Other Architecture Commons^™

Looking Back: Margie Helm Discusses Library Building Trends In 1946, Jonathan Jeffrey

SCL Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Crisis Expo, Stephen Patrick Klimek

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The contention of this thesis is that architecture can create a venue for new forms or forums of civic and political engagement in a post industrial urban environment. Executing democratic processes of discussion, debate, and dissent is more important than the resolution to a given crisis. Yet in a world of impending crises architecture has yet to envision a truly contemporary form of assembly for the resolution of these issues by the Phantom Public. There is a politics of space because space is political⁴. Politics needs space. It exploits space as a resource, a site of debate, a …

Bim Applications In Conceptual Design Phase: Exploring The Abilities And Limitations Of Autodesk Revit Architecture Through The Generative Geometric Design Approach, Sara Ben Lashihar

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Autodesk Revit Architecture as one of BIM applications has shown recent improvements in creating complex forms in conceptual design phase. These improvements have been published lately in reports (Autodesk 2010; Autodesk 2009) and books (Krygiel et al. 2010). The presented abilities were introduced within a general scope, and they were not examined in detail with various generative design approaches. The generalization and the ambiguity of these publications lead designers to avoid using Revit in conceptual design phase, and use other 3D modeling softwares that are more compatible with their way of thinking.

This thesis examines the abilities and limitations of …

Adopting Game Technology For Architectural Visualization, Scott A. Schroeder

Department of Computer Graphics Technology Degree Theses

Current methods to display a new home in the architectural visualization industry involve long render times and hundreds of frames that require rendering. Many times, these virtual tours that are produced are slow, methodical, and limit the viewer's perspective of the home. This research looks into using computer game engines to display the virtual tour in real time, thus removing the long render time requirements and limited viewer perspective.

Marcel Breuer And Postwar America, Marcel Breuer, Barry Bergdoll, Jonathan Massey

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

At the center of Slocum Hall, four stories below a large skylight, stands a big shaggy lens - a deep, fur-lined scoop framed by a broad rectangle eight feet high. Between stepped floor and slanted ceiling is a curved wall punctuated by a trapezoidal aperture through which you glimpse a purple-tinted fragment of face. Forehead and cheeks, a nose and two eyes: Marcel Breuer.

The lens, a pavilion encasing deep embrasures, marks an exhibition of material from the archive of this leading 20th century architect. It points you toward the adjacent gallery, where more than 120 drawings and photographs reproduced …

Marcel Breuer And Postwar America, Barry Bergdoll, Jonathan Massey

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

At the center of Slocum Hall, four stories below a large skylight, stands a big shaggy lens - a deep, fur-lined scoop framed by a broad rectangle eight feet high. Between stepped floor and slanted ceiling is a curved wall punctuated by a trapezoidal aperture through which you glimpse a purple-tinted fragment of face. Forehead and cheeks, a nose and two eyes: Marcel Breuer.

The lens, a pavilion encasing deep embrasures, marks an exhibition of material from the archive of this leading 20th century architect. It points you toward the adjacent gallery, where more than 120 drawings and photographs reproduced …

Sacred Stones For Sacred Structures: An Examination Of Patterns In The Temples And Twin Complexes At Tikal And Palenque, Meredith Mae Hild

Honors Program Theses

Extensive work in uncovering and reconstructing Classic Maya temples has been completed while the importance of Maya studies has increased during the past centuries. Little has been done, however, in the interpretation of certain Maya structures within the context of Maya thought. That context includes an understanding of the Maya interpretation of their place within the cosmos, an aspect of Maya culture that dictated every individual's daily actions. Researchers have tended to focus on architectural analyses that describe the dimensions and building materials of temples and other monumental structures. This leads to interpretations that are lacking in cultural significance. While …

Is Leed A True Leader? Studying The Effectiveness Of Leed Certification In Encouraging Green Building, Megan M. Turner

Pomona Senior Theses

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (or LEED) is the most commonly used green building rating system in the United States, bestowing upon LEED certified buildings the prestige of being considered more sustainable than their non-certified neighbors. The public often assumes that LEED certified buildings are completely sustainable or even net-zero with regards to greenhouse gas emissions, but in actuality buildings certified under the most popular version of LEED are only required to be 15% more energy efficient than required by most state building codes – a far cry from the energy usage cuts needed to stave off global warming. …

Transportation Energy Analysis For Single-Family Residential Construction In California, Tyler Langley

Master's Theses

Transportation Energy Analysis for Single-Family Residential Construction in California

Tyler Langley

Since the oil crisis of 1973, energy use in the United States of America has been a growing area of concern. Studies have shown that the construction industry is responsible for almost half of all annual energy consumption. With this awareness, the analysis of energy use within the related construction fields has become an emergent subject. One facet of construction energy use that has been less studied than others is that of the energy consumed in transporting building materials from manufacturing plants to construction sites. This thesis proposes a …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles For Post Disaster Surveys, Thor Liland Larsen

Master's Theses

In the current built environment, structures require regular observation and maintenance. Many of these structures can be quite challenging to evaluate. The required scaffolding, lifts, or similar access facilities can become quite costly to rent and construct, and can be a long term disturbance to those who use and manage the particular structure. Furthermore, there are situations where examination for the purpose of detailed analysis can be quite hazardous, if not entirely unsafe for humans. In a post-disaster environment traditional methods may not be safe or adequate for gaining access to parts of a structure that require observation or analysis. …

Glorious Constructions: The Struggle To Preserve Salvation-Themed Visionary Art Environments, Molly Elaine Sheehan

Master's Theses

Salvation-themed art environments are a roadside rarity, built out of a strong visionary dedication to God, but the sites are disappearing simply because the work is misunderstood. The historiography on the subject is sparse, trending more toward coffee table books with big glossy pictures than real scholarly endeavors, but the consensus among all has been clear. The sites are a valuable part of the recent American cultural landscape, crossing several scholarly fields - art, architecture, and history - and uniting them into a cohesive preservation movement. On a series of trips to visit, see, and experience five of these sites, …

Formerly Urban: Projecting Rust Belt Futures, Mark Robbins, Stephanie Miner, Nancy Cantor, Julia Czerniak, Darren Petrucci, Jane Wolff, Mclain Clutter, Hunter Morrison, Damon Rich, Toni L. Griffin, Don Mitchell

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

A two-day conference on the benefits of creating urbanity in weak-market cities gathers twenty-one international experts in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design, as well as planning, policy, finance, economics, and real estate development. Participants share strategies for cities whose urban character has devolved radically due to economic, demographic, and physical change - cities that are now considered "formerly urban."

Interview With Crystal Benson, Green Building Services, 2010 (Audio), Crystal Benson

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Crystal M. Benson by Alex Woolery at Green Building Services Portland, Oregon on August 12th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Architecture For Disparate Communities In Transitional China: Urban Housing Stitch For Chinese Migrant Workers And City Dwellers In Rapidly Urbanizing Cities, Jennifer Hoi Ling Ha

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Problem:

Two housing types in China’s urban cities serve two specific demographics, the city dweller and the migrant worker. The high-rise and the urban village reside on the same block of land but cannot coexist. In order to save the urban villages from being demolished and to keep the migrant worker population within the city, there needs to be a more appropriate and aggressive housing concept to address China’s “changing contemporary social reality” between the two demographic.

Methodology:

The first step is to understand the two typologies of housing. Through the study of migrant housing typologies in different major …

Conspicuous Space: Parking Lot Suburbanism, Ian Nicholson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

What can be accomplished without a car? In a city: everything. In a suburb: nothing. Without a car, one cannot escape the city. Without a city, one cannot escape the car. Neither city nor suburb is an ideal habitat. The city has no nature. The suburb has no culture. What’s good about the suburbs over the city? According to economics: houses.

The American dream has long been “one’s own house with a private yard” (Nelesson xi); an acre and a mule for every free citizen. But this dream has created distance; a nightmare of endless commutes and oil addiction. What …

Urban Fabrication: The Architectural Heightening Of The Urban Tactile Sensibility A Fiber Arts Fabrication & Exhibition Center In Dublin, Ireland, Elizabeth Fallon

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The discipline of fiber arts has been in existence since the beginning of civilization to produce both functional equipment as well as aesthetically driven art pieces. The craft, at times highly specialized, often produces elements at the scale of the human body, due to the personal level by which fiber artifacts are produced. The making of artifacts and implementation of fiber art strategies have simultaneous cultural, environmental, formal, and gender-related relationships and implications. The design, construction and experience of buildings and inhabitable space at all scales can benefit from these relationships.

It is the contention of this thesis to merge …

Undermining Impasse: The Role Of Architecture In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Laura Ondrich

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Undermining Impasse: The Role of Architecture in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Abstract

Laura Ondrich

Architecture is political, in that it can be used to further an authority’s agenda, and the relationship between peoples under that authority can be affected by it. As the political tool of a ruling power, architecture in a place of ongoing conflict may propel the conflict and submit to its perpetuity at the detriment of participating peoples. Though politics are often considered intangible, certain conflicts exist in real space, thus there is an opportunity for architecture to create an influence. In this case where architecture - concrete …

Gibbs, Marissa (Fa 478), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 478.  Taped interviews conducted by Marissa Gibbs about the "Giles Cabin" built by Henry Giles and Janice Holt Giles near Kinfley, Adair County, Kentucky.  Also includes a paper about the house.  This project was completed as part of a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Ralph Bunche Agape Neighborhood Vision Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The Ralphe Bunche Neighborhood Vision Plan provides a general design framework to spur reinvestment in this 100-year old historic African-American neighborhood in Benton, AR. The plan aggregates attainable housing (under $100,000/unit) around two neighborhood parks―one existing, and one proposed. Since the city cannot afford comprehensive street and drainage improvements to accommodate redevelopment, the proposal retrofits streets and open space with Low Impact Development (LID) landscapes to remediate urban stormwater runoff. Housing unit types between 1,000 and 1,750 square feet are amassed around these LID landscapes and amenitized with screened rooms, balconies, terraces, and multiple-height living spaces.

Design Studio Involvement Of Real-World Stakeholders In The Fay Jones School Of Architecture, University Of Arkansas, Robert Jackson

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

There is evidence that architecture students are increasingly unprepared to enter the architectural workforce upon graduation. Some research has identified a growing gap between architectural education and architectural practice in terms of real-world concerns as the reason for students’ unpreparedness. By involving real-world stakeholders in architectural design studios – by which I mean individuals drawn from outside the academy with a professional, financial, or emotional investment in a project – educators may be able to create a more authentic learning environment that will better prepare students for architectural practice. This study describes my personal experiences as a student working on …

Preservation And Renovation Of Historical Downtown Bowling Green: The Galloway Resort, Brandy Nicole Hill

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For the past 50 years, urban development such as suburbs, shopping malls, highways, and retail chains have impacted the way that Americans live their everyday lives. While it is nice to quickly accomplish that daunting to-do list, these developments have demolished the main streets and downtowns of America. No longer do residents enjoy scenic shopping days, coffee in the park or simply a stroll around the town. Thus resulting in downtown business establishments closing and buildings became condemned. The property around what used to be an area full of life, fun and excitement became dull, boring and underappreciated. For this …

Alien And Distant: Rem Koolhaas On On Film In Lagos, Nigeria, Joseph Godlewski

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

This article appears in TDSR volume XXI, II, 2010.

The abstract below is from the article:

This article seeks to evaluate Rem Koolhaas’s investigations of the sub-Saharan megapolis of Lagos, Nigeria. The literature on Lagos produced by Koolhaas and the Harvard Project on the City has been both lauded and criticized by several sources. Less attention, however, has been paid to two documentary films chronicling their Lagos “research studio.” The central component of this article is a close reading of these two films. It concludes that the research studio is a potentially effective method for learning about cities, though what …

Resistance: Contemporary Architecture:Sustaining Identity 2, Jim Roche

Articles

Economic globalisation has facilitated a glut of ‘spectacle’ works of architecture worldwide that often fail to celebrate the genius loci of places or the divergence of human culture. With the current crisis in world capitalism causing a meltdown in the mad rush to overbuild our physical environment it is pertinent to consider once again that architecture can actually contribute to a broader existential understanding.

A recent one-day conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London posited such a proposition. Curated by the Finnish writer and theorist, Juhani Pallasmaa and moderated by Jonathan Glancy, the Architecture and Design Editor of …

School Library Facilities, Meeting The Needs Of Individuals With Disabilities, Nicole Willard

Graduate Research Papers

The problem identified by the research is that schools may not be meeting the needs of all students in typical school library environments. This research used a mixed methods approach to investigate newly constructed or remodeled school library facilities in eastern Iowa to assess accessibility to the library facility for individuals with disabilities.

Ten librarians within one regional center that had newly built or remodeled libraries were asked to participate in the study along with one special education teacher within each building. Out of ten librarians asked to participate in the study, eight agreed to participate along with four special …

The Thinking Hand: Book Review, Jim Roche

Articles

In this new book Juhani Pallasmaa continues his phenomenological exploration begun in ‘The Eyes of the Skin (2005)’, with the ‘Thinking Hand’ here proffered as a metaphor for his contention that all our senses, have innate imbedded crucial skills which help us perform the most basic daily tasks – and to create inspired works of art and architecture.

The Use Of A Multi-Criteria Decision Model To Choose Between Different Structural Forms Within Modern Office Construction, Margaret Rogers

Masters

In 1993 the Steel Construction Institute carried out an economic analysis (including frame and overall construction time) of a number of structural options, for what is regarded as atypical office building, in outer Manchester. The study was later updated in 2004 due to changes in cost and new forms of construction notably the ‘slimdeck’ system. In 1994 the Steel Construction Institute carried out a study with regard to initial embodied energy on
the same structural options considered in the 1993 publication.
This Project carries out a similar analysis of the 10 structural forms previously analysed by the Steel Construction Institute …

Substituting Residential Rainwater Harvesting And Greywater Reuse For Public Water Supply: Tools For Evaluating The Public Cost, Jennifer L. Ferguson

Master's Theses

The intent of this project is to provide tools for public administrators to implement and evaluate the cost of an alternative on-site residential water supply using rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse in their jurisdiction. These tools are then applied to the city of San Luis Obispo (SLO), California as a case study to demonstrate how rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse could be implemented to supply all residential potable and non-potable water needs, completely replacing the current centralized publicly-managed water system. Further, energy and direct fiscal costs of the alternative system are compared with the current system. A cost analysis is …

Application Of Pv Panels In Large Multi-Story Buildings, Sara Kayal

Master's Theses

Application of PV Panels in Large Multi-Story Buildings Feasibility Study Sara Kayal

The awareness of global warming along with an ever increasing demand for a new source of energy has brought a strong interest in harnessing natural resources such as solar energy. This thesis evaluates the viability of applying photovoltaic (PV) panels in high-rise commercial buildings of around 20 stories. Specifically, the thesis is intended to provide a pre-planning tool during the early design stage for architects and designers who are considering the deployment of PV panels in new multi-story construction.

The first three chapters cover a comprehensive literature review …

Green | Instruction, Christine C. Ritson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

If society shows the need for a re-engagement with its surrounding nature in order to develop conscious environmental decisions, then a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade school, with the careful design and testing of materials, courtyards, and circulation strategy, will be the vehicle through which everyday decisions are taught at the earliest age.

Problem | Statistics | 20 percent of Americans go to school every day, equating to 55 million students and nearly 5 million teachers and staff. More than 25 percent of those students and teachers are going to school in inadequate facilities where their health is at risk.[1] …

Macarthur Park Master Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

Like waterfronts and transit stops, parks leverage value in urban areas. While much recent attention has been given to the signature mega-park, the value of the small-scale neighborhood park in reinventing the city has been overlooked. Once connecting neighborhoods of differing character, and sponsoring more than 80 residential structures along its edges, the historic MacArthur Park at the edge of downtown Little Rock is radically underutilized as an urban neighborhood asset. Severed from its neighborhoods along two edges by interstate construction in the 1960s, this moribund 40-acre municipal park is left with only 16 residential structures along its frontage. The …