Architecture Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2743
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Item RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT IN EAST NEW ORLEANS(2023) Register, Austin Van; Bennett, Ralph; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With the present issue of climate change, dangerous flooding events will become an issue that many communities must grapple with. New Orleans is one such city with a long history of inundation. After Katrina, neighborhoods were devastated by a failure of the levee system. This caused many residents to reflect on the viability of a city in constant danger of flooding. Investigating how communities in the past handled flooding events will help inform a path forward. The Louisiana region has a rich history of building vernaculars and settlement patterns. Comparing the strategies used by deltaic communities that share similar issues to New Orleans can inform a settlement pattern that addresses the unique challenges that the city faces. This thesis aims to create a neighborhood plan that addresses the unique climatic factors of East New Orleans, while creating a more cohesive community within the disjointed settlements.Item Our Wild: Architecture Catalyzing Ecological Revitalization of the Potomac(2018) Morris, Jake Sharlin; Williams, Brittany; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As the global environment becomes increasingly unstable, our role in the ecosystem has become more critical than ever. By becoming stewards of the environment we can ensure a healthy world for future generations of humans and wildlife alike. This thesis will focus on the Potomac River ecosystem and how a center for conservation and wildlife rehabilitation can engage and educate the public with the ecosystem they rely upon so heavily. Architecture defines our physical environment yet its influence is not bound to humanity, rather it has a defining role and impact on the greater ecosystem. Developing a design that works to remediate its site while simultaneously instilling a sense of environmental empathy on a communal scale can successfully begin the imperative process of revitalizing the Potomac River.Item The New Jersey Meadowlands: Inhabiting an Urban Wilderness(2016) Sendner, Karen; Tilghman, James W; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The New Jersey Meadowlands is a thirty square mile industrial wetland between New York City and the commercial district of East Rutherford, NJ. The place is both strange and fascinating; many mysteries are hidden between the reed grasses and scattered garbage. Often exposed to subjectivity, the Meadowlands is commonly perceived as a weird, polluted, industrial, and even an other-worldly space; few know its beauty. These differing perceptions create a challenge when thinking of a cohesive identity and sense of place in the marsh. Over time, the once pure landscape has suffered from infrastructural slices, illegal dumping, and environmental abuse, resulting in fragmented land areas along the Hackensack River’s edge. This thesis explores how to inhabit an ecologically devalued and residual landscape through ideas of place-making and re-connecting communities. Investigating the paradox of this massive urban landscape and capitalizing on the ecological and educational potential of the site, lends also to a challenge of converging modern and forgotten life. Designing a place-based ecological research community within this currently placeless environment, will engage the public, re-connect lost communities, and bring a sense of renewal to the marsh.Item Designing to Engage Users in Sustainable Buildings(2015) Grzywa, Ashley; Draper, Powel; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis is an investigation of how buildings can be designed to encourage pro-environmental behavior by engaging users in a sustainable built environment. By engaging users in sustainability building design can reestablish a cultural understanding of humanity’s interdependence with the natural environment. The basis for investigation is a brief analysis of how cultural perceptions of the natural environment have changed over time and an understanding of what motivates pro-environmental behavior. Understanding of the types of work done and spaces used by building occupants throughout a work day informs opportunities for user engagement in the production, consumption, recycling and monitoring of energy, water and waste. Insights revealed through this research culminate in a design proposal for an office building that integrates user engagement with sustainable building performance and puts us on a path toward cultural transition to sustainable behavior and symbiosis with the natural environment.