Architecture Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2743
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Item The Indistinct Edge: Reconnecting Experience in Nature and Architecture(2016) Bender, Matthew David; Abrams, Michael; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores how architectures sense of place is rooted in the natural environment. The built environment has been constructed to protect and sustain human culture from the weathering of nature. Separating experience from the natural environment removes a sense of place and belonging in the natural and reinforces architectural dominance. This separation distinguishes the natural world as an article of spectacle and gives the human experience an unnatural voyeurship to natural changes. By examining the fusion of architectural and natural edges this thesis analyzes how the human experience can reconnect with a naturalistic sense of place through architecture, blending the finite edge where architecture maintains nature, and adapting buildings to the cycles of the environment. Removing dominance of man-made spaces and replacing them with the cohabitation of the edge between built and natural forms.Item Infusing Wellness: Eastern Traditions in the Western Context(2013) James, Khara; Eisenbach, Ronit; Simon, Madlen; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Wellness is defined as an optimal state of health in the mind, body, and spirit. This state is achieved through a balance of energy found in all things, including the human body. Eastern Traditions support the notion that this energy is governed by the elements of nature. Eastern architects such as Tadao Ando and Geoffrey Bawa offer lessons on how design connects humans to nature and appeals to our sense of well-being. This thesis builds on the implications of both Eastern health and design traditions to develop a building typology in the West that promotes healing in our underserved communities. It aims to heal and educate people by providing spaces for healthy, natural and preventative activities. It explores a process of design for well-being in which the users experience the healing qualities of nature in a space. The resulting wellness center acts as a threshold into nature natural environment.Item Nature, Culture, Craft: Re-thinking the National Park Visitor Experience(2012) Rubenstein, Michele L.; Eisenbach, Ronit; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores the role that architecture might play in the experience of wilderness. This case study focuses specifically on how architecture in the National Parks serves as a threshold to nature. The National Park building tradition began in the 19th century with the grand lodges of the west sponsored by the railroad. With the advent of the automobile, the visitor center typology was developed and the architecture shifted to focus on personal visitor needs. This project attempts to demonstrate how the architecture of an Interpretive Center can provide a destination and launching point into the National Parks. By combining ideas of a "traditional" visitor center with a science and research component, the program can become both educational and participatory. This thesis proposes a design in Apgar Village in Glacier National Park. The design reaches beyond the confines of the Interpretive Center complex to create connections throughout the landscape helping to strengthen Apgar Village as a place.