Architecture Theses and Dissertations

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

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    Architecture Without Vision
    (2015) Nolen, Elizabeth; Simon, Madlen; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    What is architecture if you cannot see? How might we perceive if we ignore our dominant visual sense to focus on inputs from the senses that we rarely engage as we move through the built environment? How might architects design buildings to fully engage our senses? This thesis began to address that question through research including a literature search, analysis of examples of architecture for visually impaired users, and interviews with blind individuals and people who work with visually impaired people. This research informed the development of a set of principles for the design of built environments that enrich the ability to people along the spectrum from sighted to blind to navigate the spaces of their lives through multi-sensory perception. These principles are tested by application to the design of a building, a Creative Co-Lab, in which blind and sighted users come together on the Baltimore waterfront to learn collaboratively about the multi-sensory ways to perceive and create space, place, and objects without vision.
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    NATURE | BEING | CONTEMPLATION: Framing Human Experiences in Zion National Park
    (2014) Heyworth, Rochelle; Rockcastle, Garth; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    For almost two centuries, people have traveled to America's National Parks to experience the majesty and grandeur of nature. In a physical search for renewal and truth, many people turn to the American landscape to reap the benefits of nature's revitalizing qualities. These spiritual and enlightening experiences unite humans to a particular place and invite them to perceive their environments through all their senses harmoniously. This analysis will characterize the contributing perceptual systems and natural phenomena to explore new ways of instigating powerful experiences in Zion National Park in order to create a set of architectural principles that can improve the transcendent experiences in the splendor of nature. Through the introduction of a welcoming interpretive center in the Kolob portion of Zion, this thesis will set a framework for future generations of artists and architects to continue to enhance the phenomena of the park with minimal disruption.