofi e Dizajnit Arkitektural u shfaq në fillim të shek. XX, me pohimin se një ndërtesë duhet të ketë strukturë dhe plan që i përgjigjet kërkesave funksionale, të harmonizuara me ambientin e saj natyral dhe të formoj një tërësi intelektuale të qartë dhe të integruar. Forma, funksioni dhe konstruksioni janë tri …

Challenging The Norm Of Minimums: A Case Study Of Ada Design Standards On The University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Campus, Emily Drummy

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

In the United States, over 30 million people have difficulties climbing stairs and require the use of a walker, cane, or wheelchair to move around (United States Census Bureau, 2012). All people interact with the built environment around them, including the some thirty million who deal with physical difficulties. While some can navigate the space around them easily, others have more difficulty due to certain barriers. Often, interior environments are designed with the able bodied in mind, not accommodating properly for the disabled even in the most basic of ways. Despite the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) …

The Destruction Of Cultural Heritage In The Yemen Conflict: Legal Implications And State Responsibility, Benjamin Passey

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Since 2015, a violent war has waged in Yemen between rebel forces and a Saudi Arabian led coalition. This conflict has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, an unparalleled humanitarian crisis, and the flagrant disregard and violation of international humanitarian law. A silent victim of the conflict is Yemen's millennia-old cultural heritage. Dozens of ancient monuments, historical buildings, and museums have been systematically targeted and destroyed by the coalition in unprecedented acts of cultural warfare. This paper examines the culpability of the Saudi led coalition in committing war crimes, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the …

Hands-On Activities To Increase Student Engagement In Undergraduate Structural Dynamics Course, Chad D. Facciolo, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

This report documents the design and implementation of several physical models and hands-on lab activities incorporated in an undergraduate structural dynamics lecture and laboratory course pairing offered at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in the Architectural Engineering department during the Winter 2018 quarter. In previous quarters, the laboratory course has lacked opportunities for students to conduct their own physical experiments and has consisted primarily of MATLAB programming activities. Efforts to illustrate the dynamic behavior of various structures have primarily involved instructor demonstrations or online videos.

The addition of physical models in the Winter 2018 offering promotes an engaging …