Interior Architecture Commons^™

Creating Connection In A Digital Society, Mariah Bennett

Masters Theses

The digital revolution has greatly affected the way we engage with each other.1 We choose virtual friends over real life ones as we go through our daily lives.2 According to the 2016 Nielson report, the average American spends four-five hours a day using social media, with teens spending an additional three hours a day.3 This is an average of 28-56 hours a week dedicated to Twitter posts, swiping on Tinder, Snapchatting, checking Facebook, or liking on Instagram, the equivalent to a part time job. According to countless studies, the digital age has made it hard for teens, young adults, and …

Rising Above Disruption, Paola Alexandra Mondino

Masters Theses

Climate change is real. Given the rising number of natural disasters affecting communities across the globe, this is a universal concern for all. From warming oceans to the decreasing of ice sheets and global sea level rise, we have problems. In the wake of increasingly frequent natural disasters, a community’s identity is abruptly interrupted repeatedly – an identity built upon history and traditions created over time, pulled apart over and over. When dealing with damaged communities post-disruption, another identity must emerge, shaped to incorporate the need for future resilience, while acknowledging the presence of the affected area’s past.

South Florida …

Reveal The Aura : Risd Contemplative Atrium, Shuyi Guo

Masters Theses

The built environment affects us on an emotional and psychological level; architecture can be as calming as meditation. Architecturally-induced contemplative states allow inhabitants to experience the benefits of meditation through space. Emotional well-being is essential to personal development and integral to the creative process. The Rhode Island School of Design campus currently offers counseling and psychological services for student and faculty. What is not offered is a space for students and faculty to seek inner peace in a relaxed way. In order to support the RISD community by creating a place for people to promote mental health in a consistent …

Purpose After Tragedy, Elena Tepavac

Masters Theses

Psychological trauma arises through the experience of conflict, such as war, fire, and terrorism. People exposed carry fragments with them throughout their lifetime. Buildings hold a great significance in the fabric of the cities they inhabit, and can also become vessels for trauma. They carry the gift of keeping memories alive even as they succumb to ruins.

One such building is the RTS- Radio Television of Serbia, located in the center of Belgrade, Serbia. During the Kosovo War of the late 1990’s, NATO saw this media center as a target because of its communication ties to the Yugoslav Armed Forces …

Amending The Idle : An Analysis Of Urban Idle Spaces + Third Places, Paige Davidson

Masters Theses

The term Third Places describes a space located outside work and home where individuals can socialize with their friends or those in their community, and talking more about their personal interests and or current news. Amending urban idle spaces into the setting for engineered, social interactions between city dwellers will bring more connection and a new sense of social interaction throughout cities.

What sets third places apart from most public spaces, such as coffee shops or restaurants, is that there is no associated cost. Third places help eliminate the specific demographic inclination based in socioeconomics to the other public spaces …

Architecture As Water-Human Mediator, Hui Bao

Masters Theses

Humans have developed a working relationship with water and the sea since ancient times. Sea level rise is going to challenge that relationship and change people’s lifestyle forever. To better adapt people physically and psychologically to their new life within or near the sea, it is necessary for the coastal building environment to mediate people’s relationship with the ocean, helping people get more comfortable with water.

The Boston fish pier is an icon of the Boston fishing industry. Climate change and overfishing are causing the decline of this industry and making the pier more and more desolate. Hundreds of years …

Bound By // To // In Earth, Lila Pickus

Masters Theses

The story of Uravan does not end with its erasure in 1986. The 74 years of the town’s existence is only one chapter in the cyclical narrative of industry, individuals and the earth that shapes today’s political, economic and environmental discourse. Visitors to Uravan are active participants in this story’s ongoing development. The scale of this responsibility, however, is impossible to grasp.

Without the architecture and artifact that make history tangible, Uravan’s legacy is invisible. All remains of the town’s infrastructure have been demolished, yet the site continues to be defined by its intangibility. The rubble of a destroyed company …

Revealing Context & Complexity In Urban Historic Sites, Simin Chu

Masters Theses

Historic sites cannot stand alone. The order, hierarchy and narrative sequence of architecture can only survive when surrounding context exists. Often over time the urban fabric changes, leaving future generations unaware of the historic meaning of a disjointed site. By revealing the historic complexity of architecture as it was originally intended to function, we can develop juxtaposition of new and old orders which make old buildings both imply the original order and adapt to new urban fabric.

For instance, in Providence, Rhode Island you have Cathedral Square, located between Downtown and Upper South Providence, which was almost demolished by the …

Preventing Lonely Death, Hyun Kyu Lee, Menghan Zhou

Masters Theses

Loneliness is part of a constellation of social, emotional and health outcomes for the elderly which collectively form one of the greatest public health issue worldwide. Various factors, such as losing connections with family and friends, and economic issues contribute to social isolation for the elderly, leading directly into the growing problem of “lonely death.” Lonely death describes the phenomenon of bodies discovered days, weeks, even months after death. It is possible to address this social problem almost entirely via architectural means, working within existing infrastructure of cities.

This thesis proposes a scattered elderly community within selected Boston MBTA Orange …