Environmental Design Commons^™

Sensible Nature: To “See” As We Once Did, Yuhan Su

Masters Theses

This thesis starts with the premise that our growing dependence on tools and digital technologies has led to a gradual decline in our sensory acuity, causing a disconnect between people and nature.

To address this issue, the thesis aims to re-establish lost connections by utilizing plant-based sensorial designs that evoke emotions and instincts, reigniting empathy and intimacy with the natural world.

By utilizing these strategies, this thesis seeks to enhance our ability to perceive, connect with, and appreciate the world around us, thereby creating a stronger, more intimate relationship between humanity and the environment.

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

Landscape De/Re-Construction Through Art, Manuel Gonzalez

Masters Theses

Contemporary landscape architecture practice and education primarily focus on ecological and technical interventions. The climate crisis we find ourselves in demands scientifically informed decisions and well-engineered execution of projects, but, more importantly, creativity and innovation.

The fine arts, which were once integral and foundational to design, are today largely unappreciated and appropriated. The spiritual power of Art, Aesthetics, and Beauty, explored at length through art history and theory, are often viewed as indulgent or secondary to execution. The gap between Art & Design has widened. As a result, designers face challenges in fostering in individuals the kind of care and …

City As Cemetery, Siqiao Zhao

Masters Theses

The traditional funeral service industry has enormous environmental and financial costs. In contrast, green burial, and Natural Organic Reduction (NOR), accelerate the human body’s degradation and reduce toxic substances in the land, assuming responsibility for our burden on the earth. They provide a gateway between us and the processes of nature and ask us to set aside self-consciousness to accept our oneness with the universe. By gifting our bodies back to the earth, where decomposition enriches soils and nurtures the growth of other life forms, we honor those who have transitioned to another state by continuing the cycle of renewal. …

Appropriate That Bridge: Appropriation As A Way Of Intervention, Haochen Meng

Masters Theses

Appropriation is an action of intervention in many fields, including legislation, culture and design. To appropriate something (or someplace) means to violate its original ownership and claim it, which in most cases is illegal. However, appropriation doesn’t have to be an illegal act: it can be permitted by the authority and become a “reuse” of an object or space. For example, street dining is often authorized by city governments, so they indicate a transition of the ownership of the street from the vehicles and pedestrians to the restaurants and diners. In architectural terms, appropriating a space (or structure) mostly equals …

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

Outdoor Artificial Lighting Effects On Livability Of Pedestrian Paths In Urban Heritage Context, Chirine Traboulsi, Aya Hassoun, Mostafa Rabea, Mary Felix

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

Lighting is an important ecological factor that influences individuals’ outdoor activities as well as the development of livable communities in cities. Artificial outdoor lighting is vital in improving the quality of urban open places throughout the nighttime and has a significant impact on the pedestrians' night-time perception and mental safety. This study aims to uncover whether outdoor lighting has indeed an effect on the livability of the pedestrian paths of a community and if so, what is the optimal design that fits an urban heritage setting. The research employs a mixed methods approach, where both qualitative and quantitative methods are …

Manufactured Exurbia, Elijah Swift

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This project redefines the identity of the manufactured housing typology by conceiving of more adaptable structural configurations which provide a framework for breaking the conformity of mass production and mass consumption to give the residents true economic prosperity through control of the 3-D manufacturing process of their homes. Manufactured housing, formerly known as mobile or trailer homes, is one of the most vulnerable housing types in the United States during a severe weather event. This is due to the mass industrial production of a structural composition that is rather suited for permanently fixed construction, leading to fragility in their assemblage …

Guiding The Future Of The Cache County Fairgrounds, Logan Hall

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The County fairgrounds have been a fixture in Cache Valley, Utah for over 100 years. They provide a valuable resource to the community. Effective planning can ensure the appropriate use of this public asset and prevent underutilization. Modern design guidelines have been developed for other fairgrounds in the Intermountain West, but not the Cache County fairgrounds. This research is focused on developing a contemporary visioning plan to guide the growth and future of the County fairgrounds, create design guidelines for future development, and maximize the fairground’s economic potential. The methodology used to develop this plan involved an extensive review of …

Perceived Safety And Equitable Access: An Investigation Of The Northwest Arkansas Regional Greenway, Jessica Shearman

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

In today’s world, designers, planners, and policymakers are grappling with conflicts of climate change, habitat loss, and increasing diversity all during a migratory trend towards urban areas and higher densities of living. Creating public spaces that are both resilient ecologically and environmentally, while also creating a sense of place is essential for providing a higher quality of life equitably for all citizens. Through case studies and literature review, the public’s safety perceptions when accessing public spaces is key to equitable access. Specifically, differing perceptions of safety based on gender, race, and backgrounds. Perceived safety can be defined as an awareness …

Historic Downtown Streetscape Plan Price City, Utah, Patricia Beckert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The idea of a small-town Main Street has profound meaning within the American culture that has prevailed for the past two centuries. Historically, Main Street serves as the beating heart of a community, a place where economic, social, cultural, and civic activities are centered (Francaviglia, 1996; Main Street America, n.d.). Since the beginning of the 19th century, many factors have led to the decline of Main Streets, and despite a variety of efforts from different stakeholders, that decline has only intensified in recent decades (Isenberg, 2008; Orvell, 2014 Howard, 2015). In 1980, after a three-year project conducted by the National …

Threshold Tectonics: Reclaiming Space Through Geomorphological Design, Amreeta Verma

Architecture Senior Theses

This research posits that a revitalization of indigenous earth architecture practices in a contemporary context can mitigate the immense waste and embodied carbon in the construction industry while engaging practices of land return and reclamation. Locally sourced earth materials are the focus of this research because when utilized in a circular consumption cycle, they can be reused or returned to the natural environment. Designing with a temporal understanding of material decay, changing site conditions, and project life cycle reduces the impact of construction waste on the burgeoning issue of environmental degradation and resource depletion. Material experimentation is used to develop …

Global Survey Shows Planners Use Widely Varying Sea-Level Rise Projections For Coastal Adaptation, Daniella Hirschfeld, David Behar, Robert J. Nicholls, Niamh Cahill, Thomas James, Benjamin P. Horton, Michelle E. Portman, Rob Bell, Matthew Campo, Miguel Esteban, Bronwyn Goble, Munsur Rahman, Kwasi Appeaning Addo, Faiz Ahmed Chundeli, Monique Aunger, Orly Babitsky, Anders Beal, Ray Boyle, Jiayi Fang, Amir Gohar, Susan Hanson, Saul Karamesines, M. J. Kim, Hilary Lohmann, Kathy Mclnnes, Nobuo Mimura, Doug Ramsay, Landis Wenger, Hiromune Yokoki

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Including sea-level rise (SLR) projections in planning and implementing coastal adaptation is crucial. Here we analyze the first global survey on the use of SLR projections for 2050 and 2100. Two-hundred and fifty-three coastal practitioners engaged in adaptation/planning from 49 countries provided complete answers to the survey which was distributed in nine languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. While recognition of the threat of SLR is almost universal, only 72% of respondents currently utilize SLR projections. Generally, developing countries have lower levels of utilization. There is no global standard in the use of SLR …

Adaptive Reuse Of Frosty Morn, Veronika Kalugina, Rebecca Tonguis, Heidi Gabriel, Peyton Kauffman

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Frosty Morn, a former meat packing facility in Clarksville, TN, is now abandoned, dilapidated, and partially demolished. The site sits within the Red River District neighborhood, which consists of a diverse community of artists. The Red River District has been identified by the Clarksville Mayor’s Office as an area with potential for growth, catalyzed by repurposing the Frosty Morn building as an icon and beacon of the community. Highest and best use research, in addition to community voices, indicated programmatic needs of a farmer’s market, makerspaces, small business incubators, park space, and live/work units. Our presentation will describe how this …

Biomimicry As An Urban Challenge In Shaping The Future Of Cultural Communities, Nora M. Rehan

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

The cultural identity of urban communities is the main expression of historical privacy and shapes societies’ past, present, and future. It is an entity of cultural and knowledge accumulation stemming from the community's traditions and customs, which help to consolidate the social fabric and play an important role in the lives of individuals and the planning and development processes. Urban areas with cultural and heritage values are the most important competitive advantages of urban cities that are considered as a primary nucleus for achieving sustainability on a broader scale for the neighboring regions. One of the most important of those …

Close Mapping Of St. Olav’S Pilgrimage Path Through Gudbrandsdal Norway: Probabilities Of A Designed, Land Surveyed Concept Of A Large-Scale Christianised Landscape, Dennis Doxtater

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This exercise in Norway ‘close-maps’ accurate, existing geometries between thirty-two latitude / longitude points of mostly medieval churches and other sites on the major pilgrimage path through Gudbrandsdal to Trondheimsfjord where the martyr St.Olav was venerated. Site data and basic path routes are taken from the Pilegrimsleden website, popular today with religious or recreational tourists. The inclusion of the largest prehistoric monumental mound in Scandinavia as an important early stop on the pilgrimage provides the first clue to the eventual mapping of a large-scale ‘system’ of land surveyed patterns. This symbolic anchor in the south, is connected to likely ancient …

Riverine Commons And Institute Framework Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The nonprofit Watershed Conservation Resource Center is restoring a 98-acre riparian wetland landscape near downtown Fayetteville as a River Commons and Institute. The Framework Plan combines watershed restoration with architecture and urban design to house a river education center, a visitor interpretive center, walking trails, passive recreation facilities including bird watching and canoeing, and outdoor heritage exhibitions. The Plan operates at the intersection of anthropology, ecology, and design in developing a lasting and robust riverine knowledge fund across space and time.

Plural Communities: A Cultural Mapping Project + A Framework Plan For Cherokee Village, Arkansas, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

What do urban designers do with culture? How might we redevelop a mid-century modern planned community through the mapping of cultural influences that shaped it? We explored memory and heritage central to cultural mapping and its participatory-based forms of public inquiry. 54 drawings integrate maps, folklore materials, archived media, photographs, and new drawings into five synchronic cultural frameworks that shaped Cherokee Village—Native American heritage, Ozark pioneer and folk heritage, camping and scouting, midcentury planned communities, and regional modernism in design and planning.

Cherokee Village was developed within a mid-twentieth century planning ethos that valued uniformity …

From Building To Dwelling: Unfolding Infinity Through Bioregional Fulfillment, Sanjana Bhatnagar

Pitzer Senior Theses

The causes of anthropogenic climate change touch every feature of our modern-day existences. Approaches to sustainability tend to focus on material actions, but unsustainable practices are guided by an ontological orientation of individuality and human exceptionalism. This thesis provides an alternate account of being that decenters individuality through weaving the metaphysics of Fazang of the Huayan School of Mahayana Buddhism with the metaphysics of Martin Heidegger. To encompass the whole of the relational network that constitutes and conditionally defines our existence, I expand Heidegger’s account of locales as relational sites which are put forth solely by humans to an account …

Edra 54: Bibliography, Tamara Karr

Bibliographies

edra 54: Environment and Health

Quantifying The Carbon Stored And Sequestered By The Trees On Pomona College’S Campus, Paola A. Giron-Carson

Scripps Senior Theses

We are experiencing a climate crisis that must be confronted with strategic mitigation. Pomona College contributes to the climate crisis through its emissions for which there is a baseline record. However there is no baseline record of the climate mitigation currently performed by the trees on Pomona’s campus through carbon storage. This study seeks to determine a current baseline quantity of carbon stored and sequestrated by Pomona’s trees as well as possible courses of climate mitigation for Pomona College to take. Initial information gathering was conducted through interviews with several stakeholders. This study was conducted using data collected prior to …

Contemplative Nearby Nature: A Design Proposal For Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Russell Corbin

Pomona Senior Theses

In this Environmental Analysis thesis project, I analyze what contemplative landscapes are, why they are important, and how to design them, and then implement those learnings in a design proposal for a contemplative landscape at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park. In addition to this writing component of the thesis, I created diagrams, drawings, section renderings, a plan, and two 3d models that all help inform the intentions, meaning, and components of my design. These elements have been woven into the writing and attached as additional documents. Five key contemplative design elements have been identified which I hope can prove useful for …

Development Of A Model Sustainability Management Plan For The City Of Morgantown, West Virginia, Caitlyn Elizabeth Lewis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This report has been prepared to demonstrate the research for a model planning document with a focus on sustainability in Morgantown, WV. It discusses the role of three categories in the context of sustainability and proposes a design solution for selected areas of concern throughout the City of Morgantown in order to demonstrate opportunities for a sustainable approach toward resolution for city officials.

The City of Morgantown, West Virginia, is a college town along the Monongahela River with a backstory of industrialism that is echoed by many other places in Appalachia. However, distinctively, in Morgantown 25,000 college students populate the …

Rehabilitation Of The River’S Role In Historic Urban Landscape Of Shushtar, Iran, Parvaneh Sabbagh-Ziarani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Historical cities are the most complete and, indeed, the most tangible incarnation of culture. They show the relationships of different generations of inhabitants with their life context. The strata of their urban topography speak about various phases of evolution and transformation as well as growth or decline. The city of Shushtar (Khuzestan, Iran) is a perfect example of a historic city formed based on sustainable and close interactions between man and nature. Its historical hydraulic system was registered in Unesco world heritage sites in 2009. This system - combining numerous elements in a practical and harmonious entity - shows ingenuity …

Energy Efficiency Retrofit And Decarbonization Of Old And Historic Buildings In California, Daria Nikolaeva

Master's Projects and Capstones

Buildings are responsible for almost 40% of total global greenhouse gas emissions and the retrofitting of existing buildings is an essential part of solving the problem. About 75% of buildings in Californian were constructed before the first energy-efficiency building code was adopted in 1978. Old buildings are inefficient, responsible for large carbon footprints and must be retrofitted to stay on track with the state's climate targets. However, current policies do not require substantial changes and tend to favor historic preservation over energy efficiency, missing improvement opportunities. Recognizing the significance of carbon intensity, the 2019 California Energy Efficiency Action Plan shifted …

Paradigm Of The Post Natural: Critiquing Capitalist Ideals Through Environmental Degradation, Andrea De Haro, Charlotte Bascombe

Architecture Thesis Prep

There is an unspoken value in the destructiveness caused by design that is exposed through the exploitation of natural resources. This thesis seeks to exemplify the aesthetic value inherent within these newly defined environments. Nature is a source for human consumption, and as such it has developed into a commodity. By now it should be made evident that humanity’s presence is everywhere. There is no ecosystem left unturned by human manipulation Iin this respect, nature is dead. Deforested sites of oil fracking leave mile long toxic ponds highlighting the destructive pursuits that capitalism creates. Chernobyl showcases how human errors in …

Rainwater Catchment System Designed For California Polytechnic State University Building 34, Jonah S. Aere

Construction Management

California Polytechnic State University currently receives its water supply from either Whale Rock Reservoir, for distilled water, or pumped from six ground wells, for agricultural use. Although the university’s Agricultural College requires a certain amount of water to grow crops, these demands are often not met due to the lack of water within these underground wells. A rainwater capture system could be constructed to ease the water supply burden which is already depleting, reduce wasted drainage, and maintain a sustainable agricultural water source without being dependent on other locations. This would benefit the institution by reducing imported water thereby saving …

Planning: Scc-Civic-Pg Track A: Securing The Future Of The Great Salt Lake Basin Through Effective Water And Land Use Partnerships, Brent Chamberlain

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Developing And Piloting A Design Guide For Outdoor Classrooms In Utah, Derek Jenson, Jake Powell, David T. Anderson, Rose Judd-Murray

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The outdoor classroom design guide can help applicants successfully apply for the Utah Outdoor Classroom Grant introduced by the Office of Outdoor Recreation (OOR) in 2021. The design guide includes case studies, design resources, and critical information for community involvement from statewide locations and will serve as a free public resource.

Creating A Development Framework: A Generic Lens For Public Markets’ Analysis And Development In Integration With Their Zone Of Influence Revitalization, Nourhan Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses how the development of public markets through a structured framework can be a catalyst for revitalizing its zone of influence. Public markets have always been marked by their rich experience, and their central role in towns, cities, and villages, as they have been vital engines for urban growth and cities formation since their prevalence. Needless to mention their role in entrepreneurship and their significance for the social development of neighborhoods. Nowadays, local governments are rediscovering the central role of public markets and are putting them under focus to catalyze the urban growth and neighborhoods revitalization by their …