Architecture Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2743

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    Road to Recovery: Bringing the Outdoors In
    (2023) Mencer, Abigail Brurya; Williams, Joseph; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Patients in oncology centers experience extreme physical and psychological anguish due to illness. Patients spend a lot of time in these facilities, often during the most turbulent times in their lives. Current healthcare facilities are designed around medical technology. Medical centers thrive on scientific ingenuity and innovative technology. However, through this process the wellbeing of patients is disregarded almost entirely, leaving healthcare facilities barren and cold. Incorporating biophilia into the design of healthcare facilities provides for a patient’s health and wellbeing. Utilizing biophilic design with a focus on health and wellness within healthcare design can transform the recovery of patients as they seek care. This thesis investigates how designing for a patient's wellbeing can benefit their medical experience. The philosophy for the design of this thesis is to utilize biophilic design approaches to focus on the wellbeing of patients as they receive care. This includes design strategies that include natural elements, views to nature, as well as a biophilic approach to materiality and lighting. The context for this project is a cancer center that incorporates biophilic design with the technology of modern medicine resulting in a facility that is designed for a patient's wellbeing.
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    Architecture in Defense of Dignity
    (2008) Derenick, David; Noonan, Peter V; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Architecture can help people defend dignity when they most need it. This thesis investigates three areas in which a place may offer support: identity, or personhood; liberty, or control over environment; and vitality, or sense of purpose. The thesis proposes a design for an inpatient rehabilitation center, for people who have suffered from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Challenges to dignity are not limited to health care settings, but TBI highlights these challenges by impairing a patient's own defenses and straining a family's ability to cope. Among proposed architectural elements are rooms allowing self-expression yet offering respite; luminous shafts providing for control of daylight, fresh air, and information; and empowering dining and garden spaces. Rehabilitation is transitional, occurring after acute hospital treatment and ideally leading to a return home. A site in Philadelphia near hospital campuses, but rooted in a residential neighborhood, is an ideal for a place of dignified transition.
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    PROGRAM VS. CONTEXT: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS IN THE CITY
    (2004-05-20) Pancham, Satya; Schumacher, Thomas L.; Architecture
    Institutional buildings are necessary in any community whether it is an urban or suburban setting. Typically, these are large program driven buildings that do not relate very well to their surrounding communities because they are often envisaged as large object buildings that create vast undefined spaces. In order to positively promote buildings that are beneficial to the urban fabric, institutional buildings must be studied as a contextual and space defining type instead of being an isolated object in an amorphous field. The institutional building type to be studied is the hospital because these are often large program driven buildings. The area of interest is southeast Washington DC and the site is located at the end of Massachusetts Avenue and 19th Street. This site is significant because of its accessibility and its larger impact on the healthcare network of the city.