Architectural History and Criticism Commons^™

The Question Of Slim | A Critical Look At Manhattan's Recent Trend Towards Slenderness, Raymond Sova

Architecture Senior Theses

Manhattan’s real estate market since the turn of the 20th century to present day can be characterized as an extreme optimization of the economical elements of architecture. Most of the buildings in Manhattan’s diverse and complex skyline share a tenacious desire to maximize the profitability and feasibility of a site while minimizing overall building expenditure. This concept is defined in Koolhaas’s ‘Delirious New York,’ as the relationship between “the Needle” and “the Globe.” Seemingly immeasurable wealth and investment have given rise to a new sub-typology of super-tall strikingly skinny (Slim) residential skyscrapers that may very well result in the demise …

Hacking The Urban Village | Architecture As Board Game, Xuyun Liu

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis proposes the board game as a new research methodology and platform for the study of southern China's urban villages.

Hacking the Urban Village examines the urban villages that have, in recent decades, become a common but informal settlement type in China as a result of China's unprecedented period of urbanization.

This research forms the contextual core of a board game where game settings present the current urban conditions and players may explore alternative forms of urbanism. The board game offers players the opportunity to investigate both he formal conditions of the urban village life along with it attendant …

Sponge Logics | Rethinking Thresholds Through A Porous Mass, Tanvi Sanghvi

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that the separation and distinction between the envelope and the mass in contemporary architecture is to be resisted. Architect and theorist, Greg Lynn, argues that mass “is not only the outward shape of a building; it’s also the projection of shape, plan organization, spatial and sectional type, and façade”1.This critical reevaluation of the mass, and its relationship to the interior spaces and the building’s face, is particularly pertinent to the modern construction in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. The character of the historicist and postmodern buildings that make up Jaipur is made solely based on the applied façade. This …

Releasing The Unconsciousness | Visualizing The City, Taihui Li

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis explores how subway stations lost their identity as strategic node of connectivity which constructed the prevailing image of New York City. In Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), Sigmund Freud famously compared the human mind to the city of Rome. He argues that both contain strata of memory and history which have accumulated over the years through a messy and ad-hoc process. Like Rome, New York City also has a layered history, albeit not as deep.

This thesis contends that the subway entrance serves as an experiential entre into the unconscious experience of the unknown elements of the past. …

Housing Projects And Cityscape In Vienna: Apartment Buildings As Fortresses From Metaphor To Reality, Michael J. Zeps S.J.

History Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Discover Joyce's Dublin By Reading And Running, Barry Sheehan

Academic Articles

James Joyce told his friend Frank Budgen. “‘I want’ said Joyce, as we were walking down the Universitätstrasse, ‘to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book.’” (Budgen, 1960, p.67, 68).

This research looks at the relevance of Dublin to Joyce’s writings and to the relevance of Joyce’s writings to Dublin. It is concerned with the virtual Dublin of Joyce’s writings, the physical manifestation of Dublin over time, and the relationships between them.

Numerous scholars read and analyse the writings of Joyce …

P-04 Cavan Burren 2015 Project, Rhonda Root, Robin Johnson, Ariel Solis, Abelardo Rivas

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

The Cavan Burren is a plantation forest within the Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark overlay along the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland border. The exposure of Cavan Burren’s "relict landscape" resulted from a 2012 partial clear fell. Our multidisciplinary team of researchers in architecture, technology, ecology, fine arts, and archaeology investigated domestic architecture reflected in three stone configurations: circular/semicircular sites, rectangular sites, and tomb structures. We also investigated human action on pedestal boulders (PBs), which had been modified by sculpting, splitting, and cutting away. Our first goal was to show human action on structures by using three-dimensional (3D) …

Victor Horta's Illusion Of Space, Courtney Manning

Student Research

An exploration of Victor Horta's architectural illusion of space.

Inside An Internship At Yosemite National Park Museum, Sherry M. Sidick

Historic Preservation Final Projects

No abstract provided.

Garden Peninsula Cultural Byway, Lori Taylor-Blitz

Historic Preservation Final Projects

The natural beauty of the Garden Peninsula and proximity on the Great Lakes has attracted people to its shores for thousands of years. The peninsula holds many intrinsic qualities: cultural, historic, natural and recreational. The Anishinabeg native peoples historically occupied the peninsula during warm fishing months and established seasonal camps here. The French Missionaries followed in the seventeenth century traveling along the sound between islands in Green Bay and following the Niagara Escarpment northward to the Garden Peninsula. In the nineteenth century, a breakthrough in iron smelting technology aided rapid industrial development across the United States and the peninsula experienced …

Gm Technical Center Architectural Records Inventory, Stefanie Turner

Historic Preservation Final Projects

No abstract provided.

Orlie J. Munson, Architect, Bethany Berdes

Historic Preservation Final Projects

No abstract provided.

Victoria Harbour In Hong Kong: 150 Years, Vivian Ngo

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The image depicts the changes to the coastline of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong in the past 150 years. The historic photo shows a developing commercial harbour during the colonial time; overlaid with a sketch of the current skyscraper filled metropolitan city after 150 years of land reclamation.

Postwar Residential New Towns In Japan: Constructing Modernism, Michelle L. Hauk

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

In 1963, Japan passed the New Residential Town Development Act prompting the construction of publicly constructed large-scale residential satellite towns across the nation in response to a severe housing crisis. Addressing two case studies, Senri New Town near Osaka and Tama New Town outside of Tokyo, this thesis examines the historical and social context of the design and construction of postwar new towns by tracing the institutional, intellectual, and architectural histories that shaped their urban form. Senri New Town, the first to be built in Japan, exemplified the model for the postwar new town while Tama New Town, the largest, …

Medieval Architectures For Religious Tourism And Hospitality Along The Pilgrimage Routes Of Northern Italy, Silvia Beltramo

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Sacred spaces are, and have always been, places of reception: hospitality is in fact a precept of God. Many biblical passages remind us of this, such as the one (Gen 18, 4-5) in which Abraham welcomes three guests, washes their feet and offers them a piece of bread and a place to rest under a tree. Saint Benedict too, in chapter 53 of the Rule, insisted on the need to honour pilgrims and travellers, who should be welcomed with a charitable service ready for devotion and stated that all guests who entered the monastery should be received as …

Old Leelanau County Jail Initial Conditions Assessment, Megan Blaha

Historic Preservation Final Projects

In the winter 2015 term, Eastern Michigan University’s Historic Preservation Program partnered with the Leelanau Historical Society to initiate the development of a Conditions Assessment for the historic former Leelanau County Jail, located on land where the county seat had stood prior to its move to Suttons Bay Township in 2008. The purpose of this joint effort was to continue the efforts already begun by the Historical Society to save the jail. Since interest in development of the property the jail currently resides on persists, it has become imperative to create an assessment so that if the jail needs to …

Change Over Time: Neatline And The Study Of Architectural History, Lisa A. Reilly

Artl@s Bulletin

This article discusses how the usual study of architecture from the perspective of a single moment in time, usually the moment of its creation is limiting. New methodologies make it possible to add to the current rich variety of approaches available to the architectural historian in order to consider the dynamic history of the forms we study. This problem can be resolved in part through the use of digital tools, in particular Neatline, (www.neatline.org) which allows the viewer to see and understand how a building changes over time.

Zero 2020, The Low Energy Retrofit And Renovation Of A Precast Concrete Building In Ireland Exploring Site Nzeb Energy Retrofit In Precast Grid Optimized Low Rise ‘60s Buildings, Marc O Riain, Jim Harrison, Kevin Mccarthney

Publications

This paper contextualizes the 1967 design of Regional Technical College (RTC) campuses in Ireland, with reference to the influence of oil crises on early green design and the establishment of a regulatory environment. Variation between NZEB and Passive House low energy strategies are discussed. Design Science and Action research inform solution-oriented methodologies in a pilot retrofit project on 1.5% area of an RTC building. Problem investigation notes previous schemes, stakeholder’s goals, building evaluation and energy performance diagnosis. Environment interaction between context and artifact are discussed. Design validation includes simulated envelope performances, which inform design iterations. Phenomena are evaluated in terms …

Exploring Nineteenth Century Church Architecture In Saint Louis, Missouri: 1870-1900, Rebecca A. Pressimone

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Steeplechasing, a seventeenth century pastime in England, was a form of match horse racing. At the time, steeples were the most distinguishable landmarks and were used to indicate the beginning and end of a steeplechase race. Over time, steeplechasing became more of a sport, and has since been turned into a track and field event, however the idea of the steeplechase remains present in architectural development, travel, and tourism. Saint Louis, Missouri—home to close to fifty religious denominations—is not unaccustomed with the design, history and use of a steeple. In Saint Louis, steeples were, and continue to be staple church …

The Role Of Healing Gardens, Kalina K. Vander Poel

Student Research Symposium

The objective of this research is to observe the use patterns of a healing garden located on the oncology floor of a pediatric hospital. Use patterns recorded through behavior mapping and tracking focus on collecting data related to the type of user, length of stay, and activity. Three user groups (patient, provider, and visitor) stay an average of eight (8) minutes at Randall Children’s Hospital ranging in activity from sit and relax to actively play. Some findings are concurrent with past research while other findings are not. This research serves as an initial set of data to inform the production …

Santa Maria Antiqua: The Amalgamation Of Identity In Early Medieval Rome, Cayce Davis

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

The intent of this investigation is to frame an identity for the church of Santa Maria Antiqua and the urban condition of Rome during the sixth through eighth centuries. Coupling topographical and semiotic information with larger geographic issues, this study interrogates the church and specific individuals associated with it as a way of more comprehensively understanding Santa Maria Antiqua as a visual medium of cultural change and political propaganda. Narrating the complex formation of personal and social identity at the site allows us to understand greater physical and social contexts and explore more thoroughly early Christian Rome.

Materialism: The Search For Something More, Nolan S. Golgert

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

“Part of our troubles results from the tendency to ascribe to architects – or, for that matter, to all specialists – exceptional insight into problems of living when, in truth, most of them are concerned with problems of business and prestige. Besides, the art of living is neither taught nor encouraged in this country. We look at it as a form of debauch. Little aware that its tenets are frugality, cleanliness, and a general respect for creation, not to mention Creation.”

– Bernard Rudofsky (Rudofsky, 1964)

– Life is complicated – because of this, specialists derive narratives as readings for …

The Ford-Scherer House National Register Nomination, Sam Constantine

Historic Preservation Final Projects

No abstract provided.

Aspen Art Museum, Rumiko Handa

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

'I hope when people come to the New Aspen Art Museum they will sense that this building is very much at home in Aspen and could only live here', Shigeru Ban states in a short essay to visitors included in the museum brochure. Indeed, the way in which Ban's design fits uniquely within its context is nothing less than extraordinary. A full appreciation of his accomplishment, however, requires a study of Aspen's history.

What strategies are available to the architect who intends to design a museum that fits well for a community with keen interests in arts but lacking in …

Perspective: Of Time And Eternity, James G. Lawson

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper considers geometric perspective in relation to devotional requirements in Italian religious painting from about 1250 to about 1450. The content of the altarpiece consisted in antithetical elements---the graphic exposition of Christian dogmatics, and a dramatis personae increasingly to be identified in empathetic terms. The one-point perspective system that was invented towards the end of that period, then, presented an opportunity and a difficulty. It enabled the creation of a naturalistic space, aiding empathetic identification with psychologically plausible individuals in the pictured world. On the other hand, whilst superficially the space marked out by the geometry of the vanishing …

Towards A Collective Spatial Form:An Analysis Of Achill’S Deserted Village, Noel Brady

Conference papers

This paper examines an earlier study by Bob Kingston and along with onsite observations develops an environmental theory behind the particular siting and location of the deserted village in Achill, Ireland. The paper relies on the survey conducted by Kingston in the first instance but then by translating the material into a different format has concluded on statistically significant evidence of willful and careful planning and design in the construction of the houses.

Experiencing The Architecture Of The Incomplete, Imperfect, And Impermanent, Rumiko Handa

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

For some time now architects have operated with the notion that the building is complete when construction is finished. They strive to make the building perfect and wish to keep it so permanently. Seen from this point of view, any subsequent alterations seem to degenerate the original. And yet, buildings never stay the same as they take part in politics, economics, and religion through the course of time. Their changes may be caused by natural forces or artificial means, and may manifest physically or in meaning. For example, immediately after the inauguration of the Colosseum in Rome, structures were added …

Statecraft: Vandalism And Iconoclasm In The Digital Age, Connell Vaughan

Conference papers

Not only is vandalism increasingly subject to digital documentation, but the aesthetic nature of vandalism itself is different as a result of the digital. No longer is vandalism a local destructive act, it has become an act performed primarily for broadcast to global markets. This paper uses the example of Islamic State (IS) iconoclasm to explore the way in which digital media is strategically used by vandals and considers the responses of the heritage industry to respond to such destruction. It illustrates how the deliberate digital documentation and subsequent global broadcasting of the destruction of cultural heritage by Islamic State …

“Can The Use Of Online Learning And Reflective Journals Improve Students’ Performance And Engage Them In Independent Learning For A Practically Taught “Timber Jointing Module”?, Jennifer Byrne

Other resources

The Technological University Dubiln is one of the largest multi-level higher education providers in Ireland. The Institute’s traditional mission has always been focused on teaching and learning in the field of advanced technical vocational education and training (TVET), and one of its agendas is to foster and encourage changes in teaching practice and methodology in order to enhance the student learning experience.

This research concerned the performance levels of first year students of the Timber Product Technology (TPT) programme. I wanted to investigate whether the use of independent online learning and reflective journals would encourage these students to continue their …

Refinement And Architecture In Early Ypsilanti, Lynda Mccarron

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this work is to examine refinement and architecture in nineteenth-century America with a focus on rural areas and Ypsilanti, Michigan in particular. The research utilized consists of an analysis of primary and secondary sources. Included among the primary sources are architectural style books such as those by Andrew Jackson Downing, pioneer writings such as those of Caroline Kirkland and Solon Robinson, historical buildings, and probate record inventories of Washtenaw County. Ypsilantians did not assume the genteel refinement that developed in the nineteenth century. They instead modified gentility to become a form of respectability that suited their needs. …