Architecture Theses and Dissertations

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End date: 2009Subject: search.filters.subject.architecture

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    Sustainable Heritage: Retrofitting Historic Buildings for Improved Environmental Performance
    (2009) Langmead, Sara Goldfarb; Simon, Madlen; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Building materials outlive people. What we build is left for the next generation as a resource and as an artifact of our own time. This thesis explores how we can alter our existing building stock to become more environmentally sustainable. By examining the common ground between the conservation of the built world and the conservation of the natural world, we can redefine stewardship for the present age. Let our built legacy express that we value history, culture, and consideration for the prosperity of future generations. As a case study, the practice of sustainable retrofitting will be implemented at an abandoned building campus in Silver Spring, Maryland. Designed in 1927 for the National Association of Dyers and Cleaners, these buildings retain their dignity despite years of poor stewardship. The site has the potential to exemplify how historic buildings can become a sustainable resource for the future of an expanding, diverse community.
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    Community Redevelopment in Greenmount West
    (2009) Bryson, Matthew Wells; Wortham, Brooke D; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis explores strategies of community revitalization through means of developing public zones in the highly vacated Baltimore neighborhood of Greenmount West. The building of community facilities including an after-school recreation center, public market and community café will bring various groups of people together at street corners once ruled by drug trafficking. At the corner, residents will participate together in everyday activities and be watchful over these public zones. In addition to creating casual forums for community discourse and strengthening bonds between disenfranchised neighbors, a sense of regional and local identity is created through references to local folk art traditions and provisions for neighborly sidewalk loitering through repeated use of certain street furniture and canopy systems. Greenmount West will gain a recognizable identity within the local arts district as a sustainable mixed-income community with an encouraged spirit and cooperative attitude toward defending public spaces.
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    Reversing the Process; Taking a Detail to a Design
    (2009) Schooley, Zachary Ryan; Kelly, Brian P; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    A comprehensive understanding of the development of the architectural detail is currently lacking in the professional education of architects. Detail development is normally seen as the end product of an architectural design process. In academic settings the majority of time is devoted to abstract generalizations, parti development, and schematic design. This thesis will reverse the typical architectural design process by taking a detail to a design. By using the proposed Washington, D.C. `Purple-line' light-rail initiative as a vehicle for study, a framework to support an in-depth exploration of tectonic, conditional details will be developed. These prototypical details will require adaptations due to location or function, yet will need to exhibit a unifying language for the overall identification of the line. This proposition will pursue an alternative to the traditional architectural design methodology. By implementing detail development at the beginning of the design process, a deeper educational experience can be achieved.
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    inForm: Didactic Eco-Conscious Architecture
    (2008) Claudio, Angelo; Williams, Isaac; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Architecture has the potential to reflect the cultural values of a society. Conversely, an expressive and didactic architecture can affect cultural value systems. At the most fundamental level, sustainability is about being aware of our place in a larger whole and respecting the interconnectivity all life shares on this planet. Without a cultural value system that supports this worldview, sustainable architecture will eventually reduce into a style or application. This thesis explores the didactic potential of architecture in regards to sustainability. It focuses on the recognition of unique characteristics in the built and natural environment of a place; the building's response to these environmental factors; and how an expressive architecture may teach the inhabitants of the building and local residents of the surrounding neighborhood about their environment. A secondary school in downtown San Francisco is an opportune typology for this exploration. Form may follow function, but can form inform?
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    Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC: Image, Site, Program
    (2008-08-11) Fishman, Ian C; Williams, Isaac; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis postulates the design of an official Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC, following the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries. An embassy serves as its state's proxy image and public interface within the host country. The research and analysis in this thesis explores how the image, program, and site of an embassy can be used as instruments of policy to promote the representing nation's political and social agenda. The program of the Embassy of Cuba is modeled after existing embassies. Many such buildings succeed in generating social capital by encouraging public activity within and around their sites as well as fostering both local and global connections. In addition to accommodating the administrative functions of diplomacy, great embassies encourage cultural exchange. A major goal of this thesis is to adapt the embassy program to a uniquely Cuban arrangement and use of space.
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    Adaptive Reuse in Martinsburg: The Interwoven School of Crafts
    (2008-06-17) McIntyre, Kristina; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis explores critical regionalism and sustainable design through the adaptive reuse of the former Interwoven Stocking Company mill in Martinsburg, West Virginia. New programming establishes the manufacturing complex as the Interwoven School of Crafts, a learning institution dedicated to the production of functional, handcrafted arts and thereby also to the continuance of local culture. Regionalistic ideas are further explored through the development of a visitor center and gallery building that showcases the work of the artists. Nestled within the historic complex, this contemporary building is the interface between spaces, materials, and time periods. By building a contemporary structure the character of the existing buildings is enhanced by the contrast rather than trivialized by imitation or replication. By designing with sustainable principles and building craft in mind the newer components will contribute to both the character and the long lifespan of what is already on site.
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    Post-Industrial Production
    (2007-12-18) whitehill, david joseph; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    "In its very nature, successful economic development has to be open-ended rather than goal-oriented necessity has not been the mother of invention; rather, necessity opportunistically picks up inventions and improvises improvements on it and new uses for it, but the roots of invention are to be found elsewhere, in motives like curiosity and especially, 'esthetic curiosity." Jane Jacobs, The Economics of Cities This thesis seeks to explore two themes in current architectural discourse: 1. The values and ideas that influence industrial urban form, including creation of positive or negative edges, integration with surrounding uses, and the possibility for an expansion of the mixed-use concept. 2. The potential for a built environment to sponsor cooperation and innovation in conjunction with a parallel social and economic strategy, by facilitation or manipulation of expected behavior patterns, as well as formal architectural language.
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    Sound, Awareness and Place: Architecture from an Aural Perspective
    (2007-12-17) Bryant, John W; Eisenbach, Ronit; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The human experience of sound is an essential element to our understanding of the built environment. However, sound has played a minimal aspect in the construction of meaning in contemporary architecture, and is given little attention in architectural education as a source for design inspiration. This thesis investigates sound as an architectural, cultural and environmental phenomenon through the design of a small listening pavilion. This thesis has two goals: 1) To provide an exploration into the potentials of sound as a source for design inspiration and architectural meaning. 2) To provide a space that heightens one's awareness of sound, both in the environment, and within the space itself.
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    Architectural Activism: Rebuilding Lives/Rebuilding Communities
    (2005-12-21) Silber, Arthur J.; Hurtt, Steven W.; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Rebuilding Lives/Rebuilding Communities entails the adaptive reuse and transformation of mostly abandoned buildings formerly used as an orphanage and hospital in West Baltimore into an expanded drug treatment facility and building trades school. Students will experience the therapeutic power and sense of accomplishment derived from working with their hands while developing the skills necessary to rebuild the crumbling urban fabric seen throughout Baltimore's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The area adjacent to the site is in desperate need of rehabilitation and could serve as a workshop for the building trades program. As owner of the site since November 2003, Coppin State University could manage the facility and coordinate the building trades program with their Department of Applied Psychology and Rehabilitation Counseling. This department offers graduate degrees in several related fields including Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling, and Correctional Education. The Hebrew Orphan Asylum could serve as the anchor of the new campus. Built in 1876 to benefit the Jewish children of Baltimore, it could now become a refuge for today's orphans of society, those whose lives are shattered by drug and alcohol addiction. Creatively reusing virtually all of the buildings on the site would also demonstrate any building, especially historic properties in challenging neighborhoods can be successfully recycled and become the catalyst for positive change in a community. It would also illustrate the leadership role architects can and should play in determining how best to address the visual, social, and economic impact that vacant and abandoned buildings have on cities across the nation.
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    Engaging a Community: A Recreation Center for Burrville-Lincoln Heights, D.C.
    (2005-05-23) weems, traci kiku; Ambrose, Michael; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    How can architecture foster relationships and create community among people who have been largely ignored by the design profession? How can architecture provide an alternative for neighborhoods dealing with violence, crime, poverty, drug dealing, and low attainment of education? The goal of this thesis is to create a recreation center that addresses the specific needs of the neighborhoods of Burrville and Lincoln Heights, located in North East, D.C., in order to provide a safe place for personal and interpersonal growth. The larger context of the site includes Watts Branch Park and Creek, which run North West and connect with the Anacostia River and park system. This location provides an opportunity to engage the landscape and highlight it as a strength of the neighborhoods. There is also the potential to make a larger connection between the neighborhoods and the city.