Environmental Design Commons^™

Caution: Line-Of-Sight In Icu Designs, Diane C. Bartos

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

It has been estimated that by the end of 2015, the U.S. will spend approximately $200 billion in new healthcare facilities construction. Infection prevention, patient and family satisfaction, and technologies influence contemporary designs of critical care units. All of these impacts have created larger patient care units, with a majority of single patient rooms. These larger spaces have created challenges for the clinicians to maintain the line-of-sight. The line-of-sight is one tool clinicians often use to maintain patient safety.

Since the seminal publication by the Institute of Medicine in 1999, patient safety concerns have escalated after revealing numerous deaths in …

Creating Healthy Schools: Identifying The Positive Impacts Of Practicing Sustainable Interior Design In Education Facilities, Deborah Lindsey Ketchum

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

A significant amount of research identifies a relationship between the physical environment of educational facilities and how the design can positively or negatively impact teachers, staff and students. Evidence indicates that America’s school facilities are outdated, decaying, and need repair. This presents an opportunity for interior design professionals to create high-quality learning environments through an emphasis on sustainable design practices.

This thesis examines interior spaces of two high school buildings in North Mississippi. Site A incorporated sustainable design principles while Site B did not. To limit influential variables, the two sites were selected because of the location and similar population …

Animal Cities: Post-Human Urban Wildness, Jing Huang

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis contends that architecture should be designed in a way to foster closer human-animal relationships. Cities are typically designed solely with the human in mind, and over time, animals have been pushed out of the city, decreasing biodiversity. Peoples’ tendency is to separate themselves and domesticate animals, resulting in sterile and tame urban centers. This is a result of the different attitudes humans have cultivated towards animals; dirty/clean, pleasant/annoying, useful/useless, harmless/dangerous, awe/disgust, etc., and utilizing architecture as means of filtering the presence of those that are beneficial to us, rendering animals as an afterthought. In a way, humans have …

Absorbency In Tidal Resiliency, Shauna Strubinger

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis responds to the current threat of the impact of sea level rise on coastal population cities and proposes to create a blurred, absorbent condition, similar to the relationship between water and land.

Where Wellness Begins, Chelsea Wheeler

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis contends that if occupant health is placed at the forefront of design, utilizing a proposed process of design that selects and addresses three out of nine suggested elements of health through demographic mapping and utilizes these elements to construct human-centric drawings during the initial stages of design, the resulting architecture will promote occupant wellbeing.

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 …

Designing Work: A Study Of Collaboration And Concentration In Open-Plan Offices, John Walsh

Academic Articles

This article looks at the design of open-plan offices, particularly in relation to the impact of spatial design on different work-modes. It examines the history of the open-plan office, looking at how the open-plan workplace has evolved. It reports the findings of a survey on office design of 150 office workers across multiple industry sectors, job types and age categories. Finally, assuming there will not be a return en masse to the traditional, space hungry, cellular office for most knowledge workers this article considers what have we learned so far, and how spaces can be designed to support different work-modes, …

Designing A Resilient Building In The Coastal Zone, Don Kranbuehl, David Pryor

October 30, 2015: Beyond Toolkits: Adaptation Strategies and Lessons

No abstract provided.

Institutional Stewardship And Ecology, Arlan Nederhoff

Staff Work

"We are not to exploit, waste, or abuse the resources of God's world, but care for them and use them to serve God and humankind."

Posting about becoming environmentally conscientious from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/institutional-stewardship-and-ecology/

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.

Ecoscience + Art Initiative: Designing A New Paradigm For College Education, Scholarship, And Service, Changwoo Ahn

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The paper presents a new initiative, EcoScience + Art, which blooms at George Mason University. The creator explains the background, history, and recent activities of the initiative, and also introduces an on-going special project called “The Rain Project”, a student participatory project to design, construct, and monitor a green infrastructure (i.e., floating wetland) for sustainable stormwater management on campus. The special project is geared to design and present a new paradigm to integrate college education, scholarship, and service. The relevance of the initiative and the special project to STEAM education is discussed.

Pigs Feet, Jesse W. Standlea

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

My sculpture “Pigs Feet” has literal foundations upon casts of live pig’s feet. I locally sourced the pig’s feet before casting them. My sculpture makes use of a once cutting edge casting technology, alginate. Alginate molds were once the standard in dentistry. Alginate is an appealing casting material as it is refined from brown seaweeds, is both food and skin safe, it is suitable for educators, for artists and engineers alike.

Long Wave Radiation Exchange For Urban Scale Modelling Within A Co-Simulation Environment, Clayton Miller, Daren Thomas, Jérôme Kämpf, Arno Schlueter

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper describes the implementation of long wave radiation (LWR) exchange as part of a co-simulation process of an urban scale simulation program, CitySim, and a building scale program, EnergyPlus. This coupling process was achieved through the use of functional mockup units (FMU) to exchange various weather, load, and environmental information between the two simulation engines. LWR is an important factor to exchange between the programs as CitySim has more advanced capabilities for radiation exchange calculations from a set of urban buildings and EnergyPlus has a more advanced building heating and cooling load calculation engine. The LWR exchange between surfaces …

School Design To Promote Physical Activity, Jeri Brittin

Theses & Dissertations

Increasing children’s physical activity (PA) at school is a national focus to address childhood obesity. Research has demonstrated associations between school built environments and students’ PA, but has lacked a comprehensive synthesis of evidence. Chapter 1 presents new evidence-, theory-, and practice-informed school design guidelines, including evidence substantiality ratings, to promote PA in school communities. These guidelines delineate strategies for school designers, planners, and educators to create K-12 school environments conducive to PA. They also engage public health scientists in needed transdisciplinary perspectives.

There have been few longitudinal studies to verify causal relationships between the school built environment and PA. …

Greening Restaurant Design: A Study Of The Implementation Of Leed Certification In Restaurant Design, Shelly Schmidt

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

With a significant amount of interest in sustainability and green design in the commercial industry, this thesis examined the effects of the implementation of LEED certification specifically within the built environment of restaurants. Being one of the largest energy consumers and waste producers in the commercial retail industry, restaurant stakeholders have a social responsibility to safeguard the environment from such detriments imposed upon by the daily operations of their business. Yet, few owners have chosen to implement green practices or sustainable features into the design of their restaurant.

Case study comparisons of six restaurants, three LEED certified and three non-LEED …

Packaging Design Elements And Users Perception: A Context In Fashion Branding And Communication, Heer Vyas

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

The product packaging has a crucial role to attract consumer, force them to choose the product and act as a brand communication vehicle. The point of focus is how the elements of the package design affect consumer’s perceptions about products and brand. In this study, we collected data through a questionnaire that covered areas such as design elements of the package (size, shape, material, graphic design of package, typography, images and pictures), user’s perception (attention, purchase and repurchase) and their experience (feelings evoked and functional benefits). There is a difference with the professional status and age involvement with respect to …

Dump It Out! An Enquiry Into Consumers’ Everyday Fashion Discourses Through Handbag, Magnum Man Lok Lam, Elita Yee Nee Lam, Wing-Sun Liu

Faculty of Design & Environment (THEi)

Handbag is an iconic fashion accessory in our material culture. Following the tradition of representational thinking, this article introduces the handbag as an epistemic consumption object through which to investigate consumer experiences, practices and identity construction in relation to everyday lived discourses. The handbag research involves an examination of participants’ personal belongings inside their bags together with phenomenological interviews concerning the associated subjective experiences along with these material objects. We demonstrate how these material possessions become the subject of the research that facilitates multiple conversations between researchers and participants as to introspect, evaluate and interpret the significance of symbolic consumption …

Sustainable Design Strategies For Sport Stadia, Ileana Aquino, Nawari O. Nawari

Suburban Sustainability

The need to establish a more sustainable design for everyday items and for people to live a more sustainably led lifestyle is evident around the world. As office and residential building, schools, and infrastructure become more sustainably built, there is no doubt that other fields will soon follow. The sporting domain needs to be the next step in sustainable design. Sport stadia can and will play a vital role in increasing sustainability awareness across the world. There is an enormous opportunity to have stadia serve as trendsetters in innovative thinking for sustainable design.

This research shows that there are numerous …

After The Solar Decathlon: Creating A New Design-Build Program, Eric Weber

Architecture Faculty Presentations

The School of Architecture’s intent was to use the Solar Decathlon as a catalyst for creating a new Design Build program. The project allowed the School to leverage support into acquiring tools & equipment essential to creating the house, and for upgrading the school’s shop facilities. The projects completed immediately following the Solar Decathlon utilized both digital fabrication and prefabrication. This is significant because the School intends to leverage both of these competencies, developed during the Solar Decathlon, in order to further the School’s craft-based pedagogy. Due to the Design-Build Studio’s development of the Solar Decathlon house, there has been …

Tools Developed For Courtyard Design To Enhance Daylight Performance In Adjacent Spaces Under Desert Clear Sky Conditions, Maitha Mohamed Dalmouk Al-Nuaimi

Dissertations

The court or courtyard refers to an area surrounded by the walls of a structure. It does not have a roof and is open to the sky. The courtyard is functionally an outdoor space that can be used in many ways: to provide extension to the indoor activities in the outdoors, to create a central space for social activities, and/or to create a private garden. Its high popularity is understandable as it improves building's functions and occupants' security and privacy; and it promotes fresh air and light. The majority of studies have been carried out on the environmental aspects of …

Ecodistricts In San Francisco: The Implementation Of Neighborhood Regional Planning And Its Potential Effects On Environmental Resilience, Elizabeth M. Juvera

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ecodistricts, or neighborhood-scale, community-driven areas of sustainable development, have emerged internationally and within the U.S. to create models of adaptive environmental design and advanced urban infrastructure. Central SoMa is the first ecodistrict to be planned and implemented in San Francisco, with the intention of revitalizing and greening this urbanized region of the city. At this time, the Central SoMa area has very low biodiversity levels, inefficient infrastructure, and poor water management capabilities. Through the implementation of ecodistricts in San Francisco, the city can integrate physical and behavioral sustainability measures from existing ecodistricts such as permeable surfaces, green roofs, stormwater management, …

Expanding Hope In Payatas, Rhea Cristine S. Bautista

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Informal settlements, also known as slums or squatter settlements, are a way of life for millions around the world, especially within urban centers. The challenge is to provide a better quality of life, both physically and socially. This thesis provides a critical look into the conditions, limitations, strengths, and hopes of the community of Payatas in Metro Manila, Philippines, with recommendations of measures to support and strengthen the community, by building upon the community’s positive elements to develop social impact.

Portland State University School Of Business Administration (Sba) Renovation + Personal Comfort Investigation, Abolfazl Mekanik, Corey Griffin, Louise Foster

Student Research Symposium

This poster discusses the results of a field study about indoor thermal comfort, based on investigations in Portland State University`s School of Business (SBA) classrooms. The field study was conducted by physical parameter monitoring and questionnaires. Both field monitoring and occupant surveys were performed at the same time during the regular class period.The measurement campaign consisted of measuring the environmental parameters such as temperature (Ta), relative humidity (RH), CO₂, and sound levels. The outdoor air temperature, humidity, and sound were registered every 2 hour period during class time. The intention for this project is to investigate thermal comfort …

Activating Communities: A Space For Inclusive Recreation In Central New York, Cassandra Pettinati

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The concept is to design a specialized sports and recreation facility for adults and children with physical disabilities. Located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Syracuse New York, this facility serves as a healthy alternative to destructive behavior that is common in this low-income area. It also becomes a fun destination for members within the community. The space facilitates current and future adapted sports teams by providing a venue for practices and tournaments. It also offers the necessary support and resources for families who are new to adapted recreation. Ultimately, this space serves as an outlet for those with …

Re-Forming Prison: Better Mental Health Through Progressive Penitentiary Design, Emily Lodato

Architecture Senior Theses

Prisons are intended to both punish and inform their inhabitants. Complicating this task are the 21.7% of inmates who have serious mental health issues. Most contemporary experts claim that addressing mental health challenges in a progressive manner in prison will promote better results in terms of reduced recidivism through improved therapeutic techniques that foster an enhanced level of general humane-ness in the day to day management of penitentiaries. This thesis can be used as a methodology for rethinking community development and the promotion of mental health through architecture.

The Effect Of Room Environment On Patient Experience In A Prenatal Genetic Counseling Session, Elizabeth C. Baack

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

An important facet of aesthetic design, a topic of increasing interest in healthcare, is the concept of using positive distractions to promote wellness (Ulrich, 1991). To date, this concept has largely been explored in long-term, in-patient care settings and findings suggest these positive distractions decrease patient anxiety. This study sought to understand the effects of a supportive healthcare design characterized by positive distractions on patients receiving short term, out-patient care, specifically prenatal genetic counseling. Participants were patients at a Houston high-risk pregnancy clinic randomly assigned to one of two room environments: an experimental room which incorporated positive distractions, …

Green Roof Energy Balances For Native Grasses And Sedum, Chris Schwarz

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Green roofs offer a possible solution to reduce urban heat island effects caused by urbanization. Conventional green roofs use sedum for plant cover but growing evidence suggests native species offer better results for harsher environments. However, more information is needed to understand the potential of native species for green roof use in terms of survivability and cooling potential. This study was conducted from July 2013 through October 2013 to quantify the energy balance components for native grasses and sedum on a Midwestern green roof. The semi-intensive green roof located on the Larson Building parking garage in Lincoln, NE was used …

Sustainable Design In The Healthcare Environment, Shannon M. Griffin

Honors College Theses

From creating an efficient business to helping people heal, there are various and difficult goals in a healthcare project. There are significant issues in healthcare design that can be harmful to the people that inhabit the spaces and to the environment. Through evidence-based research, this paper will outline the latest developments in sustainable design and how they can be implemented to solve the current building-related issues in healthcare facilities. Lastly, the solutions will be put into practice in a Healthcare Design Capstone Project utilizing the elements of sustainable design to achieve the goal of sustaining the health of occupants, the …

Darndale Park Report, Ciaran Cuffe, Daniel Blanchfield, Andrea Culjak, Meadhbh Ní Lochlainn, Orla Gilleece, Lin Zhao, Niall Thomas, John Lucey, Zainab Mansary

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Visual Translation Of Urban Typography, Fahinaz Ferdous

Open Access Theses

This paper focuses on aspects that can be looked upon in translating typography found in the urban environment of Dhaka and Chicago, how we can relate and interpret typography with the help of contextual design elements, images as well as historic references. Layers behind perception of typefaces, variation in the geographic location of two cities moreover the cultural differences make it an even more interesting subject matter to examine.