Interior Architecture Commons^™

Wood In The Built Environment: The Restorative Benefits Of Wood On Student Health And Well-Being, Samantha Mcnair

Featured Student Work

Reaching Canadian shores in March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic relentlessly continues to impact life on a global scale. Post-secondary students have been especially hard hit throughout the pandemic, with the doors of many institutions still closed 20 months after the initial lockdowns. They have had to self-navigate the difficulties of remote learning while grappling with several negative health concerns associated with extended periods of time spent in artificial environments, such as social isolation, mental fatigue, increased stress, and low levels of motivation. This study seeks to determine how interior applications of wood can be used to improve the health …

Modular Interior Partitions In Commercial Housing: A Case Study, Adam David Meleo

Construction Management

The ability to modify an interior space with ease and reasonable cost is beneficial to designers, owners, and end-users. Modular interiors are not a new concept. Modular interior partitions can come in the form of Japanese Shoji screens, as well as folding walls that would be found in a convention center. While not new in concept, the market for products that allow partitioning an interior space with ease appears to be growing with the introduction of innovative products and solutions. This paper will focus on two student housing projects in San Luis Obispo, California, with regards to their design and …

Umass Dartmouth Science And Engineering (Seng) Building Systems Upgrades Project, Jillian Cornelius

UMassBRUT Community

Although UMass Dartmouth's Science and Engineering Building has long been viewed as an architectural treasure, its aging interior and structure have presented some challenges to users nearly 50 years after it opened. This talk examines Ellenzweig's extensive retrofitting of the UMass Dartmouth SENG building for accessibility, a new envelope, updated MEP, and fire-safety measures. After looking at the design phase and interactions with the Mass Historic Commission, the talk ends with an examination of the replacement of windows in the building.

Approaches To Renewing Brutalist-Era Lab Buildings, Jean Caroon

UMassBRUT Community

Given the immense amount of embodied carbon that mid-century Brutalist structures represent, we must redirect our focus from demolishing these concrete structures to renovating them to fit our needs in the 21st century. Higher education laboratory buildings from the 1960s and 1970s are a particularly challenging type of facility. This talk describes the work that Boston architecture firm Goody Clancy has recently undertaken in renovating over 1 million square feet of lab building space. The talk not only covers specific retrofits and envelope improvements to science buildings, such as the Gant Science Complex at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, …

Humanizing The Brutalist Interior: The Renovation Of Paul Rudolph's Claire T. Carney Library At Umass Dartmouth, Kelly Haigh, Ben Youtz

UMassBRUT Community

Members of the team that worked on the renovation of the Claire T. Carney Library, designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in 1972, share their design solutions for maintaining the integrity of the architecture and fostering an interior that is welcoming of its occupants. Discussions focus on interior attributes, human occupants, color, light and texture as approaches to humanize the massive concrete attributes that are notorious of Brutalist structures.

Humanizing The Brutalist Interior: Inspiration. Collaboration. Transformation, Leslie Saul

UMassBRUT Community

This talk covers the process behind the design of the fabric and textiles that were added to UMass Dartmouth's iconic Claire T. Carney Library during a $48 million dollar renovation of the Paul Rudolph building, completed in 2012. Interior Designer, Leslie Saul, describes how she drew inspiration from both UMass Dartmouth's genesis as a textile college and Rudolph’s original color palette to create eye-catching interior furniture and carpets in order to humanize this particular Brutalist interior.

New Considerations In Designing The Circulation Elements To Reduce Covid 19 Infection, Sara Chamass, Selim Kilani, Anas Mattar

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

As a result of the global pandemic recession of COVID-19, cities have imposed several restrictions to control this outbreak by closing their frontiers and forcing social distancing. The conjecture has arisen as to how architecture could be entirely influenced. This field is involved in finding solutions to reduce the spread of this pandemic which became a new issue. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of the movable and flexible circulation elements, the considerations and architectural preventive measures taken were affected during the planning of the post-pandemic built-environment. This paper, therefore, aims to propose a checklist of new design considerations for the …

Interior Materiality, Kutay Guler

NPP eBooks

The knowledge of materials and finishes is the bridge that links conceptual design to real-world application. It is among the core content of virtually all interior architecture/design curricula, moreover, access to up-to-date information on emerging technologies and trends is a key exigency for the contemporary designer. Accordingly, this book is authored to form a comprehensive resource for the “hows” and “whys” surrounding the functional and aesthetic contributions of a wide selection of materials and finishes used in multiple spatial design contexts. The knowledge base presented here is not only useful in shaping spatial experience, ensuring occupant well-being, and employing sustainable …

Restoring History: Mixed-Use Hotel & Retail Center, William Chase Sisk

Symposium of Student Scholars

Monroe, Georgia, is a unique small town, located halfway between Athens and Atlanta. The small-town atmosphere and amenities have become a popular destination for people attracted to the historic buildings, downtown events and UGA football home games. Monroe is popular for its wedding venues, antique malls, and car shows, but there are not enough hotel rooms. Currently within the historic downtown, there are only one bed and breakfast, two AirBNB’s, and no hotels, although every downtown storefront is occupied by restaurants, retail stores, and businesses.

The need for overnight accommodations has raised the possibility of a new mixed-use hotel and …

An Architect’S Perspective On Indoor Gardens, Chanhyuk Joo

English Language Institute

Started question with "How to prepare designing an indoor garden in an Architecture perspective." This poster explains requirements for indoor gardens in terms of engineering and physical design, as well as expectations for the future.

Mélange De Motifs: Custom Pattern Designs Inspired By The Interiors, Architecture, And Gardens Of Vaux-Le-Vicomte, Jill Christine Harmon

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

How can a historic precedent be successfully employed to inform modern design? History will always provide a degree of influence in contemporary design. In design, a historic precedent can be the backbone of a creative concept and stands as a relevant and informative aspect throughout the project. The precedent acts as a basis in developing designs with substance and meaning and is a fundamental practice in architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design. Delving into the history of Vaux-le-Vicomte, often referred to as Vaux, provided three relevant aspects which compose the historic precedent for this MFA project. First, the creative initiative …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of Covid-19 Infection Control On Visual Art Installations In Hospitals With Pediatric Patients, Shannon Kimich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 infection control on visual artwork in pediatric hospitals and hospitals caring for pediatric patients. The study involved five hospitals in three southern America states and addressed visual artwork and art installations. The researcher administered an internet-based survey to participants in job functions related to hospital administration, environmental services, and project management across the facilities and received participation from 18 respondents. Additionally, telephone interviews were conducted with three participants with the job titles project manager/analyst, child-life specialist, and environmental services director. Survey questions were designed to examine visual art programs in selected children’s hospitals …

The Nolan House, Keiko-Ann K. Sanders, Gilbert C. Munoz, Michael A. Bahr, Titas Kalvalnis

Architectural Engineering

As a precedent, The Green Team analyzed the history of glass architecture, literature, and culture. Based on our research, we found that glass is often depicted as breakable, delicate, and a way to expose or display aspects that would otherwise be hidden. We challenged ourselves to incorporate safety and privacy into our glass house as a way to combat the pre-existing notions of glass in architecture.

Health + Efficiency House: A Take On The 50x50 Glass House, Eva Wieczorek, Krystal Bacon, Kaylee Hernandez, Jennifer Long, Moises De La Cruz, Elle Gallmann, Jurgis Vaišvila

Architectural Engineering

Under the guidance of Professor Edmond Saliklis and Professor Meredith Sattler, four Architectural Engineering students joined forces with three Architecture students from both Cal Poly and Vilnius Technical University in Lithuania. The portfolio exemplifies a complete reimagination of Mies van der Rohe and Myron Goldsmith's 50x50 Glass House as if it were designed today in Palm Springs, CA. The work completed in this interdisciplinary studio includes historical context, abstract creation, architectural and structural design all relating back to the Glass House.

Loneliness / Togetherness : Interiority And Connection Under Isolation, Huaqin Chen

Masters Theses

Inhabitants’ perceptions can be greatly impacted when they are in an enforced space, a state of incarceration. That sense of confinement can cause mental or physical health issues on account of the loneliness, lack of interaction or confusion of time and space. Living through enforcement and isolation deeply affect human cognition and behavior. We can also easily find precedents of living through enforcement in the plots of films. By studying narrative, this thesis reconstructs domestic space by investigating the changes in our daily life after our current pandemic. A spatial sequence is created according to the relationwship among time, space …

Space Between Memories: Pause, Young Jae Cho

Masters Theses

The early 20th century was an important time for economic development and modernization around the world. However, the Republic of Korea spent decades suffering under Japanese colonial rule. For that reason, preservation or demolition of buildings built during the Japanese colonial period remains a polarizing topic. Many of these structures have been demolished or neglected, unrecognized for their historical and architectural value. Although Koreans learn about the colonial era in school, if those physical places experienced in their daily life gradually disappear, they will forget this difficult history. These structures should be a space where people can feel historical lessons …

Cultural Acupuncture: Decentralization And Deocratization In Chinese Exhibition Design, Ruohan Duan

Masters Theses

There is an imbalance between the opportunities for aesthetic education in big cities and underdeveloped areas in China. Taking Shanghai and Beijing as examples, museums in big cities consume most art educational resources. People who live in rural or small towns hardly have access to the arts, making the aesthetic gap larger between cultural centers and cultural deserts.

This thesis proposes a new exhibition system that could send a series of accessible and sustainable exhibition structures around China to narrow the educational resources gap and synchronize cultural curriculum between different places. Decentralizing and democratizing the cultural center and bringing the …

Reclaiming Modern Architecture: An Urban Visual Narrative Of Kuwait City, Yara Hadi

Masters Theses

For a city to be remembered, to be successful, to be desired, a distinct connection has to be made between the city-dweller and the city itself. In 1938 Kuwait transformed from a town that relied on trade into a single resource exporter of oil, fueling a booming modern economy. The influx of the automobile and modern solutions to Western ways of living would forever change the city. In the speed of these developments, critical aspects of city planning such as the pedestrian and the harsh desert climate were overlooked. Kuwait began to lose a connection between the city and its …

Ascents And Descents In The 21st Century: Restoring Chand Baori, Japneet Pahwa

Masters Theses

Water is a basic human right and a resource that should be accessible to all. The largest and deepest stepwell in the world, Chand Baori in dry Abhaneri, Rajasthan, is visited by many but serves its purpose for none. This hundred foot deep subterranean structure once allowed access to fresh water during hot and dry seasons, and served as a cool sanctuary for pilgrims, caravans and villagers.Unfortunately, due to climate change and political discourse, the underprivileged, rural population of modern India often does not have access to water. Stepwells were built in India in the 3rd century CE, in the …

The Retrieval Of Memory: Holding Time In The Shanghai Gasometers, Liman Wei

Masters Theses

Shanghai was primarily an industrial city from the 19th century to the 20th century. By serving as a carrier of time, the past industrial architecture in Shanghai is invested with the collective memory of its past inhabitants. Now that Shanghai has entered the post-industrial period, according to the Shanghai 2035 Urban Plan, the Yangshupu Industrial Zone will be transformed into a new Central Activity Zone. As a result of this plan, old residential neighborhoods nearby will be demolished and replaced by new high-rise residential buildings. The relationship between old residential areas and industrial buildings will be uprooted. Memories of industry …

Woven Healing: Reimagining The Rural Health Center, Mahasweta Jayachandran

Masters Theses

Seventy-five percent of India’s population is rural. Of those rural citizens, almost nine out of ten lack access to adequate health facilities. While the existing composition of any village in India is housing, temple, and agriculture, the physical well-being of residents has no home. When the local government builds a new isolated healthcare center, these disconnected centers become deserted and a place of unhealthy activity.

How do you effectively embed a new spatial intervention within an existing system of the village that supports health, rather than extending the boundaries of the village into sprawl? Historical study of medical practice in …

The Second Home: Breaking The Cycle Of Lonely Death, Woohee Kim

Masters Theses

Lonely Death Syndrome is a phenomenon in which an isolated person suffers a lack of social relationships and dies alone. This is a serious problem in modern South Korea, particularly among poor elderly people living in Seoul. Though the government has tried to help, there is an obvious bureaucratic limit in resolving the sense of loneliness. In Seoul, Nowon-gu is one of the districts that has the highest concentration of poor seniors, and high-rise rental housing built for this population. These apartments are uniform in design in order to house as many people as possible economically in a limited space, …

Overflowing Boundaries: Competition And Mutualism In Urban Villages, Chen Zhang

Masters Theses

Villages besieged by urban sprawl have been isolated and forgotten, broken from urban texture and social relationships. However, this kind of encirclement has no clear boundary and is entirely permeable. Infiltration and overflowing occur on various scales. On the urban scale, the old villages gradually abandoned the agricultural lifestyle and connected with the new industrial city. On the architectural scale, urban villages attempt to integrate with cities by imitating the urban façade wherever they come into contact along the fluid boundary. Some warehouses, small plants, and small workshops have appeared in urban villages. On the human scale, people's lives overflow …

The Future Of Beijing Urban Courtyards, Zhuoqi Xu

Masters Theses

The Beijing Siheyuan is typical and representative of traditional Chinese residential construction. It is not only an architectural form but also a reflection of the traditional modes of living in Beijing. However, with the changes in family structure and people’s living needs, the spatial pattern of traditional courtyards has been unable to meet the life and economic needs of modern society. The scarce public space, poor living environment, and the low-quality of residents’ life led Siheyuan to lose its original status. Despite these challenges, whether for the protection of the overall style of Beijing’s old city or the renewal of …

Remember Me: How We Can Modify The Home For People With Dementia, Wenjin Wang

Masters Theses

More than 50 million people live with dementia worldwide. For reasons of familiarity, affordability, and psychological comfort, the home is uniquely preferred by people with dementia (PwD) and their caregivers for aging in place. Ample studies show that built environmental features (e.g., furnishing, lighting, layout) influence the daily lives of PwD. These features can be modified easily and with fewer disruptions to daily life at home. However, most PwD and their caregivers usually have little knowledge of what can be achieved through simple interventions to environmental features.

There is a great need for an exhibition to explain the dementia-friendly home …

Unraveling The Living: Reframing Cramped Housing As A Social Living, Dong-Zoo Han

Masters Theses

In Seoul, people of the poorest economic status live in compressed units no larger than 32 square feet, known as “sliced housing.” The majority of these residents hope for better living conditions, but they are unable to move for multiple reasons. This is an interwoven sociological issue that requires intervention proposals that improve the physical and mental wellbeing of the people in these housing situations. This thesis demonstrates possible architectural interventions that will enhance the quality of life and support systems within Seoul’s “sliced housing” villages.

Other urban villages in Seoul in similar states of degradation have been destroyed, with …

Rural Acupuncture: Carefully Introducing Tourism Within An Underground Village, Shangyun Zhou

Masters Theses

Di Keng Yuan(地坑院) are traditional cave dwellings in northern rural China, with a history of over 4,000 years of use. Today, living in Di Keng Yuan represents poverty and lower social status. Most Di Keng Yuan are ignored and abandoned by local people more interested in urbanization and the evolution of society. Yaodi Village is facing such a challenge of hollowing, meaning 1.young rural labor flows spontaneously into big cities, resulting in increased rural aging and 2.residents living in rural areas have gradually moved to the surrounding areas, resulting in the abandonment of cave dwellings, and the village is becoming …

Remembering Chinatown: A Fusion Of Food, Identity, & Memory, Robert Yang

Masters Theses

In 2016, the Chinese American Restaurant Association recorded a total of 50,000 Chinese restaurants operating in the United States, far exceeding the number of McDonalds, Burger Kings, KFCs, and Wendy’s combined. In the near two centuries that Chinese people have been a part of the American fabric, our food has become one of the country’s most popular ethnic cuisines. While these restaurants stand as testaments to the tenacity and entrepreneurship of the Chinese immigrant, they are also reminders of the centuries of adversity Chinese Americans have endured. The racial divisions triggered by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 have resulted …

Beyond Pasta: Understanding Italian American Culinary Culture In Federal Hill, Chufan He

Masters Theses

Nuances of culture are lost from an outside perspective. This one–sidedness perception brings confusion and can lead to stereotypes. As a “Country of immigrants’” it is crucial to break stereotypes born in America to understand the complexity and uniqueness of every immigrant's culture. As for stereotypes of Italian culture in America, these are always related to food. As an Italian American neighbourhood with many layers of history, Federal Hill has experienced several transitions. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route which brought a large number of Italian immigrants to New England. Providence …

Reinforcing Connection Within Collective Housing: A New Vision Of Red Steel City, Guangyi Niu

Masters Theses

Red Steel City is a historical residential complex built 64 year ago for the first workers of the Iron & Steel Complex in Wuhan, China, under the help design guidance of the former Soviet Union. Equipped with educational and medical facilities, this “City” nearly meets every need of the residents. Where residents worked boosted the development of steel, which is considered a prerequisite for industrialization, and where they lived became the template for the era when China was finding its footing in its incredible drive to industrialization.

The original plan of Red Steel City did not consider practical conditions like …