Interior Architecture Commons^™

Interdisciplinary Design Studio: Programming Document Visioning For A Robotic Demonstration, Research, And Engagement Dairy, Steve(N) Hardy, Nate Bicak, Sarah Alduaylij, Noor Al-Maamari, Devyn Beekman, Kelsey Belgum, Lauren Chubb, Nicholas Forte, Mitchell Hill, Joshua Holstein, Dylan Lambe, Phuong Le, Mia Leriger, Elizabeth Loftus, Josh Lorenzen, Megan Lovci, Alex Martino, Zade Miller, Hannah Morgan, Annabelle Nichols, Collin Shearman, Rebecca Sowl, Nalin Theplikhith, Angela Vu, Shaylee Wagner, Ethan Watermeier, Trever Zelenka

Architecture Program: Student Creative Activity

The 2022 COLLABORATE Design Studio brought together students from various disciplines to address a complex, real-world project which required collaborative input from different perspectives. The studio worked to advance the co-creation of knowledge between external stakeholders, students, and instructors. The course was co-taught by faculty from different disciplines, and areas of expertise. During the semester, Nate Bicak and Steven Hardy worked with students from Architecture and Interior Design in collaboration with students in Dr. Tami Brown-Brandl’s students in Biological Systems Engineering and Animal Science to explore the values, spatial qualities, and area requirements of a Robotic Demonstration, Research, and Engagement …

Sconce Upon A Time: Evaluating Multimodal Methods Of Researching Period Lighting Technology, A Case Study Of Drayton Hall, Neale Elizabeth Grisham

All Theses

This thesis reviews several methods of researching light sources and lighting schemes from the “long eighteenth century,”[1] on a historical site. Despite the period’s cultural reliance on lighting as well as technological advancement in this era, there has yet to be published documentation on how to engage with evidence of lighting technology on historic sites for better understanding of the site’s relationship with lighting.

Using Drayton Hall in Charleston, South Carolina as a case study, this thesis outlines and demonstrates the process of five methods of investigating period lighting technology. These methods are: wall investigation, anchorage points comparison and …

Analysis Of The Relationship Between Ieq And Energy Consumption In Uae University Building: Impact Of Thermal And Lighting Comfort On Energy Usage, Salama Abdulla Al Ghaithi

Theses

The Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) of buildings becomes increasingly critical as people spend more than 90% of their time inside buildings based on the National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS) (Klepeis et al., 2001). The quality of the indoor environment in a building has been shown to have a significant impact on users' productivity and energy consumption. Further, if tenants are working in a comfortable indoor environment, absenteeism rates and incidental expenses, such as medical expenses, will be reduced. For instance, a comfortable workplace increases productivity by 10-15% and reduces absenteeism by 2.5% (Leyten & Boerstra, 2003). According to the …

Role Of 3d Printed Green Walls In Healing Architecture, Sara Chahin, Ayman Afify, Hiba Mohsen, Maged Youssef

BAU Journal - Health and Wellbeing

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has become a fundamental issue in modern global technology, touching practically every element of modern human life.Three-dimensional (3D) printing (also known as additive manufacturing) is an advanced manufacturing technology that can autonomously manufacture complicated shape geometries from a 3D computer-aided design model without the use of equipment or fixtures.However, there is a friction between traditional designs and the rise of 3D printed technology when it comes to architectural healing approaches, and this adaptability is hurting human healing tactics that are dependent on the relationship between space and environment.Due to its capacity to create products in a wide …

Visualizing The Operative And Managing Complexity: Communicating The Design-Fabrication Feedback Loop With The International Tile Industry, Josh Vermillion

Creative Collaborations

School of Architecture faculty members Joshua Vermillion and Paul Morrison led a multi-disciplinary group of students from Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Theater in a design-build elective, sponsored entirely by companies in the tile and coverings industry. The key to these sorts of collaborations between industry and academe is to see the production, fabrication, and assembly process as something that can inform design, and as a result, the design can augment production by strategic design decision-making. This feedback loop, connecting both ends of the design-production continuum, can yield interesting design research questions. One such question arose repeatedly throughout this semester of …

Light4health Elearning Course: Health Research For Interior Lighting Design. Re-Thinking Design Approaches Based On Science, K. M. Zielinska-Dabkowska, Lyn Godley, F. Kyriakidou, U. C. Besenecker, G. Triantafyllidis

Kanbar College Faculty Papers

This paper presents the results of 'Light4Health' (L4H), a three-year EU Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership grant project (2019-2021), which investigated, systematized and taught health-related research on the impact of natural and artificial light on human health and well-being relevant to indoor lighting design. The objective was to re-think evidence-based lighting design approaches for residential, working/educational, and healthcare spaces, in order to develop a novel cross-disciplinary eLearning platform, that intersects lighting design and current peer-reviewed health research through a select combination of the most relevant research, methods, and tools. The content was developed through teaching workshops with international researchers, teachers, and students. …

Growing Concerned: How Societal Stress Relates To Plants In The Home, Trenton W. Birdwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Design trends are constantly in flux, but the reasons why people prefer new trends are not readily apparent. This thesis brought together multiple aspects of interior design to investigate how design has changed. After a review of available studies, the researcher decided to focus on natural design in homes because this area has previous research upon which to build. This study compared data to examine how stress in America relates to plant imagery. The research questions asked what, if any, relationship exists between societal stress and the use of plants, plant-like objects, and window views.

Measures of stress included hospitalization, …

The Austerity Chic Interior, Gen Z, And Millennials' Domestic Dream, Urtzi Grau Magana, Guillermo Fernández-Abascal

Interiority

This paper reviews domestic spaces completed in the last ten years to address the following research questions: How do Australian Gen Z and millennials in Sydney, who are currently shaping their future life, imagine their home? What are the domestic values and hopes of two generations that had their coming of age in the Information Era, and who naturally embrace digital technology and social media? What do size, scale, material, and technical innovation mean for a climate-conscious group of people that have lived through COVID-19 confinement, an endless real estate bubble, and recurrent economic crises? Grouped in five categories—sharing life, …

Adaptive Ephemeral Interiority: Upcycling Site Specific Interiors, Marco Sosa, Lina Ahmad, Karim Musfy

Interiority

Adaptive reuse in architecture refers to the process of redesigning, converting, and reappropriating existing spaces for functions different from the ones they were originally designed for. This research is a case study showing an alternative to this concept, re-purposing aviation parts and finding new programmatic functions in the design learning studio. The pedagogy approach, adopted by a design studio in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), presents the fluidity of adaptive interiority against rigidity and site specificity. The research results in the creation of adaptive modular spaces and ephemeral interiority through upcycling design, flexibility, materiality, reusability, recyclability, and connectivity while simultaneously …

Water-Based Settlement And The Loss Of Community Water Resilience, Patiphol Yodsurang, Yasufumi Uekita, Ikuro Shimizu

Interiority

After the first dam was built in the Chao Phraya River during the 1950s, several water-controlled structures and megaprojects were built throughout the basin. For the first 30 years, water levels were stable, and the dams largely provided flood prevention. However, in recent years, global warming and climate change have been driving the frequency and intensity of extreme events. Local people have gradually lost their resilience against living with water during the years of a stable flood and flow system. This caused the interiority of the amphibious culture to drown into an oblivion state in the water-based settlement. The investigation …

Responsive Interior: Tactics For Adaptation And Resilience, Paramita Atmodiwirjo, Yandi Andri Yatmo

Interiority

Design disciplines continuously face challenges to demonstrate resilience in responding to rapid changes and complex issues in our contemporary world. The idea of responsive interior highlights the ability to respond appropriately to a particular context through various tactics to ensure its relevance and resilience for the present and future. Interior practices deal with intervention, adaptation, and alteration of existing conditions, as well as finding new uses and programmes that can be added to existing spaces. Behind such attempts, a series of responsive tactics has become necessary to gather knowledge and understanding of the existing qualities, which should be an important …

Hybrid And Performative Spaces: Towards A New Analytical Lens, Ayman Kassem

Interiority

The exhibition space is a territory where architects and designers have experimented with hybrid and performative spatial qualities. However, such spatial mechanisms have expanded into other spatial practices. As we live in a constantly changing world, these practices allow spatial systems that adjust to continual changes in modes of living. Newer approaches to spatial transformation try to respond to the need for transience and flexibility. Hybrid and performative interventions are elaborated to transform existing spaces with strategic non-architectural rearrangements. As a result, our inhabited spaces, such as exhibitions, are becoming hybrid and performative. However, hybrid and performative may be perceived …

My House And Coronavirus: Experiences Of The Pandemic Full Lockdown, Faredah Mohsen Al-Murahhem

Interiority

On March 2, 2020, Saudi Arabia announced the first coronavirus case. A complete lockdown started in Makkah on April 2, 2020. The holy capital of Islam has always been packed with pilgrims, but the situation was different with COVID-19. The full lockdown continued in Makkah even during the holy month of Ramadan. This study discusses the experience of full lockdown in the context of Makkah with its unique status as a holy city, with the longer period of its complete lockdown compared to other Saudi cities. The article presents a case study focusing on the interior design students at Umm …

Deep Interior: Sensorial Encounters Of Orang Suku Laut With The Sea, Rini Suryantini, Diandra Pandu Saginatari, Yandi Andri Yatmo

Interiority

This paper explores the idea of a deep interior during an encounter between a sea tribe and the sea, as an intimate interaction between the body and nature that consists of liquid matter, the earth’s surface, and the sea inhabitants. This paper introduces the idea of intimate engagement with such a liquid environment to reveal its interiorisation. It arguably positions ecological understanding through reading and responding to nature as the key to interiorisation. This study learns about the livelihood of a sea tribe, Orang Suku Laut (OSL), in the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia, mainly through food hunting and gathering activities. Through …

Assessing The Impact Of The Campuses’ Landscape Design On The Stress Levels Of The Students Using The Salutogenic Model (The New Campus Of Al-Aqsa University As A Case Study), Ahed Helles

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

Studies in the field of environmental psychology have found that there is a strong correlation between the built environment and stress on the one hand, and between stress and health on the other hand. This research used the Salutogenic theory introduced by Antonovsky to examine the impact of architectural elements and design features of the outdoor spaces within learning environments, such as those of university campuses, on the level of stress of the university students, using the new campus of Al-Aqsa University in the city of Khan Younis (in The Gaza Strip) as a case study. The hypothesis of the …

Notes In Improvisation : Spatializing Black Identity Through Music, Esther Akintoye

Masters Theses

The self-creation of Black spaces in America has been a form of resistance and reclamation, as well as a way to forge an identity and make room for community. This thesis argues for a use of improvisational African American music as a tool to create space. Additionally, through research and a design intervention, this thesis seeks to demonstrate how spatial creation within the framework of music and musical improvisation work as ways to expand, solidify and celebrate identity within Black and African- identifying people in America.

Fluid and improvisational techniques found in Black musical styles and genres such as jazz …

Regenerative Residences: Shrinking Stress Levels In The Sky, Peter De Lande Long

Masters Theses

Issues of overcrowding and overstimulation plague urban environments, which exacerbate social isolation and, in turn, heighten city dwellers’ levels of stress and anxiety. How can architecture mediate stimuli to be positively conducive to mood, behavior, and overall health? Given that social isolation is an intrinsically spatial issue that design can address, this thesis proposes a small-scale community living model with the intent of improving mental health and clarity for a user group of young, mentally vulnerable professionals in New York City.

16 E 16th Street becomes the architectural framework for addressing these issues. Moving away from the capitalistic endeavor of …

Beyond Spectacle : Parametric Design To Life In Space, Ding Xu

Masters Theses

In recent years, with the help of rapid computational developments, Parametric Design has become common in architectural practice. Parametric architecture, due to its unique appearance, has rapidly been associated with certain aesthetic trends. This is mostly because architects initially adopted it to make radical forms, not because parametric techniques demand any specific geometry.

For the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion by Zaha Hadid Architects, the team built a dynamic and fluid structure using parametric techniques. The form evolved from the spiraling shapes found in nature, and the fluid geometry provides a continuum of space and a system of logic. As a …

Re:Connection: Exercises In Unplugging And Mindfully Reconnecting, E. J. Roseman

Masters Theses

How can architecture encourage focused attention and mindfulness in an increasingly distracted and distractible world? As a primary means of connectivity in the 21st century, smartphones and social media have provided unparalleled efficiencies, connectivity and entertainment. However, constant engagement with richly-pixelated virtual worlds has also brought about mass addiction to devices as college students log more compulsive “screen time” than ever before. Mental health issues such as crippling anxiety, diminished attention spans, and unhappiness, are on the rise as students disconnect from the physical world and are consumed by their virtual one.

This thesis is comprised of a series of …

Unfolding Embodied Experience: A Process-Driven Immersive Exhibition Design Model, Mooa Seongah Kang

Masters Theses

The collections of most museums are comprised of two-dimensional artworks—paintings, drawings, prints, and photography—and are generally presented within a white cube gallery platform. Within this restricted static view, displays rarely consider multisensory engagement and immersion that reveals the accumulated time and effort of creation. Yet for many artists, the process is as important as the finished product.

My impetus for this design initiative began by questioning traditional methods of display. Is it possible to reveal the hidden depth embodied in two-dimensional artworks, allowing audiences to participate with all their senses in the journey of an artist’s experience? In other words, …

Dying Differently: Designing A Death-Oriented Psychedelic Treatment Center, Grace Caiazza

Masters Theses

In the context of therapeutic treatment for the terminally ill, psychedelic assisted therapy instigates a direct confrontation with a person’s experience of dying. Over the course of several weeks a patient will arrive at a facility, lay down in a room, and for up to eight hours at a time recommit themselves to the question: how do I comprehend death? Their answer will come in the form of sensations and sounds, visions and abstractions — things that are perhaps not immediately understood, but rather are immediately and vibrantly felt. The answer will follow a non-traditional logic unfamiliar to the empirical …

Last Sunset : Design To Alleviate Social Isolation For Chinese Elderly, Linghui Li

Masters Theses

China has one of the fastest aging populations in the world. The country’s rapid economic development and urbanization have separated millions of older adults from their children, leading to empty nest families where the elderly must fend for themselves without assistance. Design in the modern era caters to the younger generation with more consumption power while neglecting the needs of these older adults.

In China, from the moment a child is born, confinement centers, preschools, and tutoring institutions, those venues are common throughout the urban fabric. Which spaces are mainly designed for the Chinese elderly? Besides meeting necessary physical needs …

The Cthulhu Journey : Storytelling Through An Architectural Immersive Experience, Rui Zhang

Masters Theses

The exhibition of sequential art is becoming increasingly popular. The subjects of these shows vary from fantasy, horror to science fiction depending on the style of authors. Compared with other 2d images, sequential art requires more narrative framing. Typical exhibitions show sequential art like regular images, however narrative is the essence of sequential art. This thesis will find a way to exhibit sequential art forms in a way that respects that they are based in storytelling. I will develop an immersive experience of sequential art. Immersion is also a narrative-based experience, if we combine the immersive experience with the sequential …

Dear City, Give Me Some Space; Creating Space For Ephemeral Forces In A City, Abinaya Sivaprakasam Thamilarasan

Masters Theses

Architecture of the past was regarded as a concrete entity, both in its materiality and approach, unresponsive to change within a city. Climatic and societal shifts greatly impact cities ill-prepared to adjust. How can the intractable architecture of the past become flexible? Does the current environmental devastation we’re witnessing demand architecture that can embrace, rather than neglect, such shifts?

Situated in Chennai, a densifying coastal metropolis in India, the adaptation focuses on two key shifts. Firstly, the climatic shifts: the alternating patterns of severe flooding, and periods of droughts. Second, the transient youth population within the city. They both share …

Adaptive Reduce: Forging Architectural Futures Through Degrowth, Erika Kane

Masters Theses

There is widespread awareness of the damage caused by anthropocentric habits in the West, and there have been great strides in development of “green” materials and solutions. But what is the point of building more, though greener, if we are still building endlessly without utilizing the abundance within the built environment that typically gets dismissed as “waste”? This thesis seeks to translate the concept of degrowth, the downscaling of production and consumption, into architectural language, for more regenerative, equitable and collectivist futures.

The following proposal explores how an architecture of degrowth can facilitate sharing within a community and reclamation of …

From Invisible To Visible: The Third Wave/Way Of Intervention For Dashilar, Jiali Tian

Masters Theses

The existing community of the Dashilar neighborhood of Beijing is too economically dependent on tourists, who ever grow in number, resulting in the continuous compression of residents' living space. Most of the residents living in the neighborhood today are elderly people who do not want to move and migrant workers who are attracted by the low rents. International visitors are attracted by the long cultural history of Dashilar, which goes back 500 years. I am interested in reviving the cultural + commercial attributes of Dashilar, using craftsman as a medium to activate the productive values of local residents and to …

Endless Construction : Occupant Activism And Authorship, Jiayi Wang

Masters Theses

Though we don’t think of it this way, “Adaptive Reuse” often happens naturally, guided by users who modify their physical environment to satisfy urgent living needs. While these modifications may appear haphazard, they show the user’s individualism and life philosophy. We, as designers, should embrace these interventions to explore how to participate with the occupants’ adaptive reuse process over time. Given the richness of adaptation within the old residences in the ancient Chinese city of Suzhou, it is an appropriate place to explore both the skill of self–modification and the potential for interaction of designers in this process.

The old …

Block Chain Home, Jonggun Lee

Masters Theses

Studies indicate that every four years urban dwellers relocate. Given this phenomenon, the direction of urban housing development in mega cities now encourages the divestment of personal furnishings to support mobility. While efficient, the singular imprint of furnishings upon individual space is getting severely flattened by suggested shapes and built in furnishings that define the form of dwelling. Also, unlike suburbs, turbulent cities tend to make people live alone, making them lose their uniqueness in the process of adaptation.

This thesis lives in between the ideas of SuperStudio, Andrea Zitell, and Metabolism architecture. In that, the concept of “BLOCK CHAIN …

Rebuilding Collective Effervescence : A "Ballroom" For Post-Pandemic Revelry, Di Ma

Masters Theses

Collective Effervescence is an event that can make a community or a society come together and simultaneously communicate regarding the same thought, or participate in the same action. Such desire happened during the post- World War I period, when people were freed from the depression of war and sought pure and positive happiness, which was also what society needed. Nowadays in the post-pandemic recovery, the public, after suffering from and getting used to isolation and social distancing, has an unexpected desire for physical communications, but still fear to gather psychologically. This reaction can be seen as a “post-traumatic stress disorder” …

Blurred Lines : Border Crossing Between Macau And Zhuhai, Weiwei Chen

Masters Theses

Since Macau returned to China after ending the colonial era in 1999, the relationship between Macao and the mainland has experienced more in-depth and diversified exchanges. Although Macao and inland cities are located in one country, they have different cultures, politics and economy. This thesis attempts to study the unique architectural types in Macao and show the cultural characteristics of Macao's changes under the historical background of different ages.. Political factors have caused Macau’s sense of nationality to shift several times.

Since its completion, the Gongbei port, which connects the two places, has witnessed historical changes on both sides of …