Architecture Theses and Dissertations

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WASHHOUSE : A shared amenity for dense urban environments.
(2024-04-18) Langat, Noah Kiprob; Schaum, Troy; Finley, Dawn
A shift in urban living density triggers a multitude of behavioral changes. The consequences of heightened density are diverse, encompassing shifts in property ownership, alterations to daily routines, changes in workplace locations, and reassessments of the significance of communal engagement and spaces. The primary focus of this thesis is to conceptualize routine daily activities integral to our lives, particularly delving into the process of doing laundry—a seemingly mundane yet vital aspect of everyday living experience. The context for this exploration is set in Nairobi, Kenya, in dense urban areas. The project delves into the interplay between form and function, especially as building functions evolve and social functions persist amidst changes in time, technology, and socio-political environments. By examining structures that have served various functions at different times, the thesis anticipates a shift in design and factors it into its considerations.
Constellations
(2024-04-18) DeFazio, Paul A; Finley, Dawn; Marjanovic , Igor; Jimenez , Carlos
My thesis imagines a crip future for the Bay Area through the design on six interconnected sites.
We the People
(2024-04-17) Kung, Lorraine; Colman, Scott; Finley, Dawn
This thesis proposes a new type of architect and a novel approach to architectural practice that directly contributes to society. The Coalition for Equity of the Altered Environment, a new non-parisan, non-profit organization is established, and it seeks to actively involve the public in altering the environment for a more just, ecological, and civic future, providing architects with a non-commercial outlet to contribute meaningfully to civic society.
Wetscapes: The Archipelago of Houston
(2024-04-18) Gomes Raymundo, Gabriel; Geiser, Reto; Finley, Dawn
This thesis engages with the phenomenon of urban sprawl and its climatic impacts. Urban sprawl is the term used to describe the unchecked and rapid expansion of cities into their surrounding areas, often at the cost of natural habitats and resources. In this work, the specificity of the term is studied in the context of Houston. Houston suburbs comprise the city’s most dominant force in land area while being the least dense, where urbanization is a product of specific political intentions—ie. Market-driven developments. This project aims to establish a new perspective of urban growth for Houston by establishing new limits to the city. The goal is not to discourage Houston’s natural growth process but instead guide this process inwards, focusing on extreme density of the consolidated urban fabric.
Allegories of Repair
(2024-04-19) Sanders, Christopher; Geiser, Reto; Finley, Dawn
"Allegories of Repair" explores the complex dynamics of marginalized communities, focusing on West Dallas. Embracing Donna Haraway's "situated knowledges," the thesis proposes a resilient methodology to understand the intertwined context. Utilizing storytelling tools, the narrative unfolds, depicting the challenges faced by West Dallas, from industrial proximity to rapid displacement. This causes for the rejection of simplistic architectural solutions. Instead, a network of interventions is proposed, including adaptive reuse and small-scale creative spaces. The thesis emphasizes subtle acts of redistribution and reorganization to promote community care. Despite diverse outcomes, the interventions collectively contribute to fostering a new collective attitude in West Dallas.
This House Could Be A Home
(2024-04-19) Cicinelli, Cande; Castellon, Juan Jose; Finley, Dawn; Jimenez, Carlos
For an individual to think of their house as their home there needs to be an established community and collective spaces for one to feel at home. To accomplish this, I propose 8 multifamily buildings with a semipublic green rooftop and 9 surrounding public buildings. This open community invites neighbors in as it includes public spaces for social gatherings and services, such as a community center, an elderly center with a vegetable garden, and a grocery store, among others. There are multiple collective scales from private spaces and patios inside the units, to semipublic as we can see in the rooftop or laundry rooms, collective kitchens and work-study areas, and finally to public spaces that invite neighbors in, such as the community center.
Embargo
Lifeline
(2024-04-15) Jiao, Andrew Yuxuan; Marjanovic, Igor; Finley, Dawn
Located 250 kilometers from the Serbian capital Belgrade, the city of Bor has been known as the "Town of Copper" for over a century. As such, Bor's urban fabric inherits much of its texture from post-war industrialization and socialist Yugoslav remnants of a major mining hub. Historically conceived as a series of sporadic settlements, the city of Bor has since evolved into an industrial sprawl while mining for its own identity. Less than 400 meters away from one of the four copper mining pits in the region, mostly senior residents of the Krivelj village are facing increasing environmental challenges. Due to their proximity to the extraction site, ground vibrations from mining activities produced severe cracks within the walls of their homes and rendered their homes uninhabitable. As these residents continuously demand relocation to the city of Bor, an influx of Chinese workers have migrated to the city for employment opportunities due to the expansion of mining practices. Engaging these two groups of new residents of Bor, this thesis grapples with existential crises and foregrounds citizenship in the collective interest of survival via new urban, architectural, and social housing types. Lifeline investigates an incomplete and forgotten construction as a test-ground for adaptive urbanism at the threshold of industrial East Serbia which indeed is indicative of the post-industrial, post-socialist world at large. Housing displaced local residents and migrant workers from abroad, this proposal confronts the realities of aging population, home displacement, memory of land, and declares the rights to collective living through restorative and additive interventions at the border of the city of Bor.
a project for: A Mega Meeting House
(2024-04-17) Burran, Alexander; Vassallo , Jesús; Finley, Dawn
The megachurch is not a new phenomenon; however, a longstanding Protestant ideal. The ubiquitous American megachurch is the result of Protestant fever of evangelism and mid-twentieth century American social dynamics. While the American church is shrinking these congregations are growing both in number and attendance year over year. The majority of these congregations burdened by their size inhabit architectures such as theatres and warehouses. These architectural types, while well suited for the uses to which they were originally designed, are far from the physical and spatial significance of historic ecclesiastical architecture. Megachurch structures are largely unmotivated by any deep theological thought or reference, instead they simply exist as space to be occupied. This thesis reflects on historic Protestant views on worship and architecture focused specifically on the Dutch Reformed and the Puritan sects. This reflection provides a rubric with which to critique contemporary megachurch architecture as well as a foundation for the proposal of a new typological hybrid for the American megachurch.
Not Quite Walls: Soft Partitions for Adaptive Homes
(2024-04-17) Atkinson, Rachel; Finley, Dawn; Marjanovic, Igor; Jimenez, Carlos
This thesis proposes a new type of home that adapts to the resident’s ever-changing needs by leveraging lightweight textile partitions within a completely open floorplan. Currently, when our homes no longer match our needs, we have three options: suffer in place, move to a new home, or remodel. The never-ending struggle to find a home that fits has a tremendous impact on our housing stock, our wallets, our waste streams, and our social networks. This thesis demonstrates the possibility of a home that adapts to the user, letting them save resources, stay in the neighborhood they love, age in place, and indulge their creative instincts.
Wet, Wet, Wet.
(2024-04-17) Yip, Nicole Catherine; Tsang, Maggie; Finley, Dawn
Wet, humid, foggy, muggy, soaked, damp, moist, dank... taking these words often problematized in architecture, the thesis questions how our vocabulary around "wetness" can be transformed by adding productive value to these terms. The thesis explores a paradigm shift in architectural design, challenging the conventional treatment of water as a problem to be rejected or mitigated. It emphasizes the need to redefine the building envelope, moving away from sealed containers and rigid boundaries. Instead, the focus is on embracing water as a functional, productive, and sensorial element, transforming our perception of it. The proposed building envelopes advocate for a new environmental way of living, understanding buildings as dynamic entities influenced by weather, atmosphere, and time. By rethinking the relationship between the building and its (wet) environment, architects can create spaces that prioritize spatial variety over function, fostering permeability and hybridization of interior and exterior realms. The proposal suggests a departure from the static and stable conditions that enable uniformity, advocating for a design approach that begins from our bodies' relationship to the building envelope while integrating sensorial qualities and responding to the dynamic nature of architecture.
Urban Agriculture Research Center: Innovate & Reconnect
(2024-04-18) Gil Rivas, Dante R; Castellón, Juan José; Finley, Dawn
Food is the common thread that binds us all. People once had a direct connection and understanding of the intricate process of farming. Today, urbanization, technology, and the complex web of transportation logistics have obscured our understanding of this process. Many consumers only encounter food in commercialized institutions as finished products, often unaware of its origin or the technologies and dedicated individuals responsible for bringing it to our tables. The thesis explores a crucial but undervalued program typology that plays a role in our everyday lives behind the scenes: agriculture research labs. This exploration focuses on the role of agriculture research scientists and their invaluable contributions to society. The importance of these labs and the scientists' work is that they find new and innovative solutions to agricultural problems. The thesis questions how architecture can bridge the gap between people, scientists, food knowledge, and emerging technologies. The design proposal focuses on improving the quality of the spaces for the researchers while providing a dynamic learning environment for the general public.
Towers Of Skywells: Restoring The Historical Lineage Of Collective Living For Displaced Rural Communities In Hefei
(2024-04-18) Zhang, Juchen; Colopy, Andrew; Finley, Dawn
The rapid urbanization in China has drastically reshaped numerous rural communities, where their inhabitants' means of sustenance and cultural values were often lost. One such case is the transformation of thousands of acres of farmland into a lakefront district of planned zones of dense housing, working, and recreation in Hefei, which displaced farming families from their villages during construction. The development ended in bankruptcy and abandonment of major office towers. “Towers of Skywells” proposes to repurpose these abandoned towers into a new type of dwellings for the displaced rural population through adapting a historic vernacular typology - a two-story house with a skywell. The skywell is a small courtyard that not only draws light and passively cools the house, but acts as a connector to adjacent units. When aggregated, these homes form a shared living environment for various family structures. As a basic module, the historic house is repeated on existing tower structures, creating an array of interconnected two-story units that blend communal and private spaces. A continuous band of unconditioned space ties the units together, sponsoring recreation, production, and planting. This part-to-whole relationship increases in scale, grouping two sets of two floors to form communities sharing programs in the building core. These communities are separated by levels housing larger collective programs for the entire buildings. In opposition to the principles of homogeneous density and separation of working and living promoted by the modernist towers, the project reinterprets and allows enduring values such as familial ties and communal collectivism to manifest in built space. In doing so, it amends the broken link in the architectural lineage of the region and suggests a way forward for continuing the cultural heritage of collective living for the local community.
Waypoint: Along the Bayou (Experiential Response to Social Isolation)
(2024-04-18) DeBartolo, Samuel David; Jimenez, Carlos; Finley, Dawn
My thesis is a response to recent distressing health statistics of the world's social culture. The architecture aims to demonstrate the need for an integral waypoint along the bayou. Proposing a place of sanctuary for locals and visitors to seek solace, reflection, and connection within an episodic experience of material, light, and water. A non-profit foundation has been working to encourage increased community connection throughout Houston during the last decade has recently been given land for the establishment of a center for their mission. A federal grant, in addition to other private funding has allowed this non-profit foundation to propose a new type for the city. Situated in the margin of the buffalo bayou, nestled on the south side of Allen Parkway, in a concave curve of the street rests a sanctuary for the social connection of Houston's public. Beginning as a contemplation of phenomenal qualities and space through light experiences and material encounters, this work has evolved into a responsive dissection into the nature of the social structures of the city and our culture’s view on togetherness. Distressing health statistics of the world's social engagement has prompted rapid response from political organizations across the world. Mainstream market responses to social spaces are no longer sufficient hubs of our cities. It seems the world’s investment in suburbs, highways, digital landscapes, and practices of escapism have led to a generation of socially divided individuals. The response is to invest in enduring accessible public infrastructure projects to shape our world for the better. This project, emerging from an understanding of the profound effects of our built environment on social health, transcends the traditional concept of public space. It is not merely a sanctuary but a holistic experience that interweaves nature, reflection, community, accessibility, and resilience into the fabric of Houston's urban landscape. Nature - A connection to nature is vital to the flourishing of human activity. Our built environment must facilitate connections between the phenomena of nature and human experience, both in solitude and community. Situated along the verdant bayou this project operates as a waypoint along an experience with nature. The architecture extends towards the local environment in a purposeful embrace. Experiences of material and light phenomena become invaluable in this context. Sited within an existing flood plain, the grounds operate as a retention basin with the architecture appearing to float above, this offers a platform by which to view and experience the flood waters. When unflooded, the grounds are open to gatherings, picnics, and incidental social encounters. Reflection - the nature of the project straddles a balance between encouraging socialization of persons while also reinforcing the need for solitude. The work offers alcoves, nooks, and edges by which to exist by oneself. Even the large gathering spaces are often contrasted by a necessary private space by which to reflect and find balance. The work is designed to offer rest. This can be accomplished for some through social interaction, but accomplished by others through peaceful solitude or even quiet people-watching. The work harnesses an intentional pluralistic response to the varied nature of people’s social dispositions. The alignment of window openings lends itself to the wonder of watching the narratives of others' lives unfold in beautiful harmonies. This reflective nature is also embodied in the works’ responsiveness to light which reflects on the subtly moving waters and dances on the ceiling above. Community - At its very core this work is designed to operate as a social platform. The way this is primarily encouraged is through gathering spaces which accommodate a variety of possible meetings – exhibitions, gatherings, performances, and events – that can be conducted in outdoor amphitheater-like spaces oriented to the north or south, or indoor volumes of a few different proportions and sensibilities. Even beyond formal gatherings, the episodic and rhythmic nature of the architecture lends itself to the informal gathering of small groups of people throughout the project. Edges and corners abound as the favored spaces for small gatherings. Accessibility - Freedom of movement is an essential element of this work. This is due to the nature of the project existing within a transitional sector of the city. The bayou is designed to be a fluid transitional experience of architecture. Persons of all physical abilities are able to process in and through the volumes of space as if continuing their experiences from the bayou. A tunnel marks the way passing under Allen Parkway and into the heart of the waypoint. At the terminus of the tunnel there is a space for people to hydrate as they continue their journey. Ramps glide in and out of the primary circulation paths ensuring a varied experience with each visit. Resilience - A resilient architecture is necessary in the extreme conditions of the floodplain. Many of the surrounding bayou facilities are board-form cast-in-place concrete. The social infrastructure of this climate-site relationship necessitates a timeless material. Sandblasted concrete offers a softness in texture, a specific experience when light grazes its surface, and a resilience to the intense conditions of the local environment. In conclusion, the waypoint emerging from the heart of Houston's Buffalo Bayou and Allen Parkway stands as a testament to the city's commitment to nurturing social interaction and personal reflection within its community. This initiative, supported by both public and private entities, reflects a larger global trend towards recognizing the value of social infrastructure in urban planning. The waypoint in Houston, with its focus on natural harmony, reflective spaces, social interaction, seamless accessibility, and steadfast design, sets a precedent for future developments. It embodies a vision where architecture and nature coalesce to create spaces that not only meet our physical needs but also nourish our social and emotional well-being. As this sanctuary takes its place along the Buffalo Bayou, it promises to be a beacon of social cohesion, a place where the community can gather to celebrate, reflect, and connect, thus enriching the social tapestry of Houston for generations to come.
The Edge of Infrastructure: Reclamation Strategies for the Yangtze River
(2024-04-19) Wang, Yufei; Friedman, Nathan; Finley, Dawn; Jimenez, Carlos
The thesis is situated on the bank of the Yangtze River in Wuhan, China, and proposes a new layer of inhabitable infrastructure responding to the contemporary and future water crisis, including flooding, drought, and pollution. It argues for an ecological way of cohabitation with water, especially in a compromised climatic future. It attempts to explore the tension between built and unbuilt (city and river), stable and indeterminacy (building and landscape), and macro and micro (infrastructure and human activities). On the urban scale, the proposal is to create a new type of water treatment system with the existing ones to form a network that would increase the water treatment ability. The integration of infrastructure and ecological factors will create a resilient environment strategically.
Breaking Cycles, Building Connections: Rethinking Market Edges in Abidjan for Sustainable Urban Transformation
(2024-04-17) Ndoumy-Kouakou, Isabelle Nora; Colman, Scott; Finley, Dawn; Jimenez, Carlos
My thesis focuses on markets in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, specifically the reworking of the edges of the Marché de Marcory to better serve the market, its people, and the city as a whole. The different elements comprising this new edge can be implemented in other markets throughout the city to reconfigure their edges as well. The ground floor of this new edge is dedicated to the market, incorporating infrastructure such as storage, sinks, and refrigeration spaces to support the day-to-day activities of the market. The first floor is dedicated to the women of the market and their children. Since the markets are predominantly run by women, and unfortunately, many of them lack formal education, they often enter a cycle from a young age. Initially brought to the market by their mothers, who are working there, they gradually assume more responsibilities and eventually take over their mothers’ stalls. This perpetuates a challenging cycle, making it difficult for them to break free as they, too, end up having their own children.
After Beaches: Designs for Unstable Grounds
(2024-04-18) Brancaccio, Anna Sophia; Utting, Brittany; Finley, Dawn
Beaches are highly dynamic, shifting hourly, and seasonally with changing tides and weather. This relative instability poses issues for coastal development which relies on fixed ideas of land ownership and construction. As a result, massive coastal defense infrastructures, such as sea walls, jetties, dikes, and bulkheads, have been deployed across these shorelines to fix the ground in place. Rather than preventing change, these fixed or fixing infrastructures accelerate certain kinds of movement, drawing distinct patterns of erosion, flow, and sedimentation into the grounds they occupy. Set in Galveston Bay, on the northeast Texas Gulf Coast, After Beaches: Designs for Unstable Grounds is a proposal for alternative methods for designing and constructing coastal ground based on movement rather than fortification, imagining how a dynamic understanding of ground could shift strategies of coastal development towards more seasonal and provisional approaches. Sediment is borrowed for the construction of temporary public beaches and recreational facilities.
Power Stack
(2023-04-21) Schneider, Michelle; Jiménez, Carlos; Friedman, Nathan
This is an urban project that seeks to redesign the value of energy infrastructure. The obsolescence of oil and gas in Pasadena, Texas provides an opportunity to critically examine how energy infrastructure might be used as a net-positive urban agitator. How might we use infrastructure as a medium for progress? By considering not only what the infrastructure does as a precise utility, but what it means in urban space. The thesis integrates sustenance, with utility. In the future of energy production, consider not having one that supplies many, but nodes of power storage and supply that serve the local context. The thesis proposes a distributable architecture with an encoded ethical ideology within an urban scheme. A store of value for energy, but contrary to current industrial zones, also serving as a value to its proximity. Gravity-based energy storage, Power Stacks, store surplus energy, which is made available in times of supply fluctuations. The energy infrastructure is bolstered by floodable landscapes that also mitigate toxicity, remediating the ground upon which the energy infrastructure stands.
Perpetual Care
(2023-04-21) Van Velden, Jane M; Utting, Brittany; Finley, Dawn
Cemeteries are spaces where life and death are rendered materially. Despite death’s omnipresence, American burial customs are rooted in outdated traditions that push burial spaces to the outskirts of our cities and the grievers into spaces of isolation. Attitudes toward death have changed radically, and we need more democratic practices and new spaces for grief. This thesis imagines a new architectural typology and department within the Boston city government, the Department of Death, to provide an expanded set of death-related services.
Dirty Assemblies
(2023-04-19) Cook, Anna; Castellon, Juan Jose; Finley, Dawn; Jimenez, Carlos
This thesis is a critical analysis of the existing building culture in Houston, including the material choices and lifespans that make up the current conditions. Rather than accepting the anonymity of construction materials and practices, this project disrupts the seemingly inevitable inertia of these norms. This project speculates about an alternative future of building working within the framework of the seemingly banal existing construction assemblies through the exploration of a case study house as a lab of living building materials, capturing a testing ground in a moment of transition. This new understanding of assemblies, materials, and processes changes the relationship between the natural and built worlds. By creating a messy living situation, we are forced to consider our surroundings and the messiness of living in the world. As this system takes over the building, it will eventually compost the existing construction. In the same way, this system is eating away at existing practices to transition to a more holistic system of biomaterials. After testing these systems on the case study house, the vision is that these interventions are strategically deployed across many building types in order to slow down the damage of construction while building up a counter-reality. I want to acknowledge that this presentation essentially shows a moment in time probably a few months past the installation. The users of this Lab House record their experiences in many terms: experiential, thermal, and maintenance. They plan to start similar interventions on other local buildings using these studies to produce a strategic, targeted application of materiality. Although their built environment has been subsumed with the natural, not all buildings using these assembly processes will be quite as heavy in terms of application. Introducing the results of the case study house into the mainstream construction market creates new methods and systems that can be broadly applied and eventually replace our existing materials and assemblies. This exploration of a transitional mode of building revolutionizes the value systems and methods that designers and construction professionals use. As we rework this paradigm, it raises the issue of the continuous labor of care and the question of who and what else should be considered in the creation and maintenance of buildings . By treating soil, buildings, and humans as equal companions, the given paradigm is no longer valid, and the creation of a new system lends itself to an industry of building care. This thesis is a stance on individual and collective relationships with the environments in which we live. A key supporting document is the catalog of dirty assemblies which details building processes, experiences and metrics from the case study house, and insight into how to move forward. It shows how to tangibly confront pressing issues of environment, material, and existing building culture. The catalog offers an accessible framework that makes us deeply examine what it means to inhabit the world today.
Cultivating Commons Adaptive Reuse of a Parking Garage
(2023-04-19) McGlone, Kim; Castellon, Juan Jose; Finley, Dawn; Jimenez, Carlos
ABSTRACT Parking garages are part of the invisible infrastructure of urban centers. Tectonic masses that are relatively unnoticed until needed. Interest in alternate transportation and urban planning methods make them increasingly obsolete, leaving the skeletal remains to assume a new identity. They are situated on desirable real estate, provide an occupiable structure and opportunities to reduce the economic and environmental impact of demolition. Cultivating Commons transforms an underutilized parking garage into a hybrid condition, accommodating current parking needs and incorporating ecological programs to create a public center that promotes social and community interaction in a healthy and balanced building ecosystem.

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