Architecture Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2743
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Item Campus Oasis: A Sanctuary for Learning & Wellness(2024) Watson, Omari; Abrams, Michael C; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The relationship between the built environment and its occupants can have a negative and positive effect on their wellbeing. Students across all college campuses experience stress, depression, and anxiety. The stress of academia can be impacted from the built environment, however, the spaces we decide to be in can relieve the stress if designed properly. Mental health support for students is a critical issue that can be addressed architecturally with biophilic design. The goal of this thesis is to explore the relationships between environmental psychology and the built environment to design spaces that improve the occupant’s well-being. The architecture embodies wellness shared with the natural and built environment with the focus on the user experience. Concepts such as phenomenology and biophilic design will be applied to design a welcoming and healing environment. The design of a spa and wellness center will function as a haven for the students and staff of an institution to decompress, relax, learn, feel motivated and feel relieved. The project will become a precedent for other colleges and universities to support their community against mental health issues.Item Living with Water: Re-Imagining Urban Hydrologies in Washington, DC(2023) Kaku, Upasana; Williams, Brittany; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Across the world, human development has drastically changed the nature of our landscapes and the hydrology of the places we inhabit. Hundreds of waterways were buried, canalized, or piped as part of sewer systems. While natural water systems were being contained or erased from our landscapes, a vast network of aqueducts, canals, reservoirs, and sewage tunnels was constructed. This massive system runs under our feet, where it is out of sight and out of mind, and the architecture and urban design of our cities allows us to imagine that the water we drink and the waste that flush down our pipes is completely independent of our waterways. These choices have had costs. Ecosystems were devastated, manipulation of the landscape has led to increased flooding, and communities have been deprived of the benefits of access to local waterways – reduced urban heat island effects, a place to cool off on hot days, and mental health benefits. Climate change is stressing all aspects of our hydrological systems: creating risks of supply disruptions and shortages and resulting in more frequent floods. Using as a test case Hickey Run, a partially piped and highly polluted waterway in Washington, DC, this thesis will propose a way to make visible and reconnect separated parts of water infrastructure - natural waterways, water supply, and wastewater systems - re-conceptualizing them as parts of a single, dynamic ecosystem. It will explore how tools of architecture, urban design, and landscape infrastructure can be used to develop alternative futures for the built environment, in which waterways can be woven into dense urban fabric, instead of being buried, in order to support ecological restoration and more resilient urban communities.Item Beyond the Barrier: The Resilience of Connecting People to Place(2022) Resnick, Eric; Ezban, Michael; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Atlantic City, New Jersey is globally cited as one of the most vulnerable cities to the effects of climate change and sea level rise, representing the socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological threats that all coastal communities will face within the next half-century. 2060 projections indicate that Atlantic City will experience up to 155+ flood events per year and 50% of the city could be uninhabitable. In leveraging the city’s coastal location, current institutions, and historic tourism-based infrastructure, the Resilient Transect becomes a framework for adaptation and growth, engaging the public and attracting an international cohort of researchers, designers, and policymakers to test and implement globally applicable and revolutionary strategies for coastal resilience. The iconic Atlantic City Boardwalk is abstracted as a beach-to-bay datum to catalyze adaptation, support, research, and participation along the transect, adaptable to environmental change and socioeconomic needs within and beyond Atlantic City.Item Memoria En Capas(2021) ROMERO, CHRISTIAN; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis targets La Union, El Salvador, specifically the village of Huisquil, a harbor town that faces poverty and unhealthy living conditions. The goal is to build a safer, cheaper, and more sustainable home alternative for impoverished communities by using 3D printing technology as the main construction method. The thesis employs social media such as Facebook Groups in the region and Instagram Polls to determine major design decisions. The homes will respect the culture by using native materials mixed with concrete to contour new homes that employ phenomenology or an architectural approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience with a focus on light, vegetation, water and air. Traditional home building methods are inefficient, wasteful, and cost much more. The 2001 earthquake, economic turmoil and political unrest has affected thousands of families and this thesis focuses on how the layered home can serve as a modular beacon that encourages tranquility and stability within the community. The technological advancements will be used in a humanitarian way to protect this community through the architecture of homes.Item Reframing Aging as Growth through Community(2020) Na, Min; Noonan, Peter V; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The human lifespan has steadily increased over the last two centuries; however, the level of life satisfaction in later life shows a steep decline. Everyone is susceptible to aging. How can we gracefully embrace the transition as we age later in life? How can we be prepared for the future when we retire earlier than we anticipated? And in certain cases, how can someone cope with aging alone? This thesis will review our cultural perspective on aging and its negative impact with respect to society that is harmful to people of all ages. This thesis aims to explore creating a sustainable built environment to alleviate age-related socioeconomic issues and, as a result, embrace aging, live healthier, and grow together.Item Public Dyeworks: The Eco-Industry and Hydrology of the Chicago River's South Branch(2017) Chorosevic, Jennifer Ann; Vandergoot, Jana K; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis seeks to redefine our relationship to the natural landscape by challenging our perceptions of what industry is. The goal of this thesis is to break down the processes of mass-production and make them part of local and accessible processes that better serve and engage nearby communities. Through the program of an eco-industrial textile facility, this thesis demonstrates how architecture can serve as a primary means to reconnecting people, industry, and nature by revealing and celebrating human activities as an integral part of natural cycles and systems.Item Landscape and Architecture: A Balance for Fellowship and Contemplation at Dumbarton Oaks(2016) O'Brochta, Andrew R.; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis will explore ideas relating to the engagement of man and nature by promoting the experiences of contemplation and fellowship. The focus will be an urban academic retreat facility to provide an escape from distraction of typical modern urban life. Set within the historic Washington D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown, Dumbarton Oaks is an active academic research institution The Institute is holistically designed; architecture integrated with its surrounding landscape The Institute selects diverse scholars to think, live, and commune within the facility and landscape for up to two years. This thesis will use the existing site, themes, and history of Dumbarton Oaks as a launching point to explore the relationship between architecture, man, and landscape. A proposal to relocate the Fellow’s residences and reorganize the western edge of the site will help reactivate this forgotten piece of the site realize its potential.Item SCOTTS RUN MINERS' WALK: A COMMUNITY OF CURATORS OF THE COAL HISTORY IN SCOTTS RUN, WEST VIRGINIA(2012) Wilfong, Kiley; Bennett, Ralph D.; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)West Virginia's coal mining history is long and rich, with many cultures intersecting with the industry. As coal mining shrank from the industry it used to be, poor families were left in the once-prosperous coal towns, unable to afford to move to find better jobs. The natural landscape had yielded to the industry, and the remnants of mining remain, evocative relics of an earlier era. As the coal companies moved on, these towns and landscapes were left at a loss for how to move forward. This thesis investigates ways to revitalize an abandoned landscape and to engage people in their cultural history. Reading the remnants and fragments of industry, and the landscape as clearings, seams and runs, it proposes architectural interventions in six places on the site that are connected by various path types meant to encourage visitors to experience the culture and history of coal mining in West Virginia.