Other Architecture Commons^™

Bench – A Design Process To Make A Digitally Manufactured Furniture System Using The Spirit Of Japanese Joinery, Myles Richter

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone identifies and implements the spirit of Japanese joinery into a contemporary design process to develop a component based piece of furniture through means of digital manufacturing, namely CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machining. Through the aesthetic, functional, and structural results of this design process, the impact of applying the spirit of Japanese joinery as a guide for the development of the tectonic language of an object are revealed. The structure of this project will discuss an overview of the design process of an object which was designed in the spirit of Japanese joinery, and an assessment of the success …

Early Childhood Educational Toys Through An Architectural Perspective, Anindhitha Sudhakaran

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone explores the overlaps between architectural training and early childhood education, and how architectural design can inform the design process of creating educational toys for young children. Through an analysis of pedagogies used throughout history in early childhood education and my own personal experiences of architecture school, an understanding of how an architectural perspective can influence activities for three- to five-year-olds is developed. Precedent studies of open-ended educational toys designed by educators and designers introduced the design thinking mindset necessary to create an effectively enriching toy. The next phase of this project involves designing an educational toy for the …

Tactical Urbanism On A University Campus: A Case Study Of Crossroads On Dickson, Noah Berg

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tactical Urbanism is a method of creating temporary, low-cost interventions in a city’s built environment, aiming to test new ideas, gather community feedback, and create momentum for larger-scale changes. The approach is characterized by its focus on quick, iterative projects that can be easily implemented and adjusted, rather than large, expensive initiatives that take years to complete. Examples of Tactical Urbanism projects include pop-up bike lanes, parklets, and community gardens. The goal is to encourage community participation, foster a sense of ownership, and create a safer, more livable, and inclusive city. In spring 2022, a class called “Walk, Bike, Link” …

Gentrification And Displacement: Connections Between Changing Housing Typologies And Long-Time Residents’ Quality Of Life In East Austin, Texas, Grant Wilson

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the impacts of gentrification on quality of life, displacement, and housing typology in East Austin, Texas. The neighborhood is examined as a case study and example of the concepts discussed. Evaluated through both a qualitative and quantitative lens, this study serves as a report and update on the continued disruption of the living patterns of minority residents in the city. Recommendations are given to mitigate displacement for East Austin residents and improve the quality of life for those remaining. By identifying the connection between changing housing typology and displacement impacts, this report aspires to give designers a …

Form From Color: Color Generated Form, Kyra Vreeland

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Form From Color: Color Generated Form evaluates the ability of color to be a three-dimensional and architectural space creator. While complex in history and connotations, color within this capstone is assigned a theoretical characteristic by which forms are generated from color solely. The produced results suggest that color can be a form generator and can have more spatial applications in design. This capstone has the mode of inquiry of a Creative Artistic Inquiry.

There are three series of tests within this capstone. All of which are based on Johannes Itten’s belief that primary colors correspond with primary shapes. The first …

Design Is A Social Process: A Survey On Inclusive Practice, Gabriel De Souza Silva

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This inquiry pivots the discussion on design practice toward process, and seeks to elucidate how inclusivity is achieved in it, and by what means it is maintained. The design process is interrogated through a series of case studies on contemporary practitioners that either describe themselves or are recognized by the wider design community as inclusive of gender, race, sexual orientation, ability level, and are sensitive to history of place. The case studies are selected to demonstrate a diversity of project types, management structures, and design tools, and they comprise the practices of LA Más, Assemble, and Bryony Roberts. The product …

Plastic Bottles In Architecture: A How To Guide On Life-Cycle Through Reuse, Crystallyne Landram

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This booklet is a collection of 6 case studies that utilize reused plastic bottles significantly within their design. Prior to working with the case studies, much time was dedicated to research that justified the need for such a project. In-depth research on the environmental crisis, waste management trends, stewardship, sustainability, and ethics was conducted and recorded in the introduction to contextualize the need for an accessible how-to guide such as this one. Time was also given to establishing background information on bottles, reprocessing, and architecture to elaborate further on each piece of the content matter. It is curated as a …

The Future Of Urban Technology: Exploring Smart Cities And Transportation Through Game Theory And Scenario Planning, Matthew Wilson

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Technological innovation is occurring at a rapid pace in the world of personal devices. This trend of change has not been able to occur as fast in the city infrastructure. Consumers are curious about the next generation of technology and the integration of artificially intelligent technology in transportation and the urban fabric. In this project, I study the motivations and values of a set of characters involved in the integration and innovation of Smart City Technology. These characters create potential future scenarios of the city from their actions and reactions to specific decisions.

This body of work can provide a …

Walkability Of Suburban Retrofits Of The Washington Dc Area: Immersion Into Qualitative Constructs, David Sweere

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The majority of the United States population is living in the suburbs, and yet the suburban built fabric has developed with spatial conditions that have failed to prove their efficacy on environmental, social or economic terms. Most contemporary architectural and urban theorists agree that the suburban condition is inherently problematic. In a 2010 Ted Talk, architect and urban designer Ellen Dunham-Jones discusses the problematic state of the suburban built condition, citing dependence on the vehicle, sparseness of built form, environmental costs, transportation costs, and even increased obesity rates (Dunham-Jones 2010). Because the suburbs comprise the majority of our “urbanized” areas …

Multi-Sensory Design For People With Visual Impairments, Joshua Levy

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Architectural design commonly focuses on the visual qualities of its manifestation, leaving people with visual impairments aside from its qualitative goals. In order to counteract this phenomenon and appropriately address people with low visual acuity / legal blindness, we must understand the people within this large community as well as current policies focusing on different types of accommodations for spatial practicality. Understanding the people will entail a dive into what a visual impairment is, what it is like, and understanding how people perceive the world as a whole. Then it is necessary to understand current policies that designers have adopted …

Decoding Third Places, Caleb Bertels

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Urban open spaces should give back to the public, creating vital and valuable places within a city. People should want to seek out these spaces to occupy, seeing them not as useless gaps between buildings but areas with their own value and identity. To create this public demand, successful open spaces contain qualities of third places. Third places, a term coined by Ray Oldenburg, describes somewhere familiar that people choose to spend their time outside their first places (their homes) and their second places (their work). Third places bring communities closer together and are open to the public, but not …

The Farnsworth House & 'The Grand Budapest Hotel': Cinematic Spaces, Rylie Davis

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mies van der Rohe designed the Farnsworth House as a personification of his architectural vision, an architectural language void of the mistakes of the past that could be taught universally. Mies’ illusory idea of free-flowing anti-space was ideologically unconnected to the cinematic arts, nevertheless the application of his design philosophy consequently resulted in spaces that were scenographic and cinematic. Just as a cinematographer establishes a relationship between the viewer and the scene, Mies van der Rohe used perspective to frame views transforming the Farnsworth House into an intermediary object establishing a relationship between nature and the viewer. The Farnsworth House …

Audio To Architecture: House Music As A Form Generator, Polina Timchenko

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Contemporary music undergoes similar process of creation to that of the design process through computation and variation. House music as a representation of contemporary culture has a layered structure that allows specific characteristics to identify it as house music. Song components can vary and mix in different orders that form new dynamic compositions. I am going to explore the idea that every house music component can be translated into geometry with the use of parametric design techniques.

The Work Of Living Art, Empathy, And The Creation Of An Aesthetics Of Perception In The Early Twentieth Century, Sarah Peil Winstead

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Adolphe Appia (1862-1928), theorist and pioneering voice of the New Stagecraft Movement in twentieth century theatre, was a transformative influence on the history of scenic design. This paper looks at the links between Appia’s theories in theatre scenic design and contemporaneous German aesthetic theory. At the time German theorists like Adolf Hildebrand and August Schmarsow developed an aesthetic theory, Einfülung or empathy theory, based on the connection between the human body and perception. I will argue this theory influenced not only Appia and his contemporaries it also shaped the landscape of mid-century theatre design. Appia’s own theories revolved around three …

Making Process: The Search For A Personal Language Through A Shared Vocabulary Of Painting And Design, Callie Fleetwood

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

As designers, everything we make is personal. The act of making is a learning experience, as well as a personal act. We learn through this act of making. Making spans many mediums, including painting and architecture. Every designer has a language that is unique and personal to them. There is however, a shared and fundamental basis, or vocabulary, for these languages that span mediums and designers. To better understand the making process, a careful study of the architectural work and personal paintings of two architects has been done. Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto are two architects who practiced in the …

Eulogy To Architecture: The Three-Dimensional Collage City Of Nostalgia, Molly A. Evans

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

In our time of existence on the Earth, human beings have designed and realized beautiful things. As we face the challenges that confront us today, we begin to understand the fragility of humankind’s creations. Many of the world’s cities and buildings lie in ruins, gazed at by tourists, studied by scholars, while more lie buried in the ground for hundreds of years, some never to be rediscovered. Everything around us is an accumulation of knowledge and ideas built upon for centuries, now facing questionable circumstances. Of course, the more recent Aleppo and other Middle Eastern cities have fallen subject to …

Image And Perception Of The Top Five American Tourist Cities As Represented By Snow Globes, Caitlin Malloy

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the connection between popular culture’s perception of place and the physical augmentation of reality. Focusing on the top five tourist cities in America, this disparateness is observed through the lens of a souvenir: the snow globe.

The presentation of the work is broken into two parts: the written portion and the book of diagrams. A total of 45 snow globes (9 for each of the 5 cities) were selected for the study, each carefully analyzed for content to include monuments, colors, text, dimensions, realism, and layout. This resulted in a series of diagrams which graphically express the …

The Delamination Of Manhattan: Living In The Layers Of A Post-Land Society, Dylan Hursley

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Rising water levels threaten the existence of many coastal cities throughout the world, including Lower Manhattan, which is in danger of sea level rise by as much as six feet by the end of the century! Higher sea levels mean that larger storms will occur with greater frequency. Assuming that humanity does not reverse its current ecological contribution, barriers to stop rising waters will not be adequate.

Manhattan is covered by 50 feet of water, transforming New York into a new Venice. The substantial bedrock of the city provides a hefty foundation capable of supporting Manhattan’s structures for many years …

Creating Better American Cities: A Study Of Circulation And Common Spaces Of Public Housing, Jessica Wood

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis will analyze common spaces and circulation spaces in terms of configuration (in relation to each other) and quality (whether they are interior, exterior, or allow space for interaction between residents) in an attempt to determine how stairs, elevators, hallways, and common spaces impact the level of community within a public housing project. Community in this study refers to lasting relationships among residents living in the same housing project. The goal is to answer the question “What role do circulation and common spaces play in the success or failure of a public housing project?” and to determine the best …

Exploring The Contemporary Use And Understanding Of Precedent In Architectural Design Via A Comparative Analysis Of Brunelleschi And Le Corbusier, Shaelyn J. Vinson

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

As a student of architecture, conducting precedent research before diving into the design phase of a project is something that I am very familiar with. But, following each project’s precedent research, is often an overwhelming feeling of uselessness for the material found. For each project, assignments call for students to find a certain number of buildings on which to base their project. While historically this step makes sense, 21^st-century architecture students are taught that there is no “new” architecture, and that copying and collaging together existing buildings is the best way to achieve a successful design. This …