Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

An Evidence-Based Approach To Designing Low-Income Housing Communities, Kaitlin Ward

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In the field of interior design, functionality and aesthetics are combined to create spaces that are beautiful, but also serve a variety of purposes. Broadly categorized into residential and commercial sectors, interior design considers the health and wellness of users in a space, and strives to improve the standard of living. Quality interior design is often treated as a luxury afforded only to the wealthy, although the field can and should be applied to benefit a wider demographic. Intelligent design and space planning can be used as a tool for community-building, especially among populations often overlooked due to reasons such …

Migrant Archives, Byronaé Lewis

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Migrant Archive is the cultural exploration of what design can be when it intertwines with the depth of ethnographic narratives . No longer allowing stationary boundaries to define where a culture begins and ends, as the space explores the migration patterns between divisions of each neighborhood within a city. The migrant hub works to capture and drop-off memory relics to tell the history of each region. The focus is to understand a culture through design while celebrating the positive and negative aspects within the past that have influenced the current moments.

Coda - Sound Urbanism, Michael Phaff

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The interstate connector was once a really exciting and cutting edge concept for Atlanta. It celebrated a vehicular lifestyle and addressed movement in and around the city with the development of I-75, I-85, and I-285. The lack of connectivity in the Midtown area is divisive as it limits travel from one side of the Connector to the other and ruins the local atmosphere and exchange of ideas. Connecting across this sixteen lane barrier is imperative to the future success of the city of Atlanta. As society moves towards a more sustainable environment focused in pedestrian and public transit, the city …

Coda - Determining The Sounding Chamber, Michael Phaff

KSU Journey Honors College Capstones and Theses

This research is in direct relation to the accompanied thesis proposal conducted within the Department of Architecture by author, Michael Phaff, under the guidance of thesis Advisor, Marietta Monaghan. Upon examining local problems with urban fabric, a site and a cause to resolve has been identified. Examining the urban disconnect and architecturally related history and projects, this capstone addresses a condition not yet publicly identified of the site, sound quality of the pedestrian experience in a high traffic environment. Studies show increased health problems of residents living in close proximity to high traffic environments. The goal of this research is …

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 …

Provenance Of Place And Past: Designing A Bathhouse For Charlottesville (Online), Maya Chandler

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Site, to an architect, should comprise not only the topographical and physical markers of the place, but also the cultural, historical, atmospheric, ritualistic, or intangible qualities of place. New projects ask us to examine what has preceded the proposed architecture and invite it into the work that we place on a site—not ignoring the past, mowing it down, or covering it up—but allowing it to point us in the direction of an architectural intervention. This project redesigns the historic Albemarle County Jail in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, into a bathhouse. The place-based bathhouse design acknowledges several key elements in the jail’s …

Zones Of Entanglement: Nigeria's Real And Imagined Compounds, Joseph Godlewski

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

This article is part of TDSR, Volume XXVII, Number II, 2017

From the article abstract: This article examines the architectural and discursive configurations of traditional walled compounds in Nigeria. It begins by discussing the spatial and social organization of compounds in different regions of the country, focusing on the impermanent structures of the Èfik in and around the southeastern port city of Old Calabar. It then examines archival evidence to highlight the ways that compounds have been rhetorically constructed by European observers and post-independence scholars. It concludes that a more productive reading results from understanding the compound as a zone …

The "Postmodern Geographies" Of Frank Gehry's Los Angeles, Katherine Shearer

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the ways in which Frank Gehry’s architectural contributions to Los Angeles’ social and built environment have shaped the region’s “postmodern geographies” throughout the 20^th and 21^st century. Through a focused exploration of three of Gehry’s postmodernist structures in Greater Los Angeles—a house, a library, and a concert hall—this thesis analyses how Gehry and his designs reflected and affected the artistic and socio-spatial development of Los Angeles’ “decidedly postmodern landscape.”

The Shenzhen Activist Program`, Hyunggyu Kim, Jae Hyun Kim

Architecture Senior Theses

There is a gap between being an architecture student in western countries and working as an architect in underrepresented communities. Architect Teddy Cruz defines the role of an activist architect as "expanded mode of practice", and the task of "deigning the protocols or the interfaces between communities and spaces".

This thesis contends that architecture schools need to continue to embrace the widely-accepted norm of studios studying abroad and working in an international studio. Current study abroad programs tend to skew towards being touristic field trips and there is not a curriculum or programmatic investment in cultivating relationships between the visiting …

Aftermarket Supermarket | A Speculative Retrospective, Alexander Kim

Architecture Senior Theses

In the preface to Delusive Spaces: Essays on Culture, Media and Technology, media theorist Eric Kluitenberg writes that “the delusion of the new”1 pollutes our theorizations of new media. This sort of technocratic fetishization of emergent technologies can only amount to a surfatial investigation of its effects or capabilities. Architectural investigations of virtual reality and other new media systems suffer from this tendency as well. Content-based experimentation and criticism obsess over the simultaneously exciting and daunting prospects of what we can now do or make with recent digital developments. There’s definite value in such endeavors, but frankly, in the grand …

Dark Site Observatory, Aaron W. Uhe

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This project for our Architecture Studio was completed in collaboration with the Physics Department to create possible concepts for an observatory for the Solar Eclipses in 2017 and 2024.

Architectural Intervention: The Resilient Community Center, Matthew A. Baumgartner

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

In the city of Centralia, Illinois, several issues govern the city’s future, all stemming from the same major problem: the economy. To intervene, this community center proposal aims to encourage economic development and growth in the city, assisting small businesses with starting and expanding in the region.

Revitalizing Downtown Carbondale, Jacob Petty 8384880

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This abstract outlines the strategies developed for a new community arts center in Carbondale, Illinois, to help alleviate the multifaceted set of issues that are leading to the abandonment by residents and lack of new development in the city’s downtown.

Revitalizing Downtown Springfield Illinois, Adam R. Tregoning Mr.

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

Looking to revitalize the downtown Springfield area, this abstract outlines the benefits of an urban park as a catalyst for housing and commercial development. In order to combat the issues presented in the capitol city, Springfield hopes bringing people back to its core will restore the area.

The Concept Of Happy: Bartonville, Illinois, Kelsey D. Kauffman

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

While working to solve the underlying multiplicity of issues, Bartonville will need to focus on being HAPPY; that is the residents will need to actively engage in Health, Advancement, Purpose, Preservation, and Youth. The concepts of HAPPY are proposed to be expressed architecturally in the form of a community center.

Vincennes Rehabilitation Center, Callahan H. Jordan

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This project proposes the Vincennes Rehabilitation Center which will provide adequate therapy for people with alcohol and substance abuse in Vincennes, Indiana. Each person handles recovering from an addiction differently. As such, this facility will include both active and passive rehabilitation techniques. Support by counselors and community volunteers helps promote a socially encouraging environment, and a drug and alcohol free future.

Du Quoin Youth Center: A Strategy For Preventing Underage Substance Abuse, Storm A. Clarry

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This project purposes a new Youth Center for Du Quoin Illinois, which will help combat underage drinking and other issues through engagement with the community.The center will provide entertainment not only for the youth but for the community as a whole by hosting local artist, bands, poets, comics, and allowing any youth members to preform and help bring the community together.

Designing Sustainable Communities For Automated Transit Networks, Shannon S. Mcdonald

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

Automated Transit Networks have the potential of changing the design of communities. Transportation is one of the key aspects for structuring our built environment. Now that Automated Transit Networks are being re-examined, early studies integrating them into the built environment can provide insight into their potential applications.

Rethinking The Design Models Of Refugee Camps, Ruba Bdair Mrs.

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This research aims to find architectural and urban design related solutions to enhance the living conditions of refugees, and to lessen the burden on the refugee hosting communities.

Sustainable Mobility For Rural Small University Towns, Shannon S. Mcdonald, Stanley Young, Sam Chung, Michael Behrmann, Shelby Orr, Ralph Tate

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

How can all of the emerging changes in transportation affect a small rural University town? This panel will discuss the opportunities and the drawbacks to automated vehicles, shared vehicles, electric, and solar powered vehicles. The panel will be comprised of various academics and professionals involved with these new transportation changes.

Broad Street Plaza, Madison Lynn Busby, Jenny Nguyen

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Colonization To Construction: Bridging The Gap Between Ancient Chamorro, Spanish Colonial & Modern Architecture On Guam, Dominic J. Lizama

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Guam is an island in the Marianas that, over time, has experienced a rich cultural history brought about by its exposure to colonization, natural disasters, warfare and the continual influx of people and culture. Therefore, the architecture that exists on the island is one that divides itself into four distinct styles with each as a response to external forces that affected the island. By researching each of these styles, one is able to fully understand the holistic view of Guam’s history in order to design architecture that reflects the past with anticipation for the future. This thesis works to explore …

Deployable Domesticity, Daniel Hopkins

Architecture Senior Theses

Deployable homes have characterized the survivalist origins of our species, the lifestyles of disenfranchised populations, and the luxurious retreats of others. Still, a predominance of contemporary domestic space relies on the ‘permanently’ stationary and situated object. As the social and ecological conditions of our society are rapidly and continually fluctuating, we must reaffirm our association with deployable culture and expand the utilization of mobile and adaptable unit. Further, architecture must negotiate the contrasts between ephemerality and permanence.

Through speculation of the social and sustainable implications of the deployable unit, issues of flexibility, material selection and afterlife, economics, ecology, and efficiency …

A Shifted Perspective On Affordable Micro Housing, Jonathan Reisman

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that growing cities around the world are out-pricing the younger demographic from the urban fabric. It recognizes that constantly rising real estate markets are forcing millennials outside of city centers. It understands that socially, the younger demographic provide the energy and atmosphere required to keep the city alive, and ultimately believes that in order fro young professionals to reclaim their position int he hosing market, a new typology of hosing need to be established.

Such housing takes increasing urban density into consideration, and provides an appropriate dwelling supply for expensive cities moving forward. It is a typology …

Collaborating With Catastrophe | A User's Guide To Post-Apocalyptic Farming, Patricia Cafferky

Architecture Senior Theses

“Collaborating with Catastrophe” contends that architecture has the capacity to visually manifest unseen forces through design’s reaction to them, allowing people to more fully comprehend and engage the intangible. Climate change, arguably the largest threat to modern day humanity, is not visible, existing only as a collection of data and patterns in a statistical construct. Taking stock of the present day failings of society in the face of crisis, this thesis then extrapolates a potential future dystopia precipitated by man-made pollutants in order to engage the problem at its most severe. Architecture is then able to make the toxic visible …

Redefining The Constraint | Designing Control To Support Rehabilitation, Jessica Borri

Architecture Senior Theses

The concrete lined cells of a contemporary prison do not lend themselves well to processes of rehabilitation. This thesis contends that it is time for architects to rethink the architecture of the prison. When an inmate knows he is being watched, he tends to exhibit positive behavior out of fear of the consequences of any action deemed to be negative. This thesis contends that by incorporating the apparatus of surveillance seamlessly into a prison's architecture it may be possible to provide spaces that feel more open and less oppressive.

One way to generate a feeling of openness is to create …

Imaging The Near Future, Fang Fan

Architecture Senior Theses

Instead of critiquing the danger of globalization, it propose a rather positive and Utopian version of it. The role of architecture and infrastructure being ambiguous in a future world after globalization, in which infrastructure is heterogeneous and inhabits a global space.

Also it response to the issue of cultural identity in a globalized world, believing that technological interventions will not only adapt to the needs of traveling and migration for a dense population, but also making infrastructure as a space for entertainment and a place celebrates both global and local cultures in a constantly changing world.

It's Not Easy Being Whole | Reevaluating The Relationship Of Part Whole In Pursuit Of A New High-Rise Vernacular, Josh Bransky

Architecture Senior Theses

Architecture has the power to structure societal relationships. Specifically, architecture's form can bring the balanced relationship between community and individual identity, as exhibited in vernacular single-family homes, to the housing tower. This thesis plans to achieve such a social orchestration through a nuanced understanding of formal part-to-whole relationships, or "differentiated" parts within the whole, exhibited in a 300' housing tower in Seattle, WA.

By carefully balancing the relation, material, scale, and form of each part, this project will achieve this difficult whole (of differentiated parts). Mining this middle ground will produce a housing tower in Seattle, which actively balances the …

The Allopoiesis Of The Urban Artifact And The Palimpsest Of Context, Cristina Abondano

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis contends that Pathological Urban Artifacts , as defined by Aldo Rossi, could be made Propelling through Allopoiesis in combination with the palimpsest of the urban context. The proposal consists of a dialogue between the two strategies of growth, aiming to reconnect the Artifact to the city.

Allopoiesis is the process by which a system produces something other than the system itself. In this thesis, allopoiesis is the mapping of the artifact’s underlying geometry as catalyst for urban development.

Rossi sees in the Propelling Urban Artifact a formal structure that confirms the presence of the city and persists through …

The Renaissance Of The Railway | Towards A Global High-Speed System, Xiaoyu Li

Architecture Senior Theses

The railway has shown its unique character as a mode of transportation since its invention in Europe during the Industrial Revolution. In the beginning, its carrying capacity made it stand out, transforming human behavior, and stimulating economic productivity. During the 20th century, air travel, the railways, and long-distance road networks have shared the burden of human transportation - in many countries the car and plane have won out. In recent decade, however, new interest in the railway's potential has been generated as a result of the emergence of new technologies like high-speed rail and the maglev system. Greater speeds are …