http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2276 2017-07-01T11:04:36Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/19582 Wild to Wildscape: Designing the Urban Wild LaGue, Renee Urban wasteland, terrain vague, postindustrial site, urban wild and wildscape: these are but a few of the terms describing sites which have been disturbed by humans and contain novel or spontaneous vegetation. In this thesis, I investigate the literature for examples of how designers can act upon these sites such that they provide the social, environmental, and artistic benefits of being ‘designed’ without destroying existing vegetative wildness and historical traces. I organize 35 terms into three categories describing the spaces as either negative, empty, or by vegetation type. I find that most design suggestions lie along three axes: history, vegetation, and access/interactivity, along with a general principle of ‘minimal intervention.’ Finally, I synthesize the literature review and precedents and apply what I have found to a test design site, a portion of a former railroad right of way in Alexandria, Virginia. 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/19581 The Contemporary Local Market: Creating a Network of Food Distribution Shanklin, Eli William During the United Nations’ 1996 World Food Summit, the concept of “food security” was defined as existing “when all people, at all times, have physical, [social] and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. In the United States, the Department of Agriculture, measures food security on four levels—high, marginal, low and very low, with income and access as two of the major factors contributing to the problem of food insecurity. The country is dotted with hundreds, if not thousands, of food deserts—rural, suburban and urban census tracts—wherein the inhabitants do not have access to fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthy whole foods. Today, 1 in 7 households, which equates to approximately 17.5 million households, are estimated to be food insecure. This thesis seeks to address the problem of food insecurity by creating a community-supported agricultural prototype in which nutritious foods are made accessible to an underprivileged neighborhood while debunking the beliefs surrounding the practices, processes, and sourcing associated with food production and distribution (e.g. “Farm to Shelf”). 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/19580 Remembering Place: Reviving the Ritual of Making Pasquerello, Stephen Michael This thesis will address the reclamation of an abandoned building to revive its historical significance and restore its sense of place. We aim to preserve and enhance the value of the building in ways that remember the history of what was there, while implementing forward-thinking program. The project seeks to create a STEAM Academy in an adaptive reuse of an abandoned factory built in 1916, known as the Tractor Building at Clipper Mill.  This building, as part of a complex of buildings once owned by the Poole & Hunt Foundry and Machine Works Company, has a strong history of industrial-era manufacturing. This thesis aims to preserve the history of the Tractor Building and enhance its sense of place by reviving the ritual of making. 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/19579 Energizing Sustainable Lifestyles Sahaniuk, Florencia The decrease in energy costs to the population of Buenos Aires has increased the consumption of energy and the lack of investment in the infrastructure of the electric grid has caused for the province of Buenos Aires to experience constant blackouts in the built environment. The major blackouts have been seen within the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, where the urban fabric is extremely dense and where the residential areas are consuming large amounts of power during the summer months, December to March, while the energy infrastructure keeps deteriorating and cannot handle the demand of energy. This thesis aims to aid the barrio of Caballito by searching for an architectural solution in the residential realm to alleviate the impact of the blackouts. Caballito, has experienced the most issues with power and while it is away from the tourist areas, it remains very well connected through public transportation and is surrounded by essential amenities that allow for a sustainable lifestyle to be implemented. 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z