Architectural History and Criticism Commons^™

Mediation Partiality And The East African Community’S ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ In The Kenyan Post-Election Crisis Of 2007/2008, Rasul A. Minja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the role of East African Community (EAC) in mediating the 2007/2008 Kenyan post-election crisis, analysing its engagement in regional conflict resolution. Despite its mandate to promote peace, the EAC's response was constrained by institutional weaknesses, political dynamics, and reliance on quiet diplomacy. The African Union-backed Panel of Eminent African Personalities, led by Kofi Annan, ultimately led the mediation, sidelining the EAC. Through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, the article indicates that EAC lacked a binding conflict management framework and faced decision-making delays that hindered swift intervention. The partiality of key figures, particularly President Yoweri Museveni …

Jonathan M Jackson, Visions For An African Valley: Histories Of Development In Kilombero, Tanzania Since 1877., Emanuel L. Mchome

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Research on the history of colonial development and future-making in Tanzania has focused on the racial and class politics that influenced development visions and practices. Studies of postcolonial development history have demonstrated how state leaders and their ideologies shaped nation-building trajectories. Notwithstanding of the temporal dynamics, scholars have analysed how the flow of finance and technical assistance reveals intertwined global forces such as nationalism and the Cold War, and how foreign development assistance shaped development in Tanzania. Visions for an African Valley moves beyond this conventional analysis. Instead of employing ideological lenses in analysis, it specifically examines how colonial and …

Beyond Christianity : German Missionaries’ Heritage In Colonial Mbeya, Tanzania, 1880s-1918, Ashura Jackson Ngoya, Edward Simon Mgaya

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the history of German missionaries in the colonial Mbeya, a southwest region of Tanzania, from the 1880s to 1918. It explores how missionaries influenced political, social, and economic changes that had a profound impact on the lives of the local population. The article investigates the secular roles of missionaries, which, although they supported evangelisation, they were not directly non- secular aspects. In doing so, the article considers missionaries' efforts in education, health, agriculture, trade, and tax collection, which sometimes led to them working as colonial intermediaries in certain areas of Mbeya. Based on primary and secondary sources, …

Engineering Inefficiencies And Technical Dependency : A Vital Lens In Understanding Power Outages In Postcolonial Tanzania, 1960s-1990s, Emanuel L. Mchome

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines how the construction of power infrastructure in the 1960s-1980s shaped the future functioning of the Tanzanian power grid from the 1990s. The article is based on oral sources and archival material collected from the Swedish National Archives in Stockholm, the Tanzania National Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO), the East Africana Section of the Wilbert Chagula Library at University of Dar es Salaam, the Rufiji Basin Development Authority (RUBADA) and the World Bank online sources. The article argues that engineering inefficiencies of some Western planners and builders of TANESCO’s power grid who failed to consider local ecological issues …

We Have Always Been Here: Trans Oral History Project Grant Application, Finn Vincent-Fix

Historic Preservation Final Projects

This project is a grant application for the HOPE Fund, a permanent community endowment established at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan for the purpose of providing grants to organizations serving local LGBTQ+ communities. The grant would have been used to finance the We Have Always Been Here: Trans Oral History Project (WHABH), which seeks to preserve the stories of transgender individuals living in SE Michigan utilizing the practice of oral history. Grant funding would allow project personnel to conduct, transcribe, publish, and preserve the stories of a marginalized population whose rights are actively being threatened in the highest courts …

Preserving Cultural Identity In Multi-Function Real Estate Developments, Khloud Khalid Eldamshiry

Architectural Engineering

The proliferation of multi-function real-estate developments (MRD) frequently leads to the erosion of unique architectural identity (AI), threatening the historical and cultural character of urban areas. This research addresses a critical gap in understanding how new developments can effectively preserve and leverage local cultural heritage. Grounded in the theoretical understanding of heritage-led urban regeneration, this study aims First, to identify the specific architectural elements and design strategies crucial for preserving cultural sustainability (CS) in multi-function real estate projects; and second, to quantify the perceived impact of these strategies on local community engagement and economic viability. The hypothesis posits that multi-function …

Designing Childhood Spaces: Towards An Architecture That Responds To The Child’S Innate Needs And Enhances Interaction, Abdelrahman Mohamed Mousa

Journal of Engineering Research

: The creation of a building for children is no longer just a shelter, but rather a spatial unit for 2020, a diverse and generally direct difference in building the child's personality, which limits the strengthening of control over the child on the one hand, and the direction in which he lives. It is a loud cry, one that is diverse: children have realized us, and the reference to the cry is that we find ourselves participating in dealing properly with children and also in society years later. It is believed that attention to children during the preschool stage significantly …

Spaces Of Empowerment: A Study On University Multicultural Spaces & Civil Rights, Keana Balalio

McNair Summer Research Program

Following the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, American universities dedicated offices and centers to multiculturalism. This project questions how identity-centered spaces for empowerment operate in relation to efforts for institutional integration. This study proposes the term space(s) of empowerment to describe identity-based areas at universities [and other institutions] that encourage gathering of historically marginalized communities, their allies, and institutional supervisory support. The concept draws on architectural literature regarding political and economic power dynamics of space. Beginning with the University of San Diego’s United Front Multicultural Commons (UFMC), study includes reproductions of floor plans and memories. Analysis draws from Michel de Certeau’s …

Future Interior Of The Past: An Air Terminal Comes Of Age At Detroit-Willow Run, Joss Kiely

Interiority

After the Second World War, manufacturing plants were no longer needed for wartime production levels, prompting the closure and repurposing of industrial facilities that became obsolescent overnight across the United States and in the manufacturing region of Southeastern Michigan. Located twenty miles west of Detroit, the Willow Run airfield in Ypsilanti was one such case. Best known for the massive B-24 Liberator manufacturing plant designed by Albert Kahn that opened in 1942 as Air Force Plant 31, the airfield played a key role in ending the war. Just to the south, a Kahn-designed hangar was loosely repurposed in 1946–1947 as …

Feeling At Home Outdoors: The Courtyard Of The Rozes House, Marta García-Casabán

Interiority

Although the courtyard was not a central element in the early stages of the Modernist movement, it later became a key transitional space between the interior and the exterior. This concept was reinterpreted in Spain through a balance between modernity and tradition, particularly in holiday homes along the Costa Brava. This research explores the role of the outdoor room in modern Mediterranean architecture and its relationship with the environment, using José Antonio Coderch's Rozes House as a case study. Through redrawing, the text aims to analyse how the 'outdoor room' in Rozes House enhances spatial continuity and strengthens the relationship …

A Tale Of Two Worlds: A Framework For Translating Literary Fiction Into Architectural Space, Timothy D. Anderson

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Authors and orators have employed fictional stories for thousands of years as a crucial method for translating narratives, lessons, and intangible culture. These take shape through diverse art forms such as spoken word, visual art, dance, and sculpture. However, in the current age, architecture often neglects its immersive and spatial potential, allowing stories of a site’s heritage to become lost beneath the layers of urban development. This thesis explores design as storytelling, examining how fictional narratives can be translated into architectural space.

The research draws on fictional and speculative narrative architecture, analyzing the use of metaphor, symbol, and allegory as …

Ghost Highway: De-Touring Albuquerque's Route 66, Madison A. Garay

Art & Art History ETDs

Route 66 was a U.S. Numbered Highway stretching from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA, rising to fame through music and popular culture. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Route 66 has a troublesome twin life as Central Avenue, a highly politicized space where bodies are contested. In this thesis, the function of public arts and architecture of Albuquerque’s main street thoroughfare, Central Avenue, will be analyzed as visual devices of U.S. Highway 66, or known in popular culture as “Route 66.” I employ a critical Derridean framework through Mark Fisher’s theorization of hauntology and Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Ojibwe)’s theory of …

A Historic Context For House Moving: Why Moved Houses Are Eligible For The National Register Of Historic Places, Ian Tomashik

Historic Preservation Final Projects

Structural moving, the process of moving complete buildings to new sites, has shaped American landscapes for over two centuries. Thousands of wood-frame houses were moved with surprising frequency between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Yet, moved buildings are “ordinarily” ineligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This project explores this exclusion two parts: an analytical essay that argues for their inclusion for nomination and a historic context survey that explains the prevalence of house moving. The essay first explains the National Register’s rationale for questioning the historic significance of moved buildings. It also examines why large-scale house …

The Arch And The Looking Glass: Umbli Cu Cioara Vopsitǎ, Ana Popescu

Masters Theses

The Arch and The Looking Glass: Umbli Cu Cioara Vopsită (You Are Walking Around with a Painted Crow)

A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in the Department of Ceramics of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

By Ana Popescu, 2025

Approved by Master’s Examination Committee:

Lesley Baker, Shoji Satake (Chair), Heather Bhandari, Tucker Houlihan

Date: May 17th, 2025

Location: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island

To be opened for self-reflection in 10 years, on May 17th, 2035:

I’ve been mulling over how to make …

Notes On Revivalism, Elana R. Kates

Masters Theses

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Living Heritage, Aysenur Cetin

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on urban interventions designed to enhance the functionality and public engagement of Istanbul’s historic Golden Horn walls, while restoring their cultural presence in the city’s collective memory. Although these walls represent centuries of historical and architectural significance, from their Byzantine foundations to their layered Ottoman adaptations, they remain largely overlooked by those who encounter them daily. Fragmented, hidden, or absorbed into informal urban development, the walls have become background elements in a rapidly evolving city.

Through a combination of lightweight, site-sensitive design strategies and educational initiatives, this project aims to reinterpret the Golden Horn walls as accessible, …

The Blue Below Still Breathes, Yiyi Wang

Masters Theses

The Blue Below Still Breathes explores disappearance transformation rather than loss—a shift in visibility that reveals the pressures, absences, and structures shaping perception. Across interactive installations and print works, I examine how power operates through omission, fragility, and formal control. At the heart of this practice is printmaking, reimagined as a responsive, impermanent medium that challenges its historical association with fixedness.

The thesis installation features a 5x5 grid of thermochromic screenprints of a concrete wall, where viewer proximity activates a randomized sequence of heating panels. As heat raises the temperature of the surface, a field of blue gradually emerges, breaking …

Transplant Transplant(Ed) Transplant(Ing), So Jung Yoon

Masters Theses

Boundaries shape our lives and identities. The tangible presence of boundaries becomes a medium for engaging with the world—such as who occupies a space and how, or what tools are deemed valid in a design process. These boundaries aren’t always visible; they’re embedded in systems, habits, and assumptions that shape how we move, create, and are recognized. They extend far beyond fixed geographies and the specific positions we occupy within them.

Transplanting is the process by which things are moved or move across boundaries in hopes of being planted, finding a place to stay. Though it can be a search …

Exploring Bim Capabilities For Life Cycle Assessment In Structural Projects: A Valencian Barraca Case Study For Sustainable Material Choices, Oscar Selfa, Barry Mcauley, Kieran Lakhera O'Shea

Conference Papers

The construction sector significantly contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resource consumption, and waste generation, with structural materials accounting for up to 40% of embedded carbon. This study investigates the integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools to promote sustainable structural design. Using a BIM model of a Valencian barraca, three scenarios were evaluated: traditional materials (adobe and wood), concrete with steel, and concrete with Cross- Laminated Timber (CLT). Results show that natural materials generate lower impacts, while steel and concrete exhibit higher emissions. This work proposes a workflow integrating BIM, …

A Timber Tradition: Pacific Northwest Architecture And The Role Of Local Wood Sourcing In Oregon, Kaleb Patrick Paiker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Within the study of Portland’s architectural heritage, there is a deep connection to

materials local to the region. The use of these materials, combined with sensitive

architectural design, delineates a building as being from a place rather than an

imposition. The impetus to define the local wood architecture of Portland, Oregon led

me to an understanding that the health of the forest is predominant in design and

construction. I have found that environmental stewardship promotes a distinct typology

of architecture; one that can be recreated and derived from the same source—a tree.

Inferring from local wood sourcing, I have determined …

Presence Of The Past: The Translation Of Traditional Culture Into Contemporary Form Among The Igbo Peoples Of Southeastern Nigeria, Nelson Agalaba

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture serves as the physical embodiment of a group’s cultural values, history, and social dynamics- or identity. The arrival of European colonialism and modernism brought about a paradigm shift, prioritizing a universal European aesthetic and “international style”, displacing indigenous architectural traditions and severing the deep connections between culture and the natural and built environments. The global south has experienced the brunt of this process, especially the African continent. For example, the Igbo peoples of southeastern Nigeria have lost nearly all examples of their building traditions and have been in a constant struggle to create an architecture that captures their rich …

Case Studies Of Racism As A Force Of Ruin, Bassie Chin

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

The connection between racism and the physical environment can be seen in the segregation, disenfranchisement, discrimination, and fear which, as culturally defining attitudes, become baked into where, why, and when cities develop. Strict neighborhood boundaries from previous redlining, decaying infrastructure from a waning tax base, and entire villages which have been wiped out speak to racism’s extreme power as a force of corrosion. This paper discusses how racism contributes to the creation of ruins as a method of artificial decay.

In order to examine the effects of racism on infrastructure in different contexts, case studies of three different American cities …

Spatial Echoes, Joy Cherichel

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This abstract critiques the limitations within the U.S. education system, arguing that its selective preservation of history often obscures crucial narratives, particularly regarding systemic racism. Focusing on the suppressed history of Oscarville and the expulsion of Black residents from Forsyth County, Georgia, in 1912, the proposal advocates for architectural intervention to combat this historical amnesia. The central research question explores how architecture can preserve and convey unbiased racial history to enhance education. The thesis posits that intentionally designed architecture can serve as a powerful and enduring educational tool, making it harder to ignore marginalized histories. To address this, the abstract …

Sardis - The Agonist: A Monument To The Resurrection Of A Dormant Cultural & Commercial Center, Inocencio Ruiz

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The rural American Southeast is a region of deep cultural significance that is shaped by resilience, adaptation, and an ever-evolving relationship with the land. Sardis, like many crossroad towns in Georgia, bears the imprint of shifting economies, environmental forces, and the enduring spirit of its people. This thesis combines a familiar vernacular of place that is integrated with a neo-cultural sophistication to explore how material details become the foundation for composing and proposing a neo-narrative architecture that represents a people, a region, and its rural southern heritage.

Sardis, Georgia is a complex and historically important small town... the materiality that …

Architecture Center Of Excellence, Rawan Al-Badri, Aida Nayer

Effat Undergraduate Research Journal

Architects are an important part of society in terms of technology, service and development around the world. Currently in Saudi Arabia, for groups of architects, students and lecturers in the field of architecture, there is no designated place for them to gather, discuss and share their experience in the field of architecture. Thus, this work presents a proposal on developing architecture center of excellence in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In this work, two cases were analysed. Based on the case studies, for the proposed architecture center of excellence, he estimated gross floor area is 9876 m² and the net floor …

Deconstructing The Anthony Timberlands Center: Making Preparations For A Building’S End-Of-Life., Sarah Myane

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Based on a speculative future where mass timber has become a normalized structural material, integrated into the building envelope as commonplace, and material reuse and reclamation are standard practice. The Anthony Timberlands Center is slated for deconstruction due to age and necessity for more updated programing. Today in 2025 as the building has not even reached completion, how can its assembly and use influence its purpose after the initial lifespan?

This study is based on principles of design for deconstruction from two different theories: the 6 S’s of a building devised by Stewart Brand, and Philip Crowther's 10 frameworks for …

The Changing Kitchen: Analyzing Sears Mail Order Home Kitchens And Gender Inequality In The United States Between 1908 And 1940, Ella G. Penney

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Sears Roebuck & Co mail order home was no exception to the idea that architecture and design are products of culture and society. Penny Sparke, a scholar of domestic interiors, writes that design is informed by “economics, politics, technology, culture, society, our psychological make-up, ethics, and the world’s ecological systems” (Sparke 8). In 1908, Sears responded to an increase in demand for single-family housing by releasing a home that could be delivered right to your door. This study investigates the ways in which gender inequality, particularly, the confinement of women to domestic space and housekeeping labor, manifests itself in …

Aspirational Architecture: How The Design Of The Barbie Dreamhouse Reflected The Cultural Influences Of Its Time, Eugenio Mendoza Jr

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

Similarly to the iconic cerulean monologue given by Meryl Streep in the film, The Devil Wears Prada (2006), the trickling and filtering of “stuff” from one art form to another is a significant point of discovery and contention. Whether it be the influence of art to architecture, architecture to art, fashion to architecture, media to art to architecture, or the amalgamation of all art mediums to form a confluence of design and a representation of time in history. This capstone explores the relationship between architectural and interior design to fashion, media, and even cultural events. Particularly, how design is affected …

Quantifying The Transformation Of The Built Environment As A Result Of Cooper River Bridge Construction In Charleston, South Carolina, Catherine Claire Jackson

All Theses

The demolition of historically undervalued vernacular architecture for the construction of transportation projects has created a large-scale, cumulative loss of architectural heritage nationwide. This thesis quantifies the architectural loss caused by the construction of the series of Cooper River bridges in peninsular Charleston and Mount Pleasant. This study assesses the transformation of the built environment as a result of each bridge’s construction by determining the quantity of architectural loss, identifying forms and materials of architectural loss, and differentiating the effects of bridge construction on the more rural Mount Pleasant side compared to the urban peninsular Charleston side. Also assessed in …

Assessing The Utilization Of Building Information Modelling (Bim) In The Preservation Of Cultural Heritage: A Case Study Of Ashe-Street Courthouse, Boluwatife J. Oluwamakinde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how Building Information Modeling (BIM) was used in the Ashe Street Courthouse restoration, with an emphasis on its role in heritage preservation. It follows a context-oriented instrumental case study methodology and a systematic four-step approach: reviewing literature and historical records, conducting semi-structured interviews with renovation architects, and analyzing project documentation. The study compares BIM with traditional methods to assess documentation quality, stakeholder collaboration, and project efficiency. Findings show that BIM increases documentation accuracy through real-time modifications while preserving historical data. It also enhances collaboration by providing a centralized platform for architects, engineers, and preservation specialists, reducing errors …