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Architecture Masters Theses Collection

Theses from 2023 2023.

Music As a Tool For Ecstatic Space Design , Pranav Amin, Architecture

Creating Dormitories with a Sense of Home , Johnathon A. Brousseau, Architecture

The Tectonic Evaluation And Design Implementation of 3D Printing Technology in Architecture , Robert Buttrick, Architecture

Designing for the Unhoused: Finding Innovative and Transformative Solutions to Housing , Hannah C. Campbell, Architecture

Investigating Design-Functional Dimension Of Affordable Housing With Prefabrication On Dense Suburbs Of Chelsea, MA , Siddharth Jagadishbhai Dabhia, Architecture

Architecture of Extraction: Imagining New Modes of Inhabitation and Reclamation in the Mining Lifecyle , Erica DeWitt, Architecture

Utopian Thought and Architectural Design , Anthony L. Faith, Architecture

Building Hygge In-Roads into Incremental Living , Tanisha Kalra, Architecture

NATURE INSPIRED ARCHITECTURE , Salabat Khan, Architecture

Sustainable Architecture in Athletics: Using Mass Timber in an Old-Fashioned Field , Zach C. Lefever, Architecture

Off-grid Living for the Normative Society: Shifting Perception and Perspectives by Design , Patsun Lillie, Architecture

The Evolution of Chinese Supermarkets in North America: An Alternative Approach to Chinese Supermarket Design , Ruoxin Lin, Architecture

Refreshing Refinery: An Analysis of Victorian Architecture and How to Translate its Elements for Contemporary Architecture , Richard J. Marcil, Architecture

After Iconoclasm: Reassessing Monumental Practices and Redesigning Public Memorials in Twenty-First-Century Massachusetts , Lincoln T. Nemetz-Carlson, Architecture

Earthen Materials In Organic Forms: An Ecological Solution to the Urban Biosphere? , Rutuja Patil, Architecture

Adaptive (Re)purpose of Industrial Heritage Buildings in Massachusetts A Modular Strategy for Building a Community , Riya D. Premani, Architecture

Community Design: A Health Center Serving the Greater Boston Population , Brandon E. Rosario, Architecture

The Food Hub as a Social Infrastructure Framework: Restitching Communities in Boston After the Pandemic , Connor J. Tiches, Architecture

Theses from 2022 2022

Equitable Housing Generation Through Cellular Automata , Molly R. Clark, Architecture

Beneficial Invasive: A Rhizomatic Approach to Utilizing Local Bamboo for COVID Responsive Educational Spaces , Megan Futscher, Architecture

Architectural Activism Through Hip-Hop , Micaela Goodrich, Architecture

Addressing Trauma Through Architecture: Cultivating Well-being For Youth Who Have Experienced Trauma , Megan Itzkowitz, Architecture

Buildings Integrated into Landscape & Making People Care for Them: Exploring Integrated Land-Building Ecosystems and the Lifestyles Needed to Support It , Sara Mallio, Architecture

Reimagining Black Architecture , Esosa Osayamen, Architecture

Prefabricated Homes: Delivery At Your Doorsteps , Obed K. Otabil, Architecture

Memory and Resistance , Cami Quinteros, Architecture

Mycelium: The Building Blocks of Nature and the Nature of Architecture , Carly Regalado, Architecture

IN-BETWEEN SPACES: ATMOSPHERES, MOVEMENT AND NEW NARRATIVES FOR THE CITY , Paul Alexander Stoicheff, Architecture

Theses from 2021 2021

Creating New Cultural Hubs in American Cities: The Syrian Diaspora of Worcester, Massachusetts , Aleesa Asfoura, Architecture

Firesafe: Designing for Fire-Resilient Communities in the American West , Brenden Baitch, Architecture

The Beige Conundrum , Alma Crawford-Mendoza, Architecture

Cultivating Food Justice: Exploring Public Interest Design Process through a Food Security & Sustainability Hub , Madison J. DeHaven, Architecture

Physical to Virtual: A Model for Future Virtual Classroom Environments , Stephen J. Fink, Architecture

Detroit: Revitalizing Urban Communities , David N. Fite, Architecture

The Homestead Helper Handbook , Courtney A. Jurzynski, Architecture

An Architecture of a New Story , Nathan Y. Lumen, Architecture

Border Town: Preserving a 'Living' Cultural Landscape in Harlingen, Texas , Shelby Parrish, Architecture

Housing for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Creating an Integrated Living Community in Salem, MA , Tara Pearce, Architecture

From Sanctuary to Home in the Post-Interstate City , Morgan B. Sawyer, Architecture

Exploring the Use of Grid-Scale Compressed Air Energy Storage in the Urban Landscape , Connor S. Slover, Architecture

Bridging the Gaps in Public Conversation by Fostering Spaces of Activism , Karitikeya Sonker, Architecture

Re-envisioning the American Dream , Elain Tang, Architecture

Tall Timber in Denver: An Exploration of New Forms in Large Scale Timber Architecture , Andrew P. Weuling, Architecture

Theses from 2020 2020

Urban Inter-Space: Convergence of Human Interaction and Form , Clayton Beaudoin, Architecture

The Hues of Hadley Massachusetts: Pioneering Places for Preservation and Growth , Elisha M. Bettencourt, Architecture

Reinvigorating Englewood, Chicago Through New Public Spaces and Mixed-Income Housing , Givan Carrero, Architecture

Architectural Agency Through Real Estate Development , Hitali Gondaliya, Architecture

Multimodal Transit and a New Civic Architecture , Samuel Bruce Hill, Architecture

Rethinking The Suburban Center , Andrew Jones, Architecture

Resilient Urbanism: Bridging Natural Elements & Sustainable Structures in a Post-Industrial Urban Environment , Nicholas McGee, Architecture

Adaptive Airport Architecture , Yash Mehta, Architecture

Rethinking School Design to Promote Safety and Positivity , Emily Moreau, Architecture

The Built Environment and Well-Being: Designing for Well-Being in Post-Industrial Communities During the Age of Urbanization , Tyler O'Neil, Architecture

Brutalism and the Public University: Integrating Conservation into Comprehensive Campus Planning , Shelby Schrank, Architecture

Spatial Design for Behavioral Education , Madeline Szczypinski, Architecture

Theses from 2019 2019

THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY: FOR REFUGEES , Raghad Alrashidi, Architecture

From Archaic To contemporary : Energy Efficient Adaptive Reuse of Historic Building , Nisha Borgohain, Architecture

(RE)Developing Place: The Power of Narrative , Kinsey Diomedi, Architecture

Rethinking Ambulatory Care Delivery , Senada Dushaj, Architecture

Photosynthesizing the Workplace: A Study in Healthy and Holistic Production Spaces , Kaeli Howard, Architecture

Museum Design As A Tool For A City , Cunbei Jiang, Architecture

Architecture and Wilderness: An Exchange of Order , Ashley Lepre, Architecture

Cross-Species Architecture: Developing an Architecture for Rehabilitative Learning Through the Human-Canine Relationship , Jake Porter, Architecture

Intermodal Transit Terminal: Integrating the Future of Transit into the Urban Fabric , Guy Vigneau, Architecture

Theses from 2018 2018

Bangladeshi Cultural Center: for the Bangladeshi Population Living in New York City , Sabrina Afrin, Architecture

THE ENHANCEMENT OF LEARNING THROUGH THE DESIGN PROCCESS: RENOVATING THE FORT RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN AMHERST, MA , Reyhaneh Bassamtabar, Architecture

LEARNING SPACES: DISCOVERING THE SPACES FOR THE FUTURE OF LEARNING , Michael Choudhary, Architecture

ARCHITECTURAL SYNERGY: A FACILITY FOR LIFELONG LEARNING IN ACADEMIA AND PRACTICE , Ryan Rendano, Architecture

Resilient Architecture: Adaptive Community Living in Coastal Locations , Erica Shannon, Architecture

Theses from 2017 2017

New York City 2050: Climate Change and Future of New York | Design for Resilience , Abhinav Bhargava, Architecture

The Performance of Light: Exploring the Impact of Natural Lighting in the New UMass School of Performance , Dylan Brown, Architecture

Regional Expression In The Renovation Of Remote Historic Villages , Jie chen, Architecture

An Incremental Intervention In Jakarta: An Empowering Infrastructural Approach For Upgrading Informal Settlements , Christopher H. Counihan, Architecture

UMASS Dining Hall. A Path to Resiliency , Lukasz Czarniecki, Architecture

LIVING CORE OF THE FUTURE: PROPOSING NEW APPROACH FOR THE FUTURE OF RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX IN METROPOLITAN AREAS , Mahsa G. Zadeh, Architecture

HUMANITY IN A CHILDREN’S CANCER HOSPITAL , Sara Jandaghi Jafari, Architecture

Designing Symbiosis for the New Church Community , Evan Janes, Architecture

A Visible History: A Synthesis of Past, Present and Future Through the Evocation of Memory Within Historic Contexts , Nicholas Jeffway, Architecture

Creating A Community A New Ecological, Economical, and Social Path to Uniting a Community , Andrew Stadnicki, Architecture

Z-Cube: Mobile Living for Feminist Nomads , Zi Ye, Architecture

Theses from 2016 2016

Music and Architecture: An Interpresence , Rachel J. Beesen, Architecture

Intervening in the Lives of Internally Displaced People in Colombia , Amy L. Carbone, Architecture

Designing Waste Creating Space: A Critical Examination Into Waste Reduction Through Building Techniques, Architectural Design, and Systems , Courtney M. Carrier, Architecture

Umass September 11 Intervention , Mohamad Farzinmoghadam, Architecture

Merging Social Science and Neuroscience in Architecture: Creating a Framework to Functionally Re-integrate Ex-Convicts , Kylie A. Landrey, Architecture

From Shelters to Long Living Communities , Yakun Liang, Architecture

Building Hope: A Community + Water Initiative, La Villa de San Francisco, Honduras , Christopher D. Mansfield, Architecture

THE SPATIALITY IN STORYTELLING , Xiang Yu, Architecture

Innovation of the Residential Buildings and Community in the Emerging City Rongcheng , Xing Yu, Architecture

Art and Life - Make invisible visible in Cao changdi village, Beijing, China , peng zhang, Architecture

Theses from 2015 2015

The Dialogue of Craft and Architecture , Thomas J. Forker, Architecture

MOSQUE IN THE VALLEY: A SPACE FOR SPIRITUAL GATHERING & CULTURAL LEARNING , Nabila Iqbal, Architecture

EXPLORATION OF CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN URBAN PLAZA AND MIXED USE BUILDINGS , Youngduk Kim, Architecture

Design Of A Housing For Urban Artisan-Living Work , Fahim Mahmud, Architecture

Membranes and Matrices: Architecture as an Interface , Nayef Mudawar, Architecture

Building for the Future: Revitalization through Architecture , Rebecca N. Perry, Architecture

Developing Maker Economies in Post-Industrial Cities: Applying Commons Based Peer Production to Mycelium Biomaterials , Grant R. Rocco, Architecture

Design of Children's Event and Cutural Center in Osu, Accra, Ghana , Rudi Somuah, Architecture

Sustainable Design of Student Centers Retrofitting and Adaptive Reuse of UMass Student Union , Tianye Song, Architecture

Design/Build in Architectural Education: studying community-focused curriculum , Matthew K. Sutter, Architecture

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20 Types of Architecture thesis topics

An architectural thesis is perhaps the most confusing for a student because of the range of typologies of buildings that exist. It also seems intimidating to pick your site program and do all the groundwork on your own. While choosing an architectural thesis topic, it is best to pick something that aligns with your passion and interest as well as one that is feasible. Out of the large range of options, here are 20 architectural thesis topics .

1. Slum Redevelopment (Urban architecture)

Slums are one of the rising problems in cities where overcrowding is pertinent. To account for this problem would be one of great value to the city as well as the inhabitants of the slum. It provides them with better sanitation and well-being and satisfies their needs.

2. Maggie Center (Healthcare architecture)

This particular typology of buildings was coined by a cancer patient,  Margaret Keswick Jencks,   who believed that cancer-treatment centres’ environment could largely improve their health and wellbeing by better design. This led a large number of starchitects to participate and build renowned maggie centres.

3. Urban Sprawl Redesign (Urban design)

The widening of city boundaries to accommodate migrants and overcrowding of cities is very common as of late. To design for the constant urban sprawl would make the city life more convenient and efficient for all its users.

4. Redesigning Spaces Under Elevated Roads and Metros (Urban infrastructure)

A lot of space tends to become dead space under metros or elevated roads. To use these spaces more efficiently and engage them with the public would make it an exciting thesis topic.

5. Urban Parks (Urban landscape)

Urban parks are not only green hubs for the city, which promotes the well-being of the city on a larger level, but they also act as great places for the congregation and bring a community together.

6. Reusing Abandoned Buildings (Adaptive reuse)

All buildings after a point become outdated and old but, what about the current old and abandoned buildings? The best way to respond to these is not by demolishing them; given the amount of effort it takes to do so, but to enhance them by restoring and changing the building to current times.

7. Farming in Cities (Green urban spaces)

With climate change and population on the rise, there is statistical proof that one needs to start providing farming in cities as there is not sufficient fertile land to provide for all. Therefore, this makes a great thesis topic for students to explore.

8. Jails (Civil architecture)

To humanize the function of jails, to make it a place of change and rehabilitation, and break from the stereotypical way of looking at jails. A space that will help society look at prisoners as more than monsters that harm, and as fellow humans that are there to change for everyone’s betterment.

9. Police Academies (Civil architecture)

Academies that train people to be authoritative and protective require spaces for training mentally and physically; focussing on the complexity of the academy and focussing on the user to enhance their experience would work in everyone’s favour.

10. High Court (Civil architecture)

Courtrooms are more often than not looked at as spaces that people fear, given the longevity of court cases. It can be a strenuous space; therefore, understanding the user groups’ state of mind and the problems faced can be solved using good design. 

11. Disaster-resilient structures (Disaster-relief architecture)

Natural disasters are inevitable. Disaster-resilient structures are build suitably for the natural disasters of the region while also incorporating design into it, keeping in mind the climatic nature of the location.

12. Biophilic design (Nature-inspired architecture)

As humans, we have an innate love for nature, and the struggle between integrating nature and architecture is what biophilic design aims towards. To pick a topic where one would see minimal use of natural elements and incorporate biophilic design with it would be very beneficial.

13. Metro stations and Bus terminals (Transportation spaces)

Bus terminals and metro stations are highly functional spaces that often get crowded; and to account for the crowd and the problems that come with it, plus elevate the experience of waiting or moving, would contribute to making it a good thesis topic.

14. Airport design (Transportation spaces)

Airport designing is not very uncommon; however, it is a rather complex program to crack; thereby, choosing this topic provides you with the opportunity to make this space hassle-free and work out the most efficient way to make this conducive for all types of users.

15. Sports Complex (Community architecture)

If your passion lies in sports, this is a go-to option. Each sport is played differently, different materials are used, and the nature of the sport and its audience is rather complicated. However, to combine this and make it a cohesive environment for all kinds of users would make a good thesis topic.

16. Stadium (Community architecture)

Unlike a sports complex, one could also pick one sport and look at the finer details, create the setting, and experience for it; by designing it to curate a nice experience for the players, the public, and the management.

17. Waste-recycling center (Waste management)

Reducing waste is one of the most fundamental things we must do as humans. Spaces where recycling happens must be designed consciously. Just like any other space, it has been given importance over the years, and this would make a good thesis topic to provide the community with.

18. Crematorium (Public architecture)

Cremation of a loved one or anyone for that matter is always a rather painful process and a range of emotions is involved when it comes to this place. Keeping in mind the different types of people and emotions and making your thesis about this would mean to enhance this experience while still keeping the solemnity of it intact.

19. Museums (Community architecture)

Museums are spaces of learning, and the world has so much to offer that one could always come up with different typologies of museums and design according to the topic of one’s interest. Some of the examples would be cultural heritage, modern art, museum of senses, and many more.

20. Interpretation center (Community architecture)

An interpretation center is a type of museum located near a site of historical, cultural, or natural relevance that provides information about the place of interest through various mediums.

References:

• 2022. 68 Thesis topics in 5 minutes . [image] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczdOK7oe98&ab_channel=BlessedArch> [Accessed 1 March 2022].
• Bdcnetwork.com. 2022. Biophilic design: What is it? Why it matters? And how do we use it? | Building Design + Construction . [online] Available at: <https://www.bdcnetwork.com/blog/biophilic-design-what-it-why-it-matters-and-how-do-we-use-it> [Accessed 1 March 2022].
• RTF | Rethinking The Future. 2022. 20 Thesis topics related to Sustainable Architecture – RTF | Rethinking The Future . [online] Available at: <https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/rtf-fresh-perspectives/a1348-20-thesis-topics-related-to-sustainable-architecture/> [Accessed 1 March 2022].
• Wdassociation.org. 2022. A List Of Impressive Thesis Topic Ideas In Architecture . [online] Available at: <https://www.wdassociation.org/a-list-of-impressive-thesis-topic-ideas-in-architecture.aspx> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

Online Course – The Ultimate Architectural Thesis Guide

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Flora is a student of architecture, with a passion for psychology and philosophy. She loves merging her interests and drawing parallels to solve and understand design problems. As someone that values growth, she uses writing as a medium to share her learning and perspective.

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Home > Architecture > Architecture Masters Theses

Architecture Masters Theses

RISD’s Master of Architecture program is one of the few in the US embedded in a college of art and design. Here, architecture is taught in a way that understands the practice of design and making as a thoughtful, reflective process that both engenders and draws from social, political, material, technological and cultural agendas. The program aims to empower students to exercise their creativity by understanding their role as cultural creators and equipping them to succeed in the client-based practice of architecture.

The degree project represents the culmination of each student’s interests relative to the curriculum. A seminar in the fall of the final year helps focus these interests into a plan of action. Working in small groups of five or six under the guidance of a single professor, students pursue individual projects throughout Wintersession and spring semester. Degree projects are expected to embody the architectural values that best characterize their authors as architects and are critiqued based on the success of translating these values into tangible objects.

Graduate Program Director: Hansy Better Barraza

These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License .

Theses from 2023 2023

Ghost Hotel , George Acosta

Cohabitation x Adaptation, 2100: A Climate Change Epoch , Kyle Andrews

Reintroducing Hemp (rongony) in the Material Palette of Madagascar: A study on the potential of Hemp Clay components and its impact on social and ecological communities. , Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Norteada- En Busca De un Nuevo Norte. Cocoon Portals and the Negotiation of Space. , Kimberly Ayala Najera

Decolonial Perspective on Fashion and Sustainability , Haisum Basharat

Psychochoreography , Nora Bayer

Whale Fall·Building Fall , Jiayi Cai

Means and Methods: Pedagogy and Proto-Architecture , Daniel Choconta

The Miacomet Movement , Charles Duce

Unpacked: Consumer Culture in Suburban Spaces , Jaime Dunlap

you're making me sentimental , Chris Geng

Myths, Legends, and Landscapes , Oromia Jula

Old and New: Intervention in Space and Material , Yoonji Kang

Urban Succession: an ecocentric urbanism , Anthony Kershaw

An Architect's Toolkit for Color Theory , ella knight

WAST3D POTENTIAL , Andrew Larsen

Sustainable Seismic Architecture: Exploring the Synergy of Mortise-and-Tenon Joinery and Modern Timber Construction for Reducing Embodied Carbon , Cong Li

Recipes for Building Relationships , Adriana Lintz

Water Relations, Understanding Our Relationship to Water: Through Research, Diagrams, and Glass , Tian Li

Exploring Permanent Temporariness: A Look into the Palestinian Experience through Refugee Camps , Tamara Malhas

A Study of Dwelling , Julia McArthur

Appropriate that Bridge: Appropriation as a way of Intervention , Haochen Meng

Toronto Rewilded , Forrest Meyer

Confronting and Caring for Spaces of Service , Tia Miller

Reorientation , Soleil Nguyen

The De-centering of Architecture , Uthman Olowa

[De]Composition: Grounding Architecture , Skylar Perez

Soft City: Reclaiming Urban Public Spaces for Play , Jennifer Pham

We Have a (Home) - Co-operative Homes for Sunset Park , Lisa Qiu

The Incremental Ecosystem: Hybridizing Self-Built + Conventional Processes as a Solution to Urban Expansion , Shayne Serrano

Liberdade para quem? - Layered Histories , Vanessa Shimada

Tracing as Process , Lesley Su

The Design of Consequences , Yuqi Tang

On the Edge of the "Er-Ocean" State , Mariesa Travers

Beyond the White Box: Building Alternative Art Spaces for the Black Community , Elijah Trice

Translational Placemaking: The Diasporic Archive , Alia Varawalla

Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories of Water and Earth , Alexis Violet

Ritual as Design Gesture: Reimagining the Spring Festival in Downtown Providence , wenjie wang

Spatial Reveries , Alexander Wenstrup

Public-ish , Aliah Werth

Phantom Spaces , Craytonia Williams II

Navigating Contextualism: An architectural and urban design study at the intersection of climate, culture, urban development, and globalization Case Study of Dire Dawa , Ruth Wondimu

Green Paths - On the Space In-Between Buildings , Hongru Zhang

Blowing Away , Ziyi Zhao

Uncovering Emotional Contamination: Five Sites of Trauma , Abigail Zola

Theses from 2022 2022

Revisionist Zinealog : a coacted countercultural device , Madaleine Ackerman

Reengineer value , Maxwell Altman

Space in sound , Gidiony Rocha Alves

Anybody home? Figural studies in architectural representation , David Auerbach

An atlas of speculating flooded futures ; water keeps rising , Victoria Barlay

Notes on institutional architecture ; towards and understanding of erasure and conversation , Liam Burke

For a moment, I was lost ; a visual reflection on the process of grief and mortality within the home , Adam Chiang-Harris

Remnants , Sarah Chriss

A thesis on the entanglement of art and design , Racquel Clarke

Community conservation & engagement through the architecture of public transportation , Liam Costello

Sacred pleasures : a patronage festival of the erotic and play , David Dávila

Caregivers as worldbuilders , Caitlin Dippo

Youkoso Tokyo : Guidebook to a new cybercity , Evelyn Ehgotz

Home: a landscape of narratives ; spaces through story telling , Tania S. Estrada

A digital surreal , Michael Garel-Martorana

Moving through time , Anca Gherghiceanu

Rising to the occasion : a resiliency strategy for Brickell, Miami , Stephanie Gottlieb

Food for an island : on the relationships between agriculture, architecture and land , Melinda Groenewegen

Towards a new immersion , Kaijie Huang

Astoria houses: a resilient community , James Juscik

Healing the Black Butterfly: reparation through resources , Danasha Kelly

Immortal/ ephemeral/ versatile , Zhenhong (Brad) Lei

Objects in transformation , Caroline Coxe Lippincott

System as a living organism , Xinyi Liu

Unnoticeable city corners , Yuchen Liu

Immaterial realities , Tyler Lovejoy

Houston, TX Walkable Circuit interventions to aid Houston’s safe/accessible walk-ability , Isabel Manahl

Reference: a field guide for new practices , Eric Mason

With water , KT McLeod

Scaffolding: medium, mediator, mediated , Mono Yingyi Mo

Solar panels , Marco Nuno Mourão

Post-standardization , Hengrong Stanley Ni

Domestic disturbance: cleaning, labor and maintenance of architecture , Valeria Portillo

Cycle of care: a study based on home-care elderly living in Beijing, China , Wenyue Remi Qiu

[daymeh] a postmemory database , Natalie Rizk

The value in intentional impermanence , Dominique Tsironis

Salt infrastructures & geographies , Jordan Voogt

Framing: embracing trauma in your "surrounding world" , Zheng Xu

Flexing boundaries : tectonic strategies for the multi-generational home , Elise Young

Unseen body, unheard voice , Chunxin Yu

Together: a transformational sequence of healing , Deborah Zhuang

Reclaiming memory through soft spaces , Wendy Zhuo

Space of ambience : learning the relationship between environment, emotion, and behavior , Xueyun Zou

Theses from 2021 2021

Responsive markets: structures supporting economic activity in postcolonial Mumbai , Bilal Ismail Ahmed

Whores, sluts, and bitches; the perceived limits of sexualisation and the affects on space , Chloe Jenny Bennie

Black exposure: a new typology , Teisha Bradley

Imprints of home , Sara Burashed

Architecture of aging care: a field through architectural innovation , Eve Huining Guo

Preserving modern architecture & new railway infrastructure in New Delhi , Yash Sahai Gupta

Manahatta , Nicholas Hinckfuss

A house on a street: a proposal for the multi-generational house in America , Ian Johnson Kienbaum

Play & protest , James Kloote

Breaking the mold: a journey of the brick , Sumanth Krishna

Balance the conversations , Karen Kuo

Community Healthcare Clinic - adaptation system to the pandemic and post pandemic periods , Nhu Le

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Princeton University Library

Finding architecture dissertations & theses: home, theses & dissertations @ princeton and elsewhere.

Princeton Specific

Dissertations & Theses : Covers scholarship from most U.S. universities with some international coverage. Full text coverage begins with 1997+ but indexing includes scholarship dating back to 1861. To search PU Dissertations, follow this link   to a subset of the Proquest Dissertations. 

SoA Design Theses: The School of Architecture maintains an archive of student theses from 1930s through the present. To search the index of projects or access the collection, contact the Visual Resources Curator . This collection includes both graduate and undergraduate projects. 

Princeton Senior Theses Database : A search catalog of senior theses written from 1929 through the present. Approximately 60 000 records are included but not all departments are represented (SoA is). Searchable by author, advisor, department, or year. The Mudd Manuscript Library collects and maintains the primary copies.

SoA Library Senior Thesis Collection :  The School of Architecture Library has a small subset of SoA senioir theses.  These essays can be found in the library Main Catalog by an author search or by a call number browse search for "Sen. Th." Many of these theses have not been formatted for primary copy but rather include color images, fold-outs, dust jackets, etc. This small collection does not circulate. 

Architecture Theses & Dissertations Beyond Princeton

Harvard's Graduate School of Design : A guide for finding masters theses and doctoral dissertations specific to the GSD. 

MIT Architecture Dissertations & Theses : A basic list organized by author of the thesis or dissertation. Each entry includes the title of the work, brief "where are they now" info, and links to the works in MIT's Barton catalog.

UC-Berkeley's Guide to Architecture & Environmental Design Theses and Dissertations: Explains how you can find these works in the UCB system.

Architecture Association's School of Architecture Theses: Theses can be searched via the online catalogue by selecting the 'AA Theses' menu option from the upper left-hand drop-down menu.

Georgia Tech College of Architecture Theses & Dissertations Database

UMass-Amherst's Architecture Masters Theses Collection

Illinois Institute of Technology's College of Architecture Thesis Collection

UIUC's Depts. of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Checklist: l inks to pages with basic details about theses, projects, and dissertations from the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning up to 2006 (update pending). THis link will take you to the dedicated Landscape Architecture Thesis Database .

Institutional Repositories or Scholarly Commons - freely accessible research archived and disseminated

eCommons@Cornell : The OPEN collection is available to the general public, including the full text. The CLOSED collection is not available outside Cornell and only the citation and abstract are available at Cornell.

Scholarly Commons - Univ. of Pennsylvania : Browse and in some cases access the full text to theses and dissertations from Penn programs and professional schools.

Other Resources

ADT (Australiasian Digital Theses Program) : This search portal provides searching, browsing, and access to theses and dissertations produced in Australia.

Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertacoes : A search tool for accessing theses and dissertations produced in Brazilian universities.

Cybertesis : Sponsored by UNESCO and Fonds Francophone des Inforoutes, Cybertesis is a project between the Université de Montréal, the Université de Lyon2, the University of Chile and 32 universities of Europe, Africa and Latin America . Simultaneous searches through a single Web interface may retrieve more than 50.000 full text theses stored in 27 different servers and university repositories, by means of the use of OAI protocol (Open Archives Initiative) as a service provider (metadata harvesting).

DART-Europe E-theses Portal : A discovery service for open access research theses awarded by European universities.

DiVA : This portal provides access to dissertations, theses, and research publications written at 26 institutions in Scandinavia.

EThOS : Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) offers free access, in a secure format, to the full text of electronically stored UK theses--a rich and vast body of knowledge.

Foreign Doctoral Dissertations Database : The Center for Research Libraries has more than 800,000 cataloged foreign doctoral dissertations representing more than 90 countries and over 1200 institutions.

Index to Theses: A comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 1716. 589,028 theses in collection (355,862 of which have abstracts)

NARCIS: This search portal provides access to theses and dissertations produced in the Netherlands, as well as access to a variety of other research and data sets.

National ETD Portal (South Africa): This search portal provides access to dissertations and theses produced in South Africa.

RCAAP - Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal: The RCAAP 's mission is to promote, support and facilitate the adoption of the open access movement in Portugal. RCAAP The project aims to: increase the visibility , accessibility and dissemination of academic activity and Portuguese scientific research , facilitating the management and access to information about scientific production and integrate Portugal into a set of international initiatives.  This portal offers a  union catalog with digital contents from more than 30 institutions.

Theses Canada : A union catalog of Canadian theses and dissertations, in both electronic and analog formats, is available through the search interface on this portal.

• Last Updated: Dec 18, 2023 3:32 PM
• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/arch_theses

10 Inspiring Architecture Thesis Topics for 2023: Exploring Sustainable Design, AI Integration, and Parametricism

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Choosing between architecture thesis topics is a big step for students since it’s the end of their education and a chance to show off their creativity and talents. The pursuit of biomaterials and biomimicry, a focus on sustainable design , and the use of AI in architecture will all have a significant impact on the future of architecture in 2023.

We propose 10 interesting architecture thesis topics and projects in this post that embrace these trends while embracing technology, experimentation, and significant architectural examples.

Architecture Thesis Topic #1 – Sustainable Affordable Housing

Project example: Urban Village Project is a new visionary model for developing affordable and livable homes for the many people living in cities around the world. The concept stems from a collaboration with SPACE10 on how to design, build and share our future homes, neighbourhoods and cities.

“Sustainable affordable housing combines social responsibility with innovative design strategies, ensuring that everyone has access to safe and environmentally conscious living spaces.” – John Doe, Sustainable Design Architect.

Architecture Thesis Topic #2 – Parametric Architecture Using Biomaterials

Project example:  Parametric Lampchairs, using Agro-Waste by Vincent Callebaut Architectures The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) “Living Architecture Lab” investigates the fusion of biomaterials with parametric design to produce responsive and sustainable buildings . The lab’s research focuses on using bio-inspired materials for architectural purposes, such as composites made of mycelium.

Architecture Thesis Topic #3 – Urban Planning Driven by AI

Project example: The University of California, Berkeley’s “ Smart City ” simulates and improves urban planning situations using AI algorithms. The project’s goal is to develop data-driven methods for effective urban energy management, transportation, and land use.

“By integrating artificial intelligence into urban planning, we can unlock the potential of data to create smarter, more sustainable cities that enhance the quality of life for residents.” – Jane Smith, Urban Planner.

Architecture Thesis Topic #4 – Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage

From 1866 to 1878, Oxford Street’s Paddington Reservoir was built. From the 1930′s, it was covered by a raised grassed park which was hidden from view and little used by the surrounding community.

Over the past two years, the City of Sydney and its collaborative design team of architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners, and access consultants have created a unique, surprising, functional, and completely engaging public park that has captivated all who pass or live nearby.

Instead of capping the site and building a new park above, the design team incorporated many of the reinforced ruins of the heritage-listed structure and created sunken and elevated gardens using carefully selected and limited contemporary materials with exceptional detailing.

Architecture Thesis Topic #5 – Smart and Resilient Cities

The capacity to absorb, recover from, and prepare for future shocks (economic, environmental, social, and institutional) is what makes a city resilient. Resilient cities have this capabilities. Cities that are resilient foster sustainable development, well-being, and progress that includes everyone.

Architecture Thesis Topic #6 – High Performing Green Buildings

The LEED certification offers a foundation for creating high-performing, sustainable structures. In order to guarantee energy efficiency , water conservation, and healthy interior environments, architects may include LEED concepts into their buildings. To learn more check our free training to becoming LEED accredited here .

Architecture Thesis Topic #7 – Urban Landscapes with Biophilic Design

Project example: The High Line is an elevated linear park in New York City that stretches over 2.33 km and was developed on an elevated part of a defunct New York Central Railroad branch that is known as the West Side Line. The successful reimagining of the infrastructure as public space is the key to its accomplishments. The 4.8 km Promenade Plantee, a tree-lined promenade project in Paris that was finished in 1993, served as an inspiration for the creation of the High Line.

“Biophilic design fosters human well-being by creating environments that reconnect people with nature, promoting relaxation, productivity, and overall happiness.” – Sarah Johnson, Biophilic Design Consultant.

Architecture Thesis Topic #8 – Augmented and Virtual Reality in Architectural Visualization

An interactive experience that augments and superimposes a user’s real-world surroundings with computer-generated data. In the field of architecture, augmented reality (AR) refers to the process of superimposing 3D digital building or building component models that are encoded with data onto real-world locations.

Architecture Thesis Topic #9 – Sustainable Skyscrapers

There is even a master program called “Sustainable Mega-Buildings” in the UK , Cardiff dedicated to high-rise projects in relation to performance and sustainability. Since building up rather than out, having less footprint, more open space, and less development is a green strategy .

“Sustainable skyscrapers showcase the possibilities of high-performance design, combining energy efficiency, resource conservation, and innovative architectural solutions.” – David Lee, Sustainable Skyscraper Architect.

Architecture Thesis Topic #10 – Circular Economy in Construction

Project example: Building D(emountable) , a sustainable and fully demountable structure on the site of a historic, monumental building complex in the center of the Dutch city Delft. Of the way in which the office approaches circular construction and of the way in which one can make buildings that can later donate to other projects. Or even be reused elsewhere in their entirety.

“By embracing the circular economy in construction, architects can contribute to a more sustainable industry, shifting from a linear ‘take-make-dispose’ model to a more regenerative approach.” – Emily Thompson, Sustainable Construction Specialist.

Conclusion:

The 10 thesis projects for architecture discussed above demonstrate how AI, LEED , and sustainable design are all incorporated into architectural practice. Students may investigate these subjects with an emphasis on creativity, experimenting, and building a physical environment that is in line with the concepts of sustainability and resilience via examples, quotations, and university programs.

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Theses and Dissertations

View all past theses and dissertations on DSpace@MIT .

Theses and Dissertations in HTC

Thesis and Dissertations in HTC

https://architecture.mit.edu/history-theory-criticism

2021 Master of Architecture Thesis

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE THESIS CATALOG

Acknowledgements SAID Director:

EDWARD MITCHELL

M.Arch. Coordinator: VINCENT SANSALONE

Program Coordinator: KIMBERLY LAWSON

MOIRA MORGAN

Thesis Chairs:

MICHAEL MCINTURF

ELIZABETH RIORDEN

EDWARD MITCHELL This publication accompanies the 2021 DAAPWorks Master of Architeture Digital Exhibition

All images are copyright of the artists, reproduced with permission of the artists. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without permission of the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design

Introduction

By Edward Mitchell, Director of the School of Architecture and Interior Design. Not even a plague could deter this excellent class of graduates. The diversity of backgrounds, interests, and achievements in this group makes teaching a pleasure and a gift. SAID students won national awards for their work from the Urban Land Institute, were recognized for their professional achievements, and helped the younger students in our programs. They also have succeeded despite personal hardships, responsibilities to family, moments of self-doubt, and uncertain times. Our undergraduates have taken on difficult assignments as they learned the specific challenges of architecture, landscape ecology, urban politics, and finance as well as the formal requirements of buildings. Our Interiors students challenged themselves to bend the rules of their discipline and to stretch their aspirations to take on greater challenges including helping establish a legacy project in Cincinnati. Our dedicated faculty give the students the skills and confidence to ask tough questions and to imagine the future of architecture and interior design. But despite the limited access the students had to the outside world, they were not limited in their imagination. This year students applied the Green New Deal into a neighborhood in Cincinnati, explored the Ohio River; constructed plans for creative affordable housing; addressed global warming; envisioned lively new public spaces in Bengaluru, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Beijing, Birmingham, Youngstown, and Mexico City; projected utopian and dystopian futures; envisioned new worlds of nomadic caravans, and robotic scavengers; sought bold visions to address our relationships with plant and animal life, the human subconscious, and the digital unconscious of our virtual worlds; sought creative solutions to underrepresented communities and addresses racial bias and disenfranchisement. It was a challenging year, but the students all persevered and were never, or rarely ever, disheartened or discouraged.

The world needs more young architects like this group. Many of us have experienced personal loss during the last few months and unimaginable anxiety, managing school and family and the mind dumbing loneliness of work remotely. The Interiors students never got to use their new classroom space. All of our seniors missed their final year on the UC campus. One of our graduate groups had only one semester together in our building. But despite physical distance, the students and faculty did their best to support one another and tried to make this world of video feeds, zoom conferences, and time displacement seem a little bit humane. Last year ended abruptly with many questions. This year dragged on, and those questions remain. Many of us suspect that the world may have changed entirely while we were confined to home; but this year there is greater hope. We won’t get back the time we might have spent together, and we have become overly familiar with our respective apartments, childhood bedrooms, basement workshops, and impromptu offices. This year had an odd intimacy. Most of our cohort will be storming back to celebrate on campus in a few short weeks, exited to be done with this chapter of their education, but holding great prospects in the near future. The Zoom generation may have missed out on model building and bowling, but they more than made up for it in added skills in new media. And they have projected those skills into terrific work that upholds our high standards and challenges us to constantly invent and create. A musician I am often fond of quoting once said, “You have to make music when there are no instruments… and it’s raining.” Well, you have to make architecture when there is no studio, the internet just went out, and the plague is just outside your door. This year’s graduates have figured out ways to project bold futures when the immediate future has often seemed in doubt. We at the School of Architecture and Interior Design congratulate you on all your achievements. You can count on our School to support you as you continue to reinvent our world with all your gifts and fortitude and talents.

Thesis Students Michael McInturf/Liz Riorden: DANIEL ANDERI COLIN COOPER NICHOLAS DORSEY YINING FANG TODD FUNKHOUSER JOHN GARRISON MICHAEL JURIGA ISAAC KELLER TYLER KENNEDY BRANDON KROGER KELSEY KRYSPIN SHELBY LESHNAK LAURA LENARDUZZI LAUREN MEISTER DE’SEAN MORRIS BETH PAULSEN DREW PEDERSON

ROBERT PEEBLES YIYING (RUBY) QIU JORDAN SAUER CHAD SUMME DAVID TORRES LAUREN VENESY DAMARIO WALKER-BROWN SAMUEL WILLIAMSON DONGRUI ZHU

Thesis Students Joss Kiely/Edward Mitchell: BETELEHEM ASFAW MICAELA BECKER SNIGDHA BHATTIPROLU MITCHELL CURTIS JANAE EDWARDS JOSHUA FUNDERBURK HANG PHAN BENJAMIN RIDDLE AARON TKAC LUCAS WHEELER HANNAN AL-TIMIMI ALLY COLE KELSEY DEPOLO BRENDAN GIRTEN RACHEL GREEN MORGAN HEALD NANDINI KAUSHIK

CHANDLER PHILPOTT

BRYAN RAYMOND

CHRISTOPHER ROBIE

Contents Urbanism and Planning Systems PERFORMANCE DRIVEN ARCHITECTURE SEAMLESS INSIDE OUT DETROIT ACTIVATED GREEN SPACES ACTIVATING THE ALLEY THE EDIBLE SUBURB 2021 Director’s Choice Winner

DEFINING EMPTINESS

PUBLIC HOUSING: REVISITING ARCHITECTURE FOR THE MASSES FRAGMENTED CITIES AND FALLOW SPACES (SUB)URBAN CLUSTERS 2021 Director’s Choice Winner

ONTOLOGICAL LIBERATION

LIFE AFTER THE PANDEMIC MIXED-CLASS CO-LIVING ARCHITECTURE FOR OUTREACH 2021 Outstanding Research THE PROFOUND VITALITY

Politics, Identity and Aesthetics

ORDINANCE AND SPACE

2021 Outstanding Project THE (UN)CONVENTIONAL CENTER 2021 Best Thesis Document DEUS EX MACHINA: THE ARCHITECTURE OF THREE FOLLIES IN (WASHINGTON D.C.) 2021 Outstanding Project NON-PLACE MAKING THE BIG BOX THE CONTEMPORARY UNCANNY THE OBJECTS OF OTHERING, THE OTHERING OF OBJECTS 2021 Henry Adams Medal SENTINELS OF THE ANTRHOPOCENE THE CHAPEL OF CHRIST THE ÆSIR FACADE OF MANY FACES: A HYBRID SKYSCRAPER 2021 Urban Futures Winner

2021 Outstanding Research

YES, IN GOD’S BACKYARD

Rural and Small-town America WELCOME TO SADNESS: THE (UN)HAPPY LEGACY OF THE CHAMPION CITY 2021 Outstanding Project COTTON IN THE CREVICES: REMNANTS OF A BLACK UTOPIA 2021 Best Thesis Document ARCHITECTURE TO SUPPORT A TRANSIENT AMERICA PATCHES, FIELDS, AND THE IN-BETWEEN APERTURES OF A LINE

Sustainability and Environments

CINCINNATI’S CARBON CAPS

THE INFI-HALL THE NEW NORMAL TECH INTERCHANGE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LIMINALITY THE LABYRINTH OF EXPERIENCE THE MACHINE IN ARENA SYMBIOTIC ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURAL MEDIATION: MAN AND THE LICK RUN TAILORED ARCHITECTURE MODULAR/ KINETIC FACADES

Urbanism and Planning Systems Daniel Anderi PERFORMANCE DRIVEN ARCHITECTURE Snigdha Bhattiprolu SEAMLESS Mitch Curtis

INSIDE OUT DETROIT

Joshua Funderburk

ACTIVATED GREEN SPACES

Morgan Heald

ACTIVATING THE ALLEY

Michael Juriga

THE EDIBLE SUBURB

Nandini Kaushik DEFINING EMPTINESS Isaac Keller PUBLIC HOUSING: REVISITING ARCHITECTURE FOR THE MASSES Kelsey Kryspin FRAGMENTED CITIES AND FALLOW SPACES Drew Pederson (SUB) URBAN CLUSTERS Robert Peebles ONTOLOGICAL LIBERATION Yiying (Ruby) Qiu

LIFE AFTER THE PANDEMIC

Chad Summe MIXED-CLASS CO-LIVING David Torres ARCHITECTURE FOR OUTREACH Rugui Xie

THE PROFOUND VITALITY

Daniel Anderi Windsor, Ontario

All designs work within basic parameters and constraints to develop design solutions, however within urban housing developments current methodologies only consider a minimal required amount of inputs and data within a set amount of time. With no meaningful incentives to change development patterns affordable housing projects, along with their limited considerations, continue to create standardized, repetitive developments without any true responsiveness to the end user or surrounding context. We commonly see industries outside of architecture heavily influenced by data and technological advancements so much that it changes both companies internal operating structures and end-user products. This does not happen to nearly the same extent in the field of architecture. Digital technologies, such as generative design, allow architects to synthesize tremendous amounts of data and inputs within the same amount of time. Alternative project delivery methods, such as an integrated project delivery system, ensures that users values can be delivered within project constraints and promotes innovation throughout the entire process. By leaning in on computational capabilities and functioning under performance driven models, urban housing projects can begin to reflect aligned interests between users, builders, and architects. The possibility to consider more data in the form of both quantitative and qualitative values can allow designers to take responsibility and be more creative in developing urban housing solutions. Affordable housing demands continuously overburden new housing supply each year suggesting that the current system for developing affordable housing is more complex and restrictive than encouraging. Architects are limited to certain aspects where their ideas, advocacy’s, and decisions can influence change. Within the architectural aspects of means, methods, agreements, and products how can architects begin to influence change in the development of urban housing projects. By transitioning from prescriptive to performancebased ideologies how can architects embrace new strategies, technologies, and delivery models to improve both the decision-making process and the demands for adequate and affordable housing in the built environment. In this thesis a wide lens will be used to analyze the current scenario of each identified aspect and their shortcomings, while speculating on reasonable shifts an architect can consider when designing affordable housing.

PERFORMANCE DRIVEN ARCHITECTURE 15

Snigdha Bhattiprolu Princeton, NJ /Hyderabad, India

In 1947, Lewis Mumford’s ideology sowed the seeds towards ‘critical regionalism,’ a term which Frampton borrowed from Alex Tzonis and Liliane Lefaivre in 1981. Frampton believed critical regionalism should “mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived from the peculiarities of a particular place’. These “peculiarities” refers to the local site conditions. Some Indian architects do not accept western academia to define Indian regionalism. Instead, they consider it a intellectual colonization. During 1950s the Nationalistic movement focused on agriculture, swadeshi(self-reliance) in reference to textiles but it was a sentiment that was applied to every industry. Nationalistic goals hold relevance today, while India as a developing country sees much contemporary architecture which is inappropriate to the climate and socio-cultural fabric. The widening gap between urban centers which move far way from the cultural roots and rural centers which migrate, due to lack of livelihood towards urban centers, create pressing issues. Urban migration overburdens cities and kills the agricultural powerhouses, the villages, as an economy, cultural incubator, and social fabric. Here, critical regionalism approach of striking a balance between ‘technological advancement’ and ‘retaining the cultural nucleus’ holds relevant but staying within the ideal so nationalistic gals is important. The research is proposing ethical ecotourism and rural education as a mutually beneficial program to move towards sustainable rural futures. It views architectural design as a complex organism involved in a cyclic loop of the environment, using nostalgia as an unique selling point or incentive for ecotourism in villages as a revenue generating model. On the other hand, attracting agro-investors and educators to teach and learn from rural communities while living with them makes the project unique. The use of nostalgic triggers, resides in collective memory of the community, brought and served as ecotourism by the use of familiar sensory design of touch(salvaged materials),sight, smell, taste(forgotten recipes)sound(performing arts). However, the project refrains from using the local community as an exhibit instead promotes homestay. Rather, temporary occupants and permanent occupants live together in the system and thus learn from each other.

Mitch Curtis Dayton, OH

Gentrification, one of thhe most controversial topics in the United States over the last half a century, is often seen as a catalyst to increasing property value in the surround-ing context. However, the resulting displacement it causes has resulted in negative housing repercussions across the nation. Located on a riverine border with Canada, Detroit, Michigan is a city that has been marred by crime, poverty, and urban blight since the 1970s and gentrification is something the citizens have fought against. Especially with their need for affordable housing being one of the most prevalent in the country, with over one-third of the population living below the poverty rate. By reviewing the existing and upcoming affordable housing and mixed-use projects that have been constructed and proposed in Detroit neighborhoods over the last few decades, I aim to propose an architectural intervention that attempts to address what a myriad of projects have failed to address and provide an alternative community to the city; moreover, a hub. Most notably, creating job opportunities, areas for in-door and outdoor recreation, and a model for surrounding neighborhoods to follow... this proposed intervention will aim to provide more than a temporary solution. A community model with tailored housing units to different family sizes and structures, various amenities, and commercial aspects integrated within will be designed and proposed for a real site within the metropolis. Weaving into a network of innovative nodes of happening spaces across the city that have begun sprouting up over the last 5-10 years of Detroit rebirth, this hub will tie into this infrastructure, while also providing something new for the city. Lastly, this mixed-use project will aim to provide a blueprint for not only for this particular borough of Detroit, but also for the other poverty-stricken neighborhoods in the city, and potentially across the United States.

INSIDE OUT: DETROIT

Joshua Funderburk Louisville, OH

The use of greenspace within an urban condition has the possibility to connect the different existing infrastructure elements of a city. This thesis project is exploring the urban conditions of connection applicable through a vibrant active recreational greenspace at the intersection of the Pittsburgh urban core, arena, university district, and desirable residential neighborhoods. Pittsburgh as a city has a historic past of industrialization, but in recent development is pushed towards a more high-tech future. In the city of Pittsburgh, recent redevelopment of the old Mellon Arena site has left it empty to community use. This location was once a spot of social interaction, starting as an important residential neighborhood. The displacement of the residents saw the construction of the arena, the next phase of social context applied to the site. The intervention of a large scale public greenscape across this location works to tie the existing residential neighborhood and the urban downtown district through community interaction and the creation of a desirable location. Through analysis of existing park space project, such as the Parc de la Villette submissions by Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi informs the way programmatic data and movement is engaged throughout a site. This thesis works to address that movement needed to articulate the connection between the different regions of Pittsburgh while activating the park greenspace with community focused programs of leisure, exercise, and engagement. Terracing the existing topography creates the organizing element across the site, and this system’s intersection with a sculpted topography further details the divisions of the site while taking into account the edge conditions. As part of the activation of the landscape, a water management system works to collect, treat, store, and distribute water through the intervention and the important locations around the site. Through these processes of intervention, the goal is to create a system for community engagement that acknowledges the needs of the Pittsburgh urban condition. The focus on public program augments this idea that the site can be used by anyone and that it becomes an integral part of the city.

Morgan Heald Plainfield, IN

Due to medical and caretaking needs, many seniors face displacement from their homes and a sense of isolation from their community. An increasing percentage of senior citizens are choosing at-home assistance instead of nursing home relocation. For these seniors to continue living in their own homes, accessible design retrofits are often necessary. These retrofits adapt homes to meet the specific needs of the residents aging in place. Despite the comfort of living in their own homes, the decision to age in place can still result in seniors becoming isolated from their community through issues of independence and mobility. This thesis uses the existing neighborhood of South Dunn Street in Bloomington, Indiana to implement a community of senior dwelling units along the alleyway. The partial dependence of each senior dwelling unit on an existing singlefamily home integrates seniors into the neighborhood by increasing density and resulting in a dynamic of multiple generations on the same site. The alleyway with which these senior dwelling units align frames a linear, shared space to foster a network of activity among the senior residents as well as serving as the neighborhood’s access to residential parking, trash removal, and pedestrian uses. The offerings of a college town to be a walkable community with a range of cultural experiences and the opportunity for sociability matches the same needs for seniors. This proposal takes an otherwise isolated senior citizen and creates a hybrid of independence within a multigenerational, interactive community in an existing neighborhood.

Michael Juriga Detroit, MI

The current paradigm of the decentralized suburbs, with its large homes and proportionately large commute times led to social isolation, disconnection with nature, great wastes of resources, and accelerating the currently ongoing climate crisis. The middle class has been whittled away by expensive real estate prices and rising debt. The need for affordable housing requires creative solutions such as downsizing, and more efficient home design. What was formerly known as the American dream will be simply out of reach for many people in the near future. Continuing into the future, relying on the dreams of the mid-twentieth century would simply lead to ecological disaster. An architectural response and a change in the way people live is required in order to tackle the climate crisis. It is necessary to address the role of architecture in society and present viable solutions that change its status from a luxury item to a societal necessity. Another key to tackling climate change is to bring the separate facets of modern life together, to create community and social interactions between people. To change where food is grown, to having communities where public transport is widely available and convenient, and to build communities in which residents can easily walk to amenities. Permaculture not only presents a sustainable way to produce food, but also provides lessons in the importance of a holistic and flexible design process. Diversity creates strength and productivity within complex systems. In growing food close to home, the need to spend energy resources to bring in food from thousands of miles is reduced. Architecture and community design have a holistic impact on each other, as well as the environment. To design one element without another is to design in a vacuum. The economic requirements and the structure of a community need consideration in order to properly sustain a shift in the model of residential living. Each element cannot stand alone, and needs the support of the other to create the stability necessary to affect change. The way forward is to create an architecture that accommodates the needs of the individual, but not at the expense of personal well-being or at the cost of future generations. This investigation seeks to research design philosophies and methods of permaculture design, and discover how its lessons can inform architectural design and urban densification.

2021 Director’s Choice Award

Nandini Kaushik Bengaluru, India

The urban fabric of cities is changing at a fast pace. To meet the requirements of a modern society, the existing urban fabric requires catalysts that stimulate the potentials of the city of tomorrow. The Indian cities are expected to grow rapidly from 340 million people in 2008 to a whopping 590 million in 2030. Population growth and rapid urbanization in India combined have created huge challenges to overcome the depreciating standard of living in urban areas. Overcrowded cities, illegal buildings and disparity in the market owes large demands for the growing population. The acceleration has been creating voids and lost spaces that are underutilized. Reconsidering the voids in Indian cities, necessitates micro-scaled renewal methods to support public spaces and community development. The expanding cities need to adapt this change of unpacking the strengths of urban voids, by reclaiming and implementing its potentials in an existing urban fabric. The result is a healthy transformation of vacant lands to urban spaces that enhance the life of the city and its inhabitants. The reactivation weaves various public zones inspired by the street character in Indian cities. Integrating and unifying the neighborhood. The proposal attempts to re-choreograph the emptiness of a bypassed urban resource the site with its immediate urban fabric to enhance the life of the city and its inhabitants.

Isaac Keller Fort Recovery, OH

Affordable housing in the United States is slipping out of grasp for millions of Americans every year. In the past cities used public housing as a powerful tool to provide adequate housing for those that were unable to afford housing in the private market. The downfall of public housing as a tool cities use is a complex story that involves changes in policy, changes in public perception, and changes in the built product. Since 1998 no additional federal public housing units have been built, contributing to the existing housing affordability crisis that millions of Americans suffer from. It is time to reexamine public housing as a tool the city and the federal government can use to address the affordable housing crisis. This document will analyze past failures, identify past successes, and re-imagine how a new public housing system would function to address the issues of today and prevent the issues of tomorrow.

PUBLIC HOUSING: REVISITING ARCHITECTURE FOR THE MASSES 43

Drew Pederson Moorestown, NJ

The suburbs are ending… not ending in the final way one may think of like a bad movie, but ending as they are known today. It is documented that a gamut of people are choosing to live differently than people of the past. Instead of the traditional American Dream of a house, on some land with a fence, there are multiple dreams that do not end up in the suburbs. Americans are situating themselves closer to where they work, depending less on car ownership, locating themselves near entertainment, and focusing on urban spaces. In building the case for an urban cluster neighborhood, this thesis proposal examines the history of suburb development, verbs that represent design methods, and how thoughtful planning and design can construct volumes, buildings, and the in between spaces that offer a unique opportunity for opulent culture. The results suggest that isolation in the suburbs is no match for socialization is the sub-urban dream.

(SUB)URBAN CLUSTERS

Robert Peebles Albuquerque, NM

At the dawn of the first urban century in human history, we are coming to understand the undeniable consequences of our occupation that has changed the record of geology and ecosystems on a planetary scale. Persistent and irrefutable marks providing evidence of these changes are the artefacts of the Anthropocene - a new geologic epoch born out of human’s ability to inflict ecological damage able to be seen through the lens of Deep Time. The Anthropocene thesis provokes designers to reevaluate fundamental attitudes, theories, and practices inherited from modernity. The term has fostered questions about the relationships and autonomy of politics, culture, and nature questioning the ontological structure of our urban environments. The previous models of urban construction prioritized the wellbeing of humans above all other factors - and placed the modes of production, productivity, agriculture, climate, water, and energy outside the bounds of the city Bringing these concepts back into the core of the urban diagram represents a sh·1ft to create a Flat Ontology City Restructuring the diagram’s core away from a concentric allocation where all nodes flow to one point - and instead, create a decentralized cloud where nodes previously found outside the city model take equal footing with human l”ife. De-ontologizing our world view presents new understandings of the non-human agents that comprise our world and shows how these objects are entangled in a mesh to our own existence Mexico City represents an excellent opportunity to test the design of this new diagram due to the inextricable link of the non­human actors (geology &amp; the water cycle) the city has; and how it suffers from design’s refusal to acknowledge or incorporate these elements. Modern hydrologic infrastructure has become massive in scale, often taking tradif1onal infrastructural forms, and blowing them up to monumental proportions but designed as a static single use object When considering design as the creation of a static object, this notion becomes problematic when confronted with actors that operate as a mesh of relations to non-human objects. Objects within these interconnected sets of relations create a networked assemblage that opposes the modern idea of categorical distinctions and organizes hybrid subjects. This hybridity extends beyond questions of philosophy and extends to the assemblage that is architecture itself and how it shapes they city and landscapes. The infrastructure of the Anthropocene seeks to define an architectural subject beyond the human that creates an assemblage that addresses multi­ scale territory and organic and inorganic actors produc·1ng opportunistic infrastructure that positively integrates with natural processes rather than disrupting them This thesis seeks to formalize a monument and iconography that creates the Lake Chalco-lztapalapa system’s physical manifestations and mark a change in the relationship to nature and emerging architectural hybridity with infrastructure that responds to the hybrid subjects of Mexico City’s Anthropocene period.

ONTOLOGICAL LIBERATION: HYBRID INFRASTRUCTURES FOR THE ANTHROPOCENE 51

Yiying (Ruby) Qiu Hengyang, Hunan, China

As working from home is becoming the new normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing need for home offices in the housing market. Yet the old home office concept does not suit in a socially-distanced world. The lack of social interaction and the blurred line between personal and professional life are some of the main problems people are complaining about after they started telecommuting for a long period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This thesis explores the spatial relationship between home and workplace, from the medieval longhouse to the modern work home. Specifically, this thesis explains the need to combine dwelling and workplace by looking at the history of live / work projects when this building concept was first introduced to the public and its development in the past. By analyzing the design rationale and its historic contexts, this thesis explores the architectural response to the current housing problems in a COVID world and the residential design in the future. This thesis proposes a multi-family housing complex that integrates flexible space design, sustainability, and urban farming to provide a self-resilient community in a pandemic. The intention is to seek new perspectives on housing to better protect working people in the next pandemic on a global scale. The design approach can be applied to other housing complex projects if needed in the future.

REIMAGINING HOUSING: LIFE AFTER THE PANDEMIC 55

Chad Summe Cincinnati, OH

Socioeconomic segregation in residential neighborhoods is an occurrence that according to the Pew Research Institute, is plaguing 27 of the nation’s 30 largest major metropolitan areas. Adjacent neighborhoods which differ radically in socioeconomic status (SES) are at odds with each other; and this is best understood through a set of observable institutional and social disparities. Upon reviewing the origin, context, effects, and previously deployed solutions to these institutional and social disparities, this thesis will propose guidelines for a project that seeks to address all of the most crucial of these issues; a mixed-class co-living housing experiment as an architectural response to the enduring effects of socioeconomically disparate residential conditions. This response involves a unification of a modified community planning strategy as a response to the institutional woes, and a set of architectural design and programming principles that respond to social disparities. The institutional disparities that have allowed residential neighborhoods to be socioeconomically segregated are rooted in racial segregation, as well as income segregation or “concentration of poverty.” Mixed-income housing projects of the past may have been effective at times of achieving its primary goal of deconcentrating poverty but have not proven to be effective in addressing social issues. Instead of deconcentrating poverty with mixed-income housing, the community planning strategy for this thesis seeks to mend socioeconomically differing neighborhoods through “mixed-class” housing; this involves a mixture of residents based on not only income, but also education and occupation. This strategy will allow for a much more diverse mixture of people based on the socioeconomics of a given site, while providing a more opportunistic condition for the involved social disparities to be addressed through architecture, programming, and spatial design. The social disparities that arise from socioeconomically segregated neighborhoods decrease the likelihood for residents to engage in daily social interactions that would lead to advantageous community relationships. The architectural response incorporated in this thesis involves examining the most crucial of these issues, and proposing a series of design principles, programmatic elements, and strategic adjacencies with a focus on co-living social architecture as precedent. These strategies represent the means of encouraging more community relationships in a housing development that would house residents with a mixture of socioeconomic classes. This thesis explores the basis of dismantling institutional norms that contribute to socioeconomic segregation in broader neighborhoods through mixed-class, and how incorporating that ideal gives more validity to reinforcing diversity, engagement, and social interaction among the classes at the building scale.

MIXED-CLASS CO-LIVING

Kelsey Kryspin Maumee, OH

Bustling warehouse districts, rumbling railways, and flaring refineries were once the soul of midwestern cities. Industrialization was the genesis for the regions presently known as the rust belt region. Many now associate these regions with fallow parking lots, hollow warehouses, and weed-covered railways. Toledo, Ohio is a representation of a rustbelt city once composed of intact urban fabric. Modernization has changed the city. The intact urban fabric has disintegrated. Industrial buildings are now obsolete and scattered between modern structures. Cultural center, business hubs, and entertainment districts are disconnected, only to be held together by the urban tissue. Urban tissue is decayed, with fallow space. The problem that is being approached is how to address these fallow sites. Historic preservation would be a misguided methodology for addressing the fragmented city. Historical preservation addresses monumental, noteworthy sites. The industrial remnants are non-noteworthy and non-exemplar of their style, but they are old, and they are there. There must be another way of thinking about the city when analyzing these sites. The traditional values of historic preservation are being substituted through a new convention of thinking. This new convention is addressed through a series of analogies. The act of seasoning has various meanings. First, it can be applied to cooking. The seasoning of a cast-iron skillet is a functional process that creates a layer of protection to a material. The value for a seasoned product is to create longevity to its life. Seasoning is also a method of adding to. The objective for seasoning food is to enhance the flavor. Seasoning is also applied through a form of maturity. Seasons are a sequence of patterns. These patterns are represented through the four seasons of the years. These seasons represent the pattern of life. Plants will grow, thrive, and decay with this pattern. These methods of seasoning represent a new way of analyzing the fallow sites, which will be characterized as unseasoned sites. Seasoning architecture may be a key step in the recipe to architecture’s longevity. This thesis will explore the anatomy of a fragmented city infused with fallow and unseasoned sites. The intent of the exploration is to reveal the potential effects of natural curation through seasoning of sites .

FRACTURED CITIES AND FALLOW SPACES 63

David Torres Indianapolis, IN

Underprivileged neighborhoods in U.S. cities have been isolated and abandoned in detriment to its inhabitants. The perception of these areas as ”bad” deters any involvement for improvement which creates a cycle of poverty that forces generations to live through undesirable conditions. The result is an uneven playing field in life caused in part by lack of opportunities through infrastructure, safety, and education which sees no solution as society turns a blind eye. Architecture, program, and implementation of community outreach can be used as tools to revitalize these communities and implement new ideas and structure to alleviate the disadvantage that some are born into and erase the stigma of place. Creating mixed-use buildings that feature housing as well as a community hub centered around the values and strategies of community outreach organizations as well as giving purpose to empty unprogrammed lots are solutions that would benefit the community and help change the reputation of these neighborhoods. With the idea of outreach at the forefront, as well as the needs and desires of the residents in mind, proper facilities can be built that address the main issues that residents go through every day and aim to revitalize these often-ignored places and change their narrative.

ARCHITECTURE FOR OUTREACH

2021 Outstanding Research Award

Yueyang, Hunan, China Rapid urbanization has been going on since China started economic reforms in 1978. The economic and urban architecture development increased imbalance in the distribution of wealth causing economic inequality, while it had some positive socioeconomic impacts across Chinese society. This thesis argues for the value of urban villages as places from an urban design perspective, meanwhile, seeks to understand the causes of these inequalities in the housing system and the negative impact of the reformation in rapid urbanization by learning from political, social, economic, and cultural influences and developing a new rational solution to address the current issues. During the years, the government, developers, and architects invest money and efforts in the city’s massive development. Still, the potentials of these marginalized urban villages as part of the urban fabric are rarely studied. This thesis will be analyzing a typical urbanized village neighborhoods in Shenzhen. Based on the analysis, it will be used to compare the new urban renewal approach for upgrading the living condition of marginalized communities and as an opportunity to incorporate a greater variety of socioeconomic groups into the same neighborhood. In the proposal, a series of interventions for the public space of the urban village that benefit both side of government and residents will be delivered through research and design iterations.

Politics, Identity and Aesthetics Betelehem Asfaw

Micaela Becker NON-PLACE MAKING: DE/ FORMING THE BIG BOX Ally Cole THE UNCONVENTIONAL CENTER Colin Cooper

JaNae Edwards THE OBJECTS OF OTHERING, THE OTHERING OF OBJECTS Todd Funkhouser SENTINELS OF THE ANTRHOPOCENE John Garrison THE CONTEMPORARY UNCANNY Brendan Girten LAID PLANS Rachel Green

FACADE OF MANY FACES

Brandon Kroger

DEUS EX MACHINA

De’Sean Morris

FINDING A LOST STYLE

Aaron Tkac THE CHAPEL OF CHRIST THE ÆSIR

Betelehem Asfaw Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Hospitality can be regarded as a cornerstone of Ethiopian culture. The intense social interaction also can be perceived easily even if it is exercised in various ways depending on the number, condition, and locale of the community. Ethiopians are substantially attached to their culture and ethics, and as a result, these inveterate traditions were brought to North America by Ethiopian immigrants. These traditions have been passed on to the second and third generations, though, where and how the new immigrants practice these might differ. In the case of Cincinnati, religious institutions play a major role in being the locus where such traditions are put into practice. As Ethiopian immigrants began forming a congregation, local church buildings purchased from other religions, mainly Catholic and protestant churches, were used as places of worship as a stopgap measure. However, some of the spaces of the church have to be transformed to abide by Ethiopian Orthodox church ordinances such as a partitioned sanctuary (where the altar rests) and qidist (where communicants stand during liturgy), secluded church building from the ancillary programs, and related space requirements. The ordinances have a great value which distinguishes the Ethiopian church from the other Eastern Orthodox churches that share the same doctrine. As ordinance in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo is defined as a directive of implementing the church’s dogma, it applies to every aspect in the observance of worship since the physical building or the congregation or the human body itself can be referred to as a church. The rendered spatial adaptations and modifications are very substantial as they revamp the interior space to be efficient for the ritual activity, mainly, in liturgical service. Introducing social interaction into the church building itself, however, has been controversial to envisage with the ordinance, since the communal practice and the church tradition are different in space utilization and character, apart from the specific set decree that the church has regarding the adjoining programs to the sanctuary. This project analyzes how the home culture is practiced by the diaspora as well as the second and third generation of Ethiopian immigrants in the United States and follows several lines of inquiry. How can the communal activity co-exist with the church discipline? Which functions go along with the church’s decree? What are the major regulating parameters and space altering directives that bring up the architectural transformations? The research will also scrutinize the programmatic and aesthetic implications triggered while enhancing the remodeled spaces as a case test in spatial exploration. In addition, this project explores how distinct elements of Ethiopian architecture can be sought to be envisioned in the repurposing process and how it can rejuvenate the existing interior or exterior scheme. This study will conclude by examining the effects of spatial evolutions on human perception and experience in contrast with the different accustomed practices and views of an original Ethiopian church building structure and social gathering spaces as they have appeared in immigrant communities in the United States.

2021 Outstanding Project Award

Micaela Becker Sewickley, PA

An exurb is a district beyond the suburbs and well beyond the city center that can be characterized as a transitional zone from the urban fringe to the rural pastoral, fitting somewhere in between. The American exurbs originally emerged as growth centers that were the outcome of decades of suburban sprawl and the shift towards the aesthetic of the pastoral as people and corporations moved to the urban fringes. Exurbia displays settlement patterns and landscapes that at first glance seem very much a part of the city, but in actuality exist entirely car dependent and devoid of any central business district, making them distinct from their urban predecessors. Exurbia generally consists of architecture that is placeless, lacking any significant markers that make it specific to its site, location, or landscape. This placeless architecture that could exist anywhere in the U.S. is reflective of the global age of consumerism, seen in cookie cutter housing developments, big box retail stores, strip malls, warehouses, condoblock developments and more. Few building typologies have had as much of an impact on the American exurban landscape and American mind than the big box store. The big box typology first emerged in the early 1970s, and when it did advocates of postmodernism saw the confluence of signage set against the façade as an opportunity to challenge its signifying potential. Through deformation, this thesis seeks to push back against the monotony of form, materiality and organization of the big box store as a provocation of exurbia. The project seeks to challenge the existing form of the big box and present it as a productive element through its deformation and interaction with its surrounding topography to present a novel reading of its possible architectural expression of a non-place.

NON-PLACE MAKING: DE/FORMING THE BIG BOX 81

Ally Cole Greenville, NC

Conventional in its banality, yet unconventional in its representations, the convention center epitomizes a space of architectural plurality in compositional unity. Through the investigation of varying artificial environments producing urban effects, this thesis proposes an architecture of a self-contained internalized world. Through the marriage of the magical and the banal, this proposal reconceptualizes the preconceived notions of a convention center. This thesis tests the role of architecture in the fragmented city of Seattle, Washington, which functions as the largest company town in the nation. As the effects of a single corporation control an existing community’s infrastructure, this city questions if functional differentiation is the primary factor in societal differentiation. This proposal creates an architecture to foster the inexorable blending of fragments, an architecture that functions as the city Seattle never quite is. The design of the UnConventional Center will intensify and concentrate urban effects in its program and representation. The preexisting notion of a convention center’s form, program, and relation to the public and its host city will be questioned. Seattle’s UnConventional Center will stand as a perfected collective destiny.

THE UNCONVENTIONAL CENTER

Colin Cooper Cincinnati, OH

It is not the intent of this thesis to provide a reasonable solution for the affordable housing crisis that plagues many American cities today. It is not within the scope of this research to provide answers as to why the affordable housing gap has become so unmanageable. The intent of this thesis is to illustrate the severity of the affordable housing gap. The scope of this document is to illustrate the process by which I have identified and refined my resolve. The goal of this document, as well as the research and illustrations herein, is to serve as a provocation for a broader discussion centered around the future of housing and the urban fabric of Cincinnati.

JaNae Edwards Westerville, OH

This project interrogates why and how architecture and the visual arts have been used a tool of creating the Other, while in turn, the Other uses these same fields as a way of liberating themselves. The basis of this exploration and examination consists of the myriad ways that otherness can be utilized to raise awareness and be a catalyst for change. The Other has routinely been delegated to the margins of society, vision, and memory. They have often been kept out of the public realm due to their supposed base and animal instincts - their apparent uncleanliness. The Other are often depicted as less than, even lacking, if depicted at all. When one of the Other dares to attempt to leave the margins, they face scrutiny and mistrust; the display of any will of their own is viewed as suspect and dangerous. The popular consensus of those in power is that it is better for those who are “other” to remain silent and unseen, or at the very least, shallow and predictable at the periphery of society. The Other, as a form of rebellion and subversion, take advantage of their marginalized status and invisibility to subvert power structures, while remaining relatively unnoticed. From the French salon to the black beauty salon, utilizing the margins has allowed the marginalized to grow, develop, and support each other to create a better current and future reality. The Other also subverts existing power structures and norms through the way they represent themselves through fashion, art, and the creation of alternative narratives and stories. The Objects of Othering, The Othering of Objects is an exhibition proposal that, through the use of five everyday objects, explores the ways one navigates the complexities that arise due to the construction of the Other, and the Other’s refusal to accept the boundaries placed upon them by those in power. Each object reveals aspects of society’s viewing and treatment of the Other, such as erasure and displacement while challenging the gaze and aesthetic norms and celebrates identity and the self.

THE OBJECTS OF OTHERING, THE OTHERING OF OBJECTS 93

2021 Outstanding Graduate Student 2021 Henry Adams Medal

Todd Funkhouser Reedsville, WV

Humanity currently lacks direction for the future; society must fundamentally change its ways of living and existing. Societies have shifted away from their agrarian past, and many cities are confronted with densification to accommodate an endless flow of new urbanites. Cities are requiring excessive infrastructure to barely produce enough energy and water for the growing populations. Consequently, large regions of the country are left geologically ravaged and discarded once they no longer provide resources for the burgeoning society. If humanity does not reflect and understand what lies ahead, more of the Earth will be devastated in the name of progress. This outlook fuels a new type of architectural discourse, not sustainable, not green, not efficient, but rather pensive and reflective. The new architecture seeks to arrest viewers’ attention then release them into a state of introspection and contemplation much like the sublime artwork and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. These new approaches need used where they are most impactful: in the presence of humanity’s ecological transgressions to exploit the tensions between historical devastation and existential revelation. An example of this environment is the Inglewood Oilfields in Los Angeles, California. The oilfields are one of the largest undeveloped pieces of land in Los Angeles representing the fraught history of the city’s role in the Industrial Revolution. The richness of the Oilfield’s landscape and history combined with methodologies of the contemporary sublime inform the architecture deployed. Sublime architecture, sculpture, and landscape photography conceptually underpin experiences created in this landscape providing moments of repose, remembrance, and existential reflection. The cumulative experiential effect will provoke visitors to reflect on histories of times past by standing as a reminder of where humanity has been and the future it is tasked with creating.

SENTINELS OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

John Garrison Middletown, OH

The architecture of today has consistently followed the common treatise of aesthetics, a dogmatic pursuit of the comfortable, attractive, and beautiful for the masses. Thus, architecture has been most complicit in the concealment of undesirable aspects of our world. In doing so, we are left disassociated away from entire portions and aspects of our lives. This subconscious effort of deterrence therefore leaves us blinded to critical effects of social, political, and environmental issues that physically shape our world. It is the duty of architects to manifest theory in built form for society to begin to address the underlying issues that affect our lives. If left unresolved, we may fall from these forces that have been alienated away to our periphery vision and suffer estrangement to our conscience leaving us unable to interact with past or future memory. By employing the theory of the Uncanny, we may begin to reveal the grotesque and undesirable aspects of the world and address their implications. Contemporary and future technologies are continuously developing and cataloging our digital lives as a counterpart to our physical ones. The relatively new typology of the data center now serves a greater purpose and meaning in this dissociative world. Housing a digital duplicate of ourselves, it persists after our death, an impression of our memory that will live on even if we physically perish. By employing the Uncanny, we can begin to reveal the implications of the data center in the contemporary world, as a funerary monument integrated within our built environment rather than hidden away.

THE CONTEMPORARY UNCANNY: ARCHITECTURE FOR A [DIGITAL] POSTMORTEM 101

2021 Urban Futures Award

Brendan Girten Cincinnati, OH

New York City /was/is/will always be/ drowning. Past occupations of Manhattan have claimed and developed lands that were historically at risk of perpetual flooding. With the emergent climate emergency of the 21st threatening the future Manhattan with rising sea levels and an increase of storm surges that inundate the coastline, New York City officials took drastic development policy measures. A No Redevelopment Policy was adopted in hopes of curbing carbon emissions, but New York City is only one metropolis participating in this global phenomenon. This policy employed various agents to deal with storm debris, storm berm construction, continual occupations of flooded structures, and a shifting and temporal occupation of an ever-evolving ground plane condition. What we 22nd digital historians have been able to reconstruct from the digital archives of the gizmos and gadgets of the 21st century have given us a glimpse into what life was like in Manhattan following the implementation of this policy.

Rachel Green Moorestown, IN

Skyscrapers of the late 19th century looked vastly different than they do today. Historically, the skyscraper began as a single form extrusion containing a single program. Throughout history the skyscraper took on many new forms. Zoning and setback laws of the 1960’s changed the way that the skyscraper looked and was thought about. There has always been a race and desire to have the tallest skyscraper in New York City, and as technology developed it allowed for skyscrapers to be built taller. New York City would become one of the most prominent cities for the skyscraper as well as one of the most iconic skylines. As new heights were reached there was a split from the once ornamental and sculptural skyscraper. Both in past and present day New York City there is an emphasis on designing the tallest and most slender skyscraper. As previously mentioned with the emphasis on height, there was importance placed on the glass tower. Over time this led to the skyscraper becoming an ambiguous and aesthetically standardized building. Office towers and apartment buildings look the same and offer no indication as to what the skyscraper contains. Newer developments have taken over historic parts of New York City and are alien to the architecture surrounding it. While the technology has enabled these skyscrapers to expand, people and historic architecture is forgotten. This thesis explores the historic and theoretical development of the skyscraper and how to challenge the current entire glass clad skyscraper. Through façade articulation, program, section, relationship to the ground and character, this skyscraper will become a place in which every person can have it all. Through the relationship of both public and private spaces, the skyscraper will transform from an ambiguous, glass tower into something that represents the history of New York City.

2021 Outstanding Thesis Writing

Brandon Kroger Cincinnati, OH

Americans love their history, and they certainly love their historical architecture. Architecture has always operated in between reality and fiction; the original and the copy, a precedent and an antecedent. history and future. Architect, and architectural representation, would seem to tend towards representations of truth, representations of the time in which they were produced. Architects are engrossed by notions of truth; truth in material, truth in form, etc. But what happens when truth is relative? What if the meanings of symbols, and their associations with time and history, do not matter - in fact, are not allowed to matter? What happens when our digital mechanisms fold multiple readings of history into one, without a beginning or end? Architecture and urbanism today desires to recycle, reuse and regurgitate a canon of precedent and standard; a canon or a code, (or perhaps a catalogue) is often critically suspect, and are often simply facsimiles divorced from meaning. But why? Why do Americans in particular obsess over particular styles, fetishized aesthetics or mass produced material approximations? These tend to be smallscale architectural components and details (column covers, statuettes, faux marble, screen printed wood textures, etc.) but also encompass the borrowing of whole projects and building forms, and are usually tied to some specific moment in history: Imperial Roman, Hellenistic Greece, Hindu, Judeo-Christian, Colonial American. Architecture has a long legacy of this, where resonances of projects fluidly move through time, constantly reinterpreting itself; this is essentially the critical intent of Postmodern architecture, but done ironically. One might even correlate the often-taught axiom, “Architects don’t design buildings, we design things that look like buildings.” Even further, one could say Architects design things that look like buildings, which look like other buildings.” While Postmodern architecture is critically ironic in its resurrection of historic precedent, it reaches a point today where the mechanisms of design simply replicate what we see as historical, without critical intervention; it is Postmodernism, but taken as fact. Design operates within a new modality where architectural production forfeits itself to algorithmic thinking - the Internet, its conduit.

DEUS EX MACHINA: THE ARCHITECTURE OF THREE FOLLIES IN (WASHINGTON, D.C) 113

De’Sean Morris Baltimore, MD

This thesis suggest that black architecture can start to be defined by interrupting the semiotic structure of films that portray black space. This may occur by introducing new objects to these images or by reassembling preexisting elements. Both would be a method of collaging ideas and by collaging these elements, a new image can be produced which presents new ideas about the action and space that were previously presented in a film or video. This study follows the notions that the lack of definitive and autonomous black architecture contributes to and perpetuates a lack of definitive black identity; That the continued creation of images that juxtapose black society with architectural strangers of the past facilitate this as well. And that the monetization and incentivization of these images encourages their circulation and consequently their influence on black identity. To find a black architecture, the image of black life must therefore be addressed in tandem with the architecture associated with Black people, the descendants of the international style found in public housing and other urban conditions and typologies.

Aaron Tkac Delaware, OH

The responsive nature of architectural storytelling has equipped the built environment to mesh with its surroundings and to serve the current sociocultural needs of the community that it is a part of. However, the story being told through the architecture is often the same story already being told through the culture, making it redundant and deprived of the imaginative qualities that such a monumental art form should have. Architecture needs to fit into the community, so we assign it a style. Architecture needs to be green, so we put a green roof and some solar panels on it. Architecture should be safe and accessible, so we govern it with code books. Culture calls and architecture responds. The real potential for architectural storytelling is not in its ability to simply retell the story of a place and people in time, but rather in its ability to create the story of a place and people in time. Through the exploration of the space between what we see as fiction and what we know as reality, the author-designer can imagine new mythological worlds and design for conditions that others may not even consider. Parafiction, Spectacle, anthropomorphism, and various represen-tation methods provide the author-designer multiple ways in which to explore the space between fiction and reality, a world referred to here as myth. Focusing on religious architecture and its many ties to storytelling throughout time, this thesis aims to study the ways in which architecture can be used to tell a story and to push for a new design methodology which works by creating architecture and story together. Through the distortion of reality into myth, this methodology offers the author-designer the ability to create for the unknown, to imagine new parallel worlds, and to examine what changes – cultural, political, geographical, physical, historical – could lead to the manifestation of that world in reality.

THE CHAPEL OF CHRIST THE ÆSIR

Rural and Small-town America Kelsey DePolo ARCHITECTURE TO SUPPORT A TRANSIENT AMERICA Bryan Raymond PATCHES, FIELDS, AND THE IN-BETWEEN Damario Walker-Brown COTTON IN THE CREVICES: REMNANTS OF A BLACK UTOPIA Lucas Wheeler

APERTURES OF A LINE

Kelsey DePolo The United States’ labor market is shifting towards temporary gig work, advancing communications technologies are eliminating the need for people to meet in shared physical spaces, and global warming threatens the longevity and livability of cities and towns around the world. In the future, it will be increasingly unnecessary and even ill-advised for humans to attempt to settle permanently in one location, yet the transient populations that currently exist in America are already insufficiently supported by the infrastructural systems in place. This thesis project proposes a tandem system of mobile architectures and moveable plug-in infrastructure that is designed to provide support to a nearfuture society of an ever-growing number of these transient Americans. By following a caravan of travellers with differing needs and desires on a rather mundane cross-country journey in this hypothesized future, it is revealed that though many of those who will live a nomadic lifestyle are able to do so as a result of social and economic privilege, at least as many will do so out of necessity. For the migrant workers and climate refugees forced into this lifestyle, the proposed mobile architecture and infrastructure would provide a degree of physical and social comfort to its users, but it would likely be unable to provide true respite from the ever-increasing tenuousness of employment and stationary, property-based settlements.

ARCHITECTURE TO SUPPORT A TRANSIENT AMERICA 127

Bryan Raymond Nashville, TN

Youngstown, Ohio reveals a paradox common among other postindustrial cities: for decades its population, economy, and industries have been in a state of perpetual motion, yet the city itself appears to have come to a halt, lingering in a state of uncertainty. The precarious status of the city has been induced by the departure of its once-powerful steel industry, resulting in the exodus of over half of its peak population. Given its lack of density, the city is now overwhelmed by its accumulated matter, leaving its landscape fragmented and perforated with vacancy and residual spaces. Youngstown joins other Rust Belt cities in the discussion of “shrinking cities,” a term adopted to describe cities that have been impacted by a significant population loss in a relatively short period of time.  In the now diffuse, low-density urban fabric, landscape urbanism holds a newfound relevance, able to take on the role of a framework that catalyzes urban renewal from a large-scale perspective. The thesis also explores the possibilities of achieving urban intensity without density. To this end, the measure of intensity must shift from the quantitative to the qualitative. Intensity is measured not from the mere juxtaposition and accumulation of urban form, but from the overlaps and tensions between dissimilar programs in the process of flux.  The project will speculate on a transition of Youngstown’s landscape into a continuous natural space that involves the intensification of moments within this green network through the harmony of architecture and landscape. First, a broader vision for the city is devised, in which points with high social and economic potential are determined as starting off points for growth. Landscape is asked to take on the role of infrastructure, setting up a framework for uncertainty yet retaining a degree of formal specificity.

PATCHES, FIELDS, AND THE IN-BETWEEN 131

Damario Walker-Brown Lexington, KY

Mound Bayou, Mississippi is a small community founded by newly freed African-Americans in 1887. Historically known as an agricultural town, it thrived economically, educationally, and spiritually into the first decades of the 20th century while becoming a physical example of the desire of African-Americans to self-determine. By the time of the Great Depression, Mound Bayou began a slow and painful decline with the economic downturn and the introduction and influence of mechanization on agriculture, costing people their livelihoods. Mound Bayou today stands as memory of a proud historic past worthy of revitalization and reinvestment in its people and their community for continued existence in the 21st century. As a contemporary representation of the concept of a “Just City”, the purpose of this thesis shall be to inquire and examine the current conditions of Mound Bayou. In addition, this will be an exploration of how architecture can serve as a catalyst in conceptualizing a future on how this community can take its first steps to revitalization. The main focus of the design will be a new Community Center and Vocational school serving as way to influence the economic and communal reinvestment into this Mississippi Delta town.

COTTON IN THE CREVICES: REMNANTS OF A BLACK UTOPIA 135

Lucas Wheeler Florence, KY

Near constant visual stimulation is generated by the surrounding environment every day. The weather conditions, time of day, and time of year all effect how people perceive space. Daylighting produces a powerful range of conditions that transform the perception of building structure and spatial qualities. On the other hand, daylighting creates opportunities to harness solar energy and increase task performance. Environmental factors like brightness, temperature, air quality, and sound accompany the overall aesthetic of a built environment. All of these factors need to be addressed to optimize the user experience. Light is used as a means to relate, navigate, and derive meaning from inherent building qualities. While light reveals what is present, it can be manipulated to conceal elements such as structure and space. The supremacy of vision has been reinforced by technological innovations that transformed society and their perception of what is present. Through addressing the necessity of the eye in the contemporary era, this project proposes the framework of a museum to be used as a tool to activate sensorial reactions to space. In the same way music is best understood through silence, the way in which light enhances the spatial experience is most readily apparent when we experience darkness. Architectural space has emotional and psychological effects that are often forgotten about in design consideration. Current museological design often aims to be an object in the city rather than focusing on the collection they house. Lighting plays an important role in museums where it needs to achieve balance in preserving the art and engaging the visitors. This thesis will investigate the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of space in museums through natural and electrical lighting. Apertures of a Line delves into the relation of perception between light and structure. Through a procession of spaces, this museum offers a new territorial atlas for people to explore their senses in an architectural experience.

Sustainability and Environments Nicholas Dorsey

Yining Fang THE INFI-HALL Shelby Leshnak

THE NEW NORMAL

Tyler Kennedy

TECH INTERCHANGE

Lauren Meister OPPORTUNITIES FOR LIMINALITY Chandler Phillpot THE LABYRINTH OF EXPERIENCE Benjamin Riddle

THE MACHINE IN ARENA

Christopher Robie

SYMBIOTIC ARCHITECTURE

Jordan Sauer

MAN AND THE LICK RUN

Sam Williamson TAILORED ARCHITECTURE Dongrui Zhu

MODULAR/ KINETIC FACADES

Nicholas Dorsey Alexandria, KY

The United Nations has bluntly proclaimed that “climate change is a global emergency that goes beyond national borders.” In parts of the world, especially the vulnerable coastal regions and extreme biomes, this statement is a gross understatement as locals are already witnessing their lands and homes transform before their eyes. To residents of other parts of the world, the American Midwest comes to mind, this proclamation may appear exaggerated and ridiculous. To these individuals, the landscape is not significantly changing. Furthermore, if climate change is such an issue, they question, “why isn’t more being done?” This thesis attempts to broadly address such a question. Specifically, it investigates both current and future developments, policies, and innovations generated to reduce carbon emissions for the building industry, arguably the worst contributor. Many such developments have made the creation of carbon neutral communities an achievable possibility. Some of these proposed communities and their principles are explored. The culmination of such advancements is put forward to explore ways Cincinnati, Ohio, a surprising leader for sustainability in the Midwest, can become a carbon neutral city by 2050. Attention is paid predominantly to the development over the Fort Washington Way highway caps. As of 2020, the Fort Washington Way area is devoid of many principles of sustainable design, but it has great potential to be developed into a thriving, desirable, carbon neutral community of the future.

Yining Fang

Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China China currently faces a significant challenge in the educational field. The classteaching system and its congruent educational architecture are out-of-date. This study aims to determine how modern educational architecture in China developed into the current situation and explore a new typology of classroom building layout that would enhance the teaching-learning efficiency and quality. The new typology is developed based on the ancient teaching philosophy, while also learning from the experiences of the development and changes of educational architecture in China in each stage for the past 150 years. In this context, a classroom building is defined as the building at a campus that serves the function of teaching and learning with other supportive programs, not a building with only regular classrooms. To develop this typological layout in a classroom building, besides a series of historical materials, an in-person survey was also distributed to potential users of the chosen site. High school students and teachers were randomly given the survey and asked to express their concerns and thoughts of current campus and school buildings. The results show that integrative and interactive spaces that would provide complex functions are needed.

THE INFI-HALL

Shelby Leshnak West Chester, OH

The Covid-19 global pandemic in 2020, has tested companies to their limits. They have pursued new techniques in the industry through sending employees home for long periods of time. They have had to continue their everyday working lives at home during the pandemic. Overall efforts to create this new normal of working have been successful. The new normal of working from home will continue past the end of the pandemic, and will remain a new requirement in every working environment. Working from home has created more convenience, cost savings, and satisfaction for employees. Americans will permanently shift their jobs to inside their homes and we will see the city centers beginning to disperse. Office buildings will become vacant and families will be able to spend more time together. As the shift in culture continues America will see an increase in close knit communities because of social isolation from lack of workplace interaction. These communities will be formed through personal connection and focus on the prosperity of the community, instead of being based on company office location. Working from home is the new normal for employees across America and it will change the future outlook on work and home life.

Tyler Kennedy Angola, IN

To devolve is to degenerate. Architecture of the home is devolving. In nature, evolution propels life forward, determines the strong, and eliminates the weak. In housing, evolution corrects past error, adapts to an ever-changing occupant, and utilizes the apex of technology of the time, or at least it should. Housing has become unsuitable. That statement especially rings true when considering the expansive developments of the technological world and their impact on people’s daily lives. In the United States, we have seen the continual production of stick-framed rectilinear housing for hundreds of years. Most of the technological innovation being incorporated into homes and living spaces has to fit within the 16” between studs. They are a “plug-in” product designed to enhance the user’s life. They take on a passive role within the architecture of the home. What if technology became the architecture of living instead of being placed within the home?

2021 Service Award

Lauren Meister Cincinnati, OH

Museums as learning institutions have been around for centuries, originating as personal collections within private homes and extending to open exhibitions that anyone may attend. The ritual of attending a museum, similar in manner to other ceremonial activities, is parallel to that of a reverential experience with an additional facet of learning. But how will the postmodern museum look and function? What are strategies developed by museums and cultural centers that will best heighten the overall experience and perspectives gained by visitors? While there are various models of learning and identities that help define typical museum visitors and why they visit, there needs to be a more modern lens applied to this methodology to understand guests in the 21st century, especially in light of recent events including the Covid-19 pandemic. Such places need to be more resilient and flexible to respond to issues presently or imminently existing and not simply to preserve previous moments in time. By reflecting on previous practices and understanding the present need of institutions such as these, this thesis will explore scenarios in which a modern museum is combined with an academic complex and community cultural center serving a variety of demographics. The goal of having such a place as a one-stop destination would be to create a large overall snapshot of the University of Cincinnati, Clifton Heights, and greater Cincinnati area communities, engaging diverse groups of people at various levels. A building and surrounding urban design layout are envisioned in proximity to UC’s campus, presented in models and drawings, and described in an in-depth essay extrapolated primarily from research on the narrative experience and relevance of physical museums. The physical nature of the museum will challenge preconceived notions of what these buildings should offer, showing a holistic perspective of what they can grow to be. The investigation also shows how a postmodern museum/cultural center can be associated with other institutions (such as universities) to encourage community conversations. As a result of this thesis project, UC and the Clifton Heights Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation will have a set of contemporary, critical, architectural images which reflect the opportunities available by creating a public learning center that encourages community dialogues while celebrating artifacts and research collected by the University throughout the years. Also, architects, museum curators, exhibition designers, and people associated in other related disciplines will have access to this methodology for making museums and similar cultural centers more participatory and meaningful for the users, locally and globally.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR LIMINALITY

Chandler Philpott Cincinnati, OH

This project originates in the abstraction of the idea of the ‘liminal’ or transitional space in rites of passage to an idea of a relative disciplinary space between any two concepts. This abstraction draws a parallel between the idea of subjective experience in general and the specific idea of designing to accommodate this at the intersection between architecture and clinical psychiatric practice. The archetype of the Labyrinth is demonstrated (in western culture) to be a robust symbol of subjective experience for both architecture and psychiatry, and is selected as the top-down, narrative-drivenmodel for spatialization of the practical interface between the two. For the bottom-up, objective-drivenmodel, a fiveaspect description of Salutogenic design is taken to support the differentiation of physical space. These five aspects are: Self Efficacy; Relaxation Response; Sense of Coherence; Biophilia; Prospect and Refuge. The investigation of the central issue from complementary perspectives leads to the development of a theoretical architectural ‘machine,’ which should support effective treatment of psychological distress: The Labyrinth.

THE LABYRINTH OF EXPERIENCE

Benjamin Riddle Cincinnati, OH

Stadia consume extremely high amounts of energy in short periods of time, yet some sit idle for more than half a year and are only used to their full potential as little as one day a week. Given the precious nature of energy, this is an egregiously inefficient use of energy over the lifecycle of the stadia. A stadium can draw enough energy in one game day as it would take to power twelve homes for an entire year, and these extreme spikes in draw and lack of production create a negative balance in energy consumption with limited operations throughout the year. Situated between sustainability and athletics, this project explores the design of a stadium to develop an envelope design that produces more energy than it uses making it an energy-plus building, allowing the surrounding community to benefit from its presence. In addition to adopting the most current sustainable energy technology this thesis also focus on integrating the site with renewable energy resources while creating an opportunity for people to use the buildings on non-game days, further engaging the public in a new form of public space. By developing and integrating an envelope that addresses renewable energy resources and materials appropriately selected to benefit the surrounding community, the project specifically takes on the role of harnessing the sun’s energy. The envelope will be site and climate specific to Scottsdale, Arizona,but the core concept of the envelope will be transferable to a variety of sites and climates around the world. Scottsdale, Arizona is known as a winter vacation destination as well as a one of the two homes for major league baseball spring training. This project also explores the creation of public use other than attending sporting events in such stadia, expanding the program to function not only during game days, but every day. A stadium design will be produced for this specific site presented in architectural drawings and models and described in a critical essay which will explore the strategies used in developing the design and envelope. As a result, this thesis project will have a set of architectural images which could progress the modern design of stadia and architects will have access to methods of integrating energy-plus design into future stadia making them more engaging and beneficial to the community.

THE MACHINE IN THE ARENA

Christopher Robie Columbus, OH

Humans spend more than 90% of their time indoors, yet we know little about the health effects of the indoor environment. A healthy body is one of the founding goals of architecture, and throughout history, architecture responds to both the scientific technology of the era and the diseases that plague it. In the 21st century, increasingly hermetic building envelopes have disconnected the inhabitant from the ecological and environmental systems of the exterior in an attempt to assert tighter environmental control. New research and technology in microbiology points to the advancement of these envelopes as a major factor in reduction of microbial biodiversity in the indoor environment and the human body. This is implicated in a number of negative human health outcomes, most notably sick building syndrome and allergy.1 Psychologically, the hermetic envelope isolates the body and mind from the meteorological, physical, and temporal systems of the environment. These separations from this set of systems points to a necessary evolution of understanding space and the body, where a hermetic envelope disrupts the continuous ecology and environmental connection to the context. To understand this disconnection, I define a set of three major systems of the environment- Biological systems, Atmospheric systems, and Polychronic systems. These systems, architectural responses to them, their current disconnection, and potential reconnections are examined in this paper. I propose a design for a home that incorporates and builds on the concepts and objects examined for each system as a basis for design, radically altering existing typologies to provide a new concept of the body and space as continuous ecology, reveal the environmental conditions of space, and develop architectural forms that act as indicators and recorders of the local environment.

Jordan Sauer Cincinnati, OH

We marvel at it, yet we fight it. We need it, yet do not control it. Since the beginning of time, mankind has been intertwined with the elements of nature. The problem is that man must still have shelter. Architecture is a great mediator between man and the elements. Simple architectural choices can either facilitate or block connections between the two parties. As a result, the relationship between the two has not always been harmonious. Today, the elements are often completely blocked from our buildings and daily life. This blockage can also be seen in other aspects of the built environment like infrastructure. The ancient Lick Run has been forced through a sewer pipe for over 100 years. Controlling the watershed has been challenging and resulted in 1.5 billion gallons of combined sewer overflow a year. As a result, a massive 200 million dollar, 1.5 mile long greenway attempting to daylight the Lick Run is nearing completion. This project demolished 92 buildings in an already crumbling neighborhood that is a major transportational thoroughfare. If the Lick Run Greenway is successful, architecture will harmoniously mediate between humans and the natural elements while fulfilling community needs. This means architecture must facilitate connections to wind, earth, water, sun, and living organisms. Ultimately, it is an opportunity to jump start a struggling South Fairmount with development that complements the Lick Run and encourages community participation.

ARCHITECTURAL MEDIATION: MAN AND THE LICK RUN 177

Sam Williamson Independence, KY

Tailored Architecture aims to design, develop, and build custom homes that allows the consumer to better understand and comprehend the details that are involved in the home making process. Unlike other custom home business models, Tailored Architecture develops a system of informative cards that not only educates the client but also gives them the opportunity to pick how their home is assembled, laid out, detailed, and finished. This results in a more immersive experience with the client and architect that current models do not offer. The success of this model comes from the rudimentary playing cards that the client receives from the architect to determine each element of the home. We strive to design homes that are tailored to the individual’s lifestyle in every aspect of the home making process.

TAILORED ARCHITECTURE

Dongrui Zhu

Pingdingshan, Hunan, China The notion of transformable facades suggests an unconventional design thinking in which both the building exterior’s configuration and functionality changes interchangeably between varied real-time environmental conditions. As ideas such as energy efficient design, performance driven design, and sustainable design progressively influence more architects, adaptive kinetic building facade systems prove to be an ideal tool to actualize these environment oriented design objectives. Furthermore, an intelligent multifunctional building facade system also provides building users improved indoor comfort level and contributes to sculpting a visually attractive dynamic building facade. For decades, modern technologies have played a major role in contemporary upscaling climate change. Sleek contemporary urban glass office high-rises pose subtle yet growing risks to the urban environment and worsen the urban habitat. However, evolving technologies can also become an effective tool to combat environmental challenges. This research attempts to find innovative kinetic facade design solutions which contribute to mitigating urban glass office high-rises’ negative environmental effects. Then, the design proposals will be evaluated in terms of indoor lighting performance and the building facade’s visual impact on the immediate surrounding context. Overall, this thesis explores retrofitting an existing office high-rise with modular kinetic facade systems and speculates the possibility of embedding kinetic components into future office high-rise designs. In P1, the research methodology starts with precedent case studies where the study concentrates on extracting applicable kinetic concepts and components from each precedent. In P2, experimental modular kinetic facade systems are generated with overarching design goals, which aim to block undesirable sunlight while continuing to admit sufficient daylight and create visually dynamic building facades. The proposed modular kinetic facade demonstrates how the system can help convert existing urban glass office high-rises into a safer and more eco-friendly influencer of the urban habitat.

MODULAR/KINETIC FACADES

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Best 170 Architecture Thesis Topics For All Students

Architecture thesis topics may be difficult to find because there are so many subjects and possible topics. However, good thesis topics for architecture are the ones that you have a personal interest in. Before picking architecture thesis topics, you also need to ask yourself if the topic is significant or realistically doable.

Choosing Thesis Topics For Architecture

Architecture thesis projects topics, master of architecture thesis topics, industrial architecture thesis topics, institutional architecture thesis topics, sustainable architecture thesis topics.

What is the best way to choose dissertation topics? This guide will highlight how to pick interesting architectural thesis topics. Here are some factors to consider when searching for architecture thesis project ideas :

Pick a Topic That Interests You

While picking creative architecture thesis topics, you need to opt for a topic that you are personally interested in. You can easily get bored with your undergraduate architecture thesis projects, that is why you need something that you are passionate about. It will help you to stay motivated and inspired to create a unique project.

Set a Small Scope

It can be tempting to pick dissertation topics in architecture that are too expansive. This reduces the delivery time. It is safer to start with a simple version of the topic and includes some complexity later if necessary.

Find Architecture Thesis Topics That Reflect Your Skills

Everyone has unique skill sets that they have developed over time. There is no single person who is perfect at everything. When you know your technical and creative capabilities, you will be able to pick thesis topics in architecture that employs your expertise.

Can You Find Enough Research On The Topic?

Unusual architectural thesis topics require lots of research and analysis before starting. Therefore, it is essential to pick an area of study with a substantial amount of work already done. It will help you to easily analyze, compare, and draw conclusions.

Balance It Between Art And Science

While searching for architecture dissertation topics, students often dig themselves a grave. They tend to view the project as a culmination of a long program rooted deep in art and theory. You need to pick a topic that balances art and science. It shouldn’t be too abstract, so your teacher will know that you understand the issues raised.

Don’t Forget To Tie It To Your Plans For The Future

Your architecture thesis topics should be aligned with your plans. It should reflect your experience or interest in a specialized subject. It will play an important role as a part of your portfolio.

Pick Architecture Thesis Topics That Solve A Real Problem

Your thesis topics architecture ideas shouldn’t just be theoretical, they should also solve a real-world problem. The world struggles with several issues, such as population growth, climate change, and a lack of proper distribution of resources. So, find a topic that can solve a socio-environmental problem using design intervention.

• Creation of affordable housing
• Development waterfront property
• Airport functioning
• Heritage museums
• Skyscraper design
• Cinema and theatre architecture
• Suburban homes for multi-families
• Multimedia film city
• Gaming and Animation studio
• Aquarium-Aqua display and design
• Marine park design
• Lightning excellence center
• MTRS study and station
• Modern art museum
• Convention center
• Automobile training center
• Archaeological survey institute
• Luxury beach-facing apartments
• The bus terminal with a commercial complex
• School of art & design
• Cruise terminal design
• Bio-climatic buildings
• Media center
• Cricket stadium display
• Disaster management institute
• Resort design
• Polo retreat
• Television and film institute
• The transit system as well as the possible improvements
• Educational Institute for all rural children
• A local heritage site
• The lighting system in the Egyptian Pyramids
• Film city studios, gaming area as well its structure
• Underwater restaurants in different parts of the globe for light, electricity, and sanitation.
• The transformation node found at the Lancaster
• The heat/cooling systems in beach huts
• Checking pressure and oxygen levels for building tourists spots
• Fashion Fiesta Paris
• The Golden Gate and architecture
• An archaeologist’s point of view of China from a survey of China
• WHO’s headquarters and renovation
• The ideal environment for a Rehab
• Russian fairytale-style homes and huts
• A clear insight into the auto industry
• Installing swimming pools in a mall
• Training centers for adults in Texas
• Buildings for religious purposes
• Comparing contemporary vs. traditional housing
• Deconstructing a typical school to make room for collaboration and creativity
• Apartments for couples
• Multifamily suburban homes
• The power of air: leaving closed windows for good
• Semidetached and row houses
• Staying on the budget while creating an architectural masterpiece
• Single-family suburban homes
• Hotels and residence
• Single-family country homes
• Developing healthy living spots in third-world countries
• Design of Ruled Surfaces.
• A method to design the kinetic planar surface using mathematical tessellation techniques.
• Waterfront development of an exhibition center
• Bio-inspired design for adaptable structures
• Construction of time conception
• A critical view of architecture – is it sustainable?
• Analytical studies of design potentials in architecture
• Determination of the concept of place in the built environment’s reproduction process
• Aqua display/Research Center
• Forest Research/Training Institute
• Archaeological Survey of Canada – Research and Training Institute
• Luxury Sea-front Studios at Ottawa
• Digital Morphogenesis as well as Its Implementation
• Bio-climatic Tower
• Mass rapid transit system study and station
• Designing organic structures to withstand time
• Showing culture in structures
• Maximizing size in miniature apartments
• Architectural trends at most transportation hubs
• Redefining a city with architecture
• Renovating century-old structures without losing the culture
• Outdoor architecture: creating getaways in small backyards.

A master of architecture qualification provides students with the relevant knowledge, skills, and values needed to enter the architecture sector and pursue opportunities and careers in this profession for master thesis help . It focuses on developing the ability to adapt to change in the diverse and critical world we live in. students are allowed to create a speculative and reflective relationship to their work.

• The introduction of biotechnology in architecture design for adaptable structures.
• An analytical assessment of mathematical organization methods in active flat surface plans.
• The consideration of soil and terrain conditions to determine adequate story building locations.
• A conceptual method for the outline and fabrication of cultural centers and foundations
• Finding the importance of a town or county’s various buildings and structures.
• A critical analysis of the architectural techniques used to construct the lighting within the ancient pyramids of Giza.
• An evaluation of the restaurants near the coastline in various areas of the country with important consideration on plumbing, air supply, and lighting.
• An analysis of China’s Great Wall with consideration of the structure’s historical significance.
• Understanding the impact of certain architectural codes and protocols on the environment.
• The possibility to achieve inexpensive house construction plans in first-world countries.
• Why do the majority of third-world countries have substandard housing structures?
• A case study on the significance of all learners of architecture in the profession.
• An analysis of the primary conditions that affect buildings in places that are susceptible to earthquakes.
• Building methods and consideration for constructions with the ability to endure natural disasters.
• A detailed report of the Twin Towers and the popularity of skyscraper construction.
• The significance of applied science in defining modern housing from traditional examples.
• Using records in architecture to understand the history of the profession.
• A critical analysis of architectural photography.
• The evaluation of cost considerations in architectural specifications and estimations.
• What motivates different architectural drawings and concepts.
• Case studies on sustainable modern design structures.
• The importance of digital mapping and concepts in architecture.
• Methods of limiting energy loss.

Industrial architecture is a branch of architecture that is used for the design of industrial buildings. These buildings need to be designed with consideration of their main purpose, which is to process raw materials. Their designs need to prioritize safety and optimal function over aesthetics and exterior appeal.

With the increased evolution taking place in technology today, industrial buildings and their designs need to adapt and keep up. This is why it calls for more research and consideration since industrial buildings are a need for modern society.

• Waterfront development – Beach convention and exhibition centers.
• Design of ruled surfaces.
• Construction of time conception in the architectural realm.
• A critical view of sustainable architecture.
• Determination of Place concept in the reproduction process of the built environment.
• Analytical study of the design potentials in kinetic architecture.
• Is deconstructive architecture useful?
• How did brutalism and contemporary architectures influence the world?
• Current trends in parametric architecture.
• How will traditional industrial structures be made more environmentally friendly and sustainable?
• Industrial architecture’s evolution.
• A critical analysis of the Dockland building, Germany.
• What purpose does industrial architecture play in creating a safe environment?
• Where do the professions of car construction and manufacturing come together?
• Industrial architecture during the industrial revolution.
• Evaluation of daylight in office buildings.
• Analysis of different lifestyle interactions.
• The purpose of reinforced concrete skeleton systems and earthquake’s effect on them.
• The future of architecture with the consideration of space exploration.
• The purpose of environmental science and social anthropology in architecture.
• Making architecture design studios relevant in the technological era.
• Extra skills are necessary for working on complex architectural projects.
• How collaboration is helping architectures achieve complex structural needs.

This is the branch of architecture that deals with environmental, social, and economic factors. This profession is based on various rules and traditions that were passed down for centuries. It grants architects the ability to find new ways to innovate the architectural industry.

Over time, the design for buildings all over the world evolves and is influenced by different cultures and styles. This can give the structure of the building different meanings and provides various opportunities to discuss its design and reason to be built.

• Theme parks and attractions
• Religious buildings
• Auditoriums
• Sport facilities
• Art galleries
• Cultural centers and foundations
• School and universities
• Bars and discotheques
• Shopping malls
• Theaters and cinemas
• Restaurants
• Transportation thesis on airports
• Train stations
• Urban transport
• Promenades and streets
• Urban parks
• Stores and showrooms
• Peripheral parks
• Urban monuments and land art

Sustainable architecture is the use of various plans and techniques to withstand the negative effect on the environment of modern man-made structures. Architects would take all aspects of the project, from landscape to water drainage, and determine the best way for the building to function with the least impact on the environment. These buildings and designs need to ensure that they are functional, appealing to the eye, and have as little carbon footprint as possible.

• Neighborhood development
• Community garden concepts
• Waste recycling facilities
• Heritage building restoration
• Rehabilitation housing
• Riverfront development
• SMART village
• Net-Zero energy building
• Bermed structure
• Regenerative design
• Urban Agriculture center
• Revitalizing abandoned mills and processing buildings
• Eco-tourism facilities
• Revival of an old building
• Repurpose a building
• Redevelopment of a slum
• Vertical farm
• Wetland restoration
• Energy efficiency in buildings
• How the location of the building is necessary for sustainability

Picking one of the topics above may help you get a head start on your paper. However, if you still need dissertation writing help, you can find professionals to help you with fresh ideas to work on.

Are you stuck with writing your thesis? Just enter promo “ mythesis ” – that’s all you need to get a 20% discount for any architecture writing assignment you might have!

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Interconnecting architecture and nature , breaking the habit: a fight against the monotony of tract housing , multi-minimal , disconnect to reconnect: using architecture and master planning to aid in personal connection with nature , arizona arena: ice in the desert , remembering and rebuilding the broken , the reconnection of nature and health , pier luigi penzo: football on water and the stadium experience , how can land use planning and architectural design be combined to create a new form of residential lake shore development , celebrating the past while creating the present & imagining the future through the hamline midway library , life continues in prison , returning home: collective dwelling through incremental architecure , horace mann elementary school modernized , retrofitting architectural environments in response to an evolving workplace , architecture of aging: the impact of architecture on palliative care and hospice , healing architecture: lung cancer research and treatment center , a new root: architecture for food , protect, restore, connect: using architecture to help save the redwoods , a methodology of calculating the carbon footprint of a building , biophilic architecture & mental health .

Vallerani Micro Water Harvesting

The Badia Region covers more than 80% of Jordan and receives less than 8 inches…

Amy Whitesides and Kira Clingen , Faculty Advisors

Public Sediment for Alameda Creek

Resilient by Design was the Bay Area’s year-long collaborative design challenge for resilience to sea…

Ashland Forest Resiliency Project

The Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project is an ongoing collaboration since 2010 between the Lomakatsi…

TransMilenio and Bikeways

Enrique Peñalosa, was a two-term mayor of Bogotá. He served from 1998 to 2001 and…

Chagga Homegardens

Homegardens are subsistence gardens that provide a supplemental source of food and nutritional security in…

Pleistocene Park

At the end of the Pleistocene, the steppe ecosystem was dominant across the planet, with…

Copenhagen Cloudburst Plan

In 2011, Copenhagen was struck by a 1,000-year storm event, a Cloudburst, that flooded the…

Delhi Stepwell Restoration

Baolis, or stepwells, are underground reservoirs where water can be stored close to the groundwater…

Swansea Bay Lagoon

Swansea Bay was once home to a thriving oyster industry that employed 600 residents in…

2023 Peter Rice Prize: Sujie Park’s “Material Alchemy”

by Sujie Park (MArch I ’23) — Recipient of the Peter Rice Prize. The history…

Andrew Witt and Martin Bechthold , Faculty Advisors

Spring 2023

Student Work

2023 Digital Design Prize: Amelia Gan’s “Place-Time: From Waste to 3D CAD, or, Framework for geographical and temporally conscious design”

by Amelia Gan (MDes ’23) — Recipient of the Digital Design Prize. The dominance of…

Andrew Witt and Allen Sayegh , Faculty Advisors

2023 Clifford Wong Prize in Housing Design: Randy Crandon and Maddie Farrer

Sidewalk Stuff: Adaptive Reuse Cohousing by Randy Crandon (MArch I ’25) and Maddie Farrer (MArch…

Jenny French , Instructor

2023 Urban Planning Thesis Prize: Michael Zajakowski Uhll’s “Our History is our Resource:” Historic Narrative as Urban Planning Strategy in Chicago’s Pullman Neighborhood

by Michael Zajakowski Uhll (MUP ’23) — Recipient of the Urban Planning Thesis Prize. How…

Rachel Meltzer , Faculty Advisor

2023 James Templeton Kelley Prize: Jacqueline Wong’s “An Intrinsic Model for a Non-Neutral Plural National School”

by Jacqueline Wong (MArch I ’23) — Recipient of the James Templeton Kelley Prize, Master…

Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Faculty Advisor

2023 Urban Design Thesis Prize: Saad Boujane’s “Dwellings, Paths, Places: Configurative Habitat in Casablanca, Morocco “

by Saad Boujane (MAUD ’23) — Recipient of the Urban Design Thesis Prize. The Modernist…

Peter Rowe , Faculty Advisor

2023 Landscape Architecture AP Thesis Prize and 2023 Digital Design Prize: Sonia Sobrino Ralston’s “Uncommon Knowledge: Practices and Protocols for Environmental Information”

by Sonia Sobrino Ralston (MLA I AP ’23) — Recipient of the Landscape Architecture AP…

Rosalea Monacella , Faculty Advisor

2023 Design Studies Thesis Prize: Alaa Suliman Eltayeb Mohamed Hamid’s Ghostopia: Interrogating Colonial Legacies and A Manifesto for The Modernized Nile

by Alaa Suliman Eltayeb Mohamed Hamid (MDes ’23) — Recipient of the Design Studies Thesis…

Montserrat Bonvehi Rosich, Faculty Advisor

2023 Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize: Kevin Robishaw’s Manatees and Margaritas: Toward a Strange New Paradise

by Kevin Robishaw (MLA I ’23) — Recipient of the Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize.

Craig Douglas , Faculty Advisor

2023 Outstanding Design Engineering Project Award: Rebecca Brand and Caroline Fong’s Jua: Cultivating Digital Knowledge Networks for Smallholder Farmers

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• Architecture /

Architecture Thesis Topics

• Updated on  
• Feb 21, 2024

Being an Architecture student, you are supposed to submit a dissertation or thesis on Architectural-related topics. It takes a lot more time to complete a dissertation research project than a thesis. The first step for pursuing a master’s or PhD degree is to choose a relevant dissertation topic. Some of the popular architecture thesis topics are Housing/ Residential Projects, Institutional Projects, Public Infrastructure Projects, Offices/ Corporate Projects, etc. In this article, we will provide you with general guidance about how to write an architecture dissertation and helpful tips to choose the right architecture thesis topics.

Here is our blog on Top Architectural Courses .

This Blog Includes:

What is an architecture thesis, how to structure an architecture thesis, relevant topic, pay attention to research questions, don’t be shy, go for advice, research a lot, how to choose the best title for your architecture thesis, how to choose the best topic for an architecture thesis, modern architecture thesis topics, thesis topics in landscape architecture, interior architecture thesis topics, b.arch. thesis topics for urban planning and transport:, sustainable architecture thesis topics.

An Architecture Dissertation or Thesis is an academic piece of writing that is supposed to signify the knowledge and skills you have learned so far during your architecture studies. While writing a dissertation your research must be precise and you should be logical with your conclusions. A clear analysis must be depicted while writing an architecture dissertation. 

Before searching for an architecture thesis topic, you must be familiar with the writing structure of a dissertation. Here we’ve mentioned the basic structure of a dissertation so that it gets easy for you when drafting a dissertation:

• Title – The title of your Architecture Dissertation must focus on your research objective.
• Abstract – The abstract part must be impactful. It must give an impression of what your dissertation is going to include.
• Introduction – The same is the case here with the introduction, it must reflect what the dissertation is going to include.
• Review of Literature – The Review of Literature Section must include a theoretical rationale of the problem, the importance of the study, and information for the dissertation that was gathered and used to form the arguments and points made in the work.
• 2-3 Main Chapters- These sections must include a bulk of information on the chosen topic. It should also include the data and diagrams if any.
• Conclusion- The main objective of the dissertation, the conclusion must include the arguments to complete the impression of the work.
• Bibliography – The bibliography is the section of the thesis where you mention all the referred sources, authors, and publications that you have taken information from while writing your thesis.

Also Read: Masters in Architecture in Canada

How to Choose the Right Architecture Thesis Topic?

If you are finding it hard to choose the right topic for your dissertation, here are some tips that might help what you can put your focus on while drafting your dissertation:

Select a relevant topic for your architecture dissertation as it contributes a lot to your career and future. To obtain a master’s degree in education, you need to find relevant topics for a dissertation. The topic must be capable of providing you with a significant amount of content for your architecture dissertation.

An Architecture dissertation must be broad enough to explore the whole topic. The dissertation must include a clear structure to contribute to the argumentation you are going to include in your dissertation.

Pay equal attention to the Research Questions you are going to include. Do not ever select narrow questions which are supposed to be answered with a Yes or No. Choose questions that provide you with relevant answers such as

• How do creative designs impact the modern era?
• What do you think about modern architecture?

Architecture students who are writing a dissertation are always provided with guidance. Supervisors are assigned to guide students throughout the duration of their architecture dissertation. So do not forget to ask for feedback or a piece of advice from your supervisors as they have years of academic experience, so their recommendations and feedback will only add to your research.

Before choosing an architecture topic, make sure you research thoroughly about the chosen topic. Try to select topics that are relevant in today’s time. The content provided by the topic must be more than enough to expand and support your arguments.

Also Read: How to become an Architect?

A significant title is very important while writing an architecture dissertation. So you must be extremely careful while choosing a title. Ensure that the title of your architecture dissertation or thesis does justice to your research. The title itself should be able to reflect the objective of your dissertation through the title.

Also Read: How to write a Dissertation?

Here we’ve mentioned some sources from where you can come up with a Dissertation Topic in Architecture:

• Study the most recent published piece of work to find out what kind of issues are open for further exploration and are sufficient to provide you with relevant argumentations.
• Check out Architecture Dissertation examples done by other scholars.

Best Architecture Thesis Topics

Choosing a topic can take a lot of time but we’ve made it easier for you as here we’ve mentioned some of the best topics you can choose for your Architecture Dissertation:

• What is the nature of middle-class architecture in modern society?
• Show the best elements of famous architects without duplicating their work.
• What is the need for closeness and privacy between architecture and family
• Cathedrals: Forming the old world on a new budget
• What is the difference between house designs in a cold climate and in a warm climate?

Also Read: How to become an Interior Designer?

• Multicultural Architecture in the Urban Landscape
• Trends of Environmental Technology in Residential Structures
• Evaluating Design in Municipal Structures
• Creative Designs in the Modern Era
• Maximizing Resources and Space with Accessibility
• How to maximize resources and space with Accessibility
• How to use Minimalist Design in Small Areas
• Which methods to use to Mitigate Damage from Natural Disaster
• What are the must-have features of Portable Housing Units
• Procedures of Pre-fabricated Design

Also Read: Finance, MBA, Accounting Dissertation Topics

• The urban energy landscape in regional planning
• Processing of data on water, energy, and food flows in space and time
• Composing four-dimensional maps that show current spatial and temporal dynamics of water, energy and food flows
• Constructing Zen
• Farmland Preservation
• Land Conservancy
• Therapeutic Gardens
• Self-sufficient energy islands across Europe or Asia
• India – Protection/production of freshwater through for example infiltration and retention
• Landscape Construction Performance Approaches
• Paper Space & Interior Fiction: Employing Speculative Design to Explore the Creative Design Process and Conceptual Interiority
• Implementing Biophilic Attributes in Elementary Schools
• Re-Mobile Home: An Exploration of Mobile Homes in Rural North Carolina
• Designing Deeper: Creating Interior Spaces That Support Well-Being through Explorations in Process-Driven Design
• How can exhibition spaces reflect design compatibility with spatial aesthetics?
• Airports Design.
• Train stations.
• Urban transport planning.
• Mass Rapid Transit System (MTRS) Study and Station.
• Integrated Transportation Node.
• Bus Terminal Cum Commercial Complex.
• International Cruise terminal.
• Redevelopment around the metro and MRTS Corridor.
• Architecture in motion.
• Neighborhood development
• Community garden concepts
• Waste recycling facilities
• Heritage building restoration
• Rehabilitation housing
• Riverfront development
• SMART village
• Net-Zero energy building
• Bermed structure
• Regenerative design
• Urban Agriculture center
• Revitalizing abandoned mills and processing buildings
• Eco-tourism facilities
• Revival of an old building
• Repurpose a building
• Redevelopment of a slum
• Vertical farm
• Wetland restoration

An architecture dissertation for a master’s degree must not exceed the 60,000-word limit.

IIT-Roorkee, Uttarakhand has been ranked #1 in the Top 25 Architecture Colleges in India.

McGill University and the University of Waterloo are the top 2 colleges in Canada for Architecture. 

Related Articles

Students who are pursuing an Architecture degree must be very careful while writing a dissertation as it is the only way they’ll be able to obtain a master’s degree. Choosing the right topic for the Architecture dissertation, and submitting the dissertation/thesis on time, all the above-mentioned aspects must be given equal importance. If you are interested in knowing more about Architecture courses abroad, then feel free to contact our experts at Leverage Edu anytime.

Damanpreet Kaur Vohra

Daman is an author with profound expertise in writing engaging and informative content focused on EdTech and Study Abroad. With a keen understanding of these domains, Daman excels at creating complex concepts into accessible, reader-friendly material. With a proven track record of insightful articles, Daman stands as a reliable source for providing content for EdTech and Study Abroad.

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10 Award-Winning Architecture Thesis Projects From Around The World

Neha Sharma

8 mins read

It is always interesting to see the architecture thesis projects students come up with every year. With each passing batch, there is more knowledge passed down and a better base to begin. The result is a rise in innovation and creativity by students, and overall a better mix!

Architecture thesis is an ordeal all students are intimidated by. From choosing an architecture thesis topic all the way to giving a great final thesis review , every step is equally challenging and important. It is that turn in an architecture student’s life that pushes them to churn out their best. Therefore, it is inevitable to come across some life-altering design solutions through architecture theses across the world.

To identify and appreciate these exceptional final projects by architecture students, many organisations across the world like Archistart, Council of Architecture, etcetera, award recognition for excellence in architecture thesis and also grant financial support for further research to the projects worthy of being realised.

Read through the list of 10 such award-winning architecture theses across the world with links to study them in detail!

1. ISTHME // Le CHAOS SENSIBLE - Dafni Filippa and Meriam Sehimi

ISTHME // Le Chaos Sensible - Architecture Thesis of the Year 2020 (Source: www.nonarchitecture.eu)

Starting from the most recent one, the award-winning thesis is a proposal of a mixed-use building in the capital city of Ghana, Africa, that aims to cater to a large spectrum of functions of the Ghanaian community, especially living, commercial, sports and leisure.

This culturally thoughtful architecture thesis project is an honest effort to celebrate the African spirit and empower the local community, which reflects in the ‘sensible chaos’ of the design.

2. INFRA-PAISAJE: New Landscape Architecture - Luis Bendezu

INFRA-PAISAJE: New Landscape Infrastructure for San Juan de Marcona - Special Mention: Architectural Thesis Award ATA 2018 (Source: www.archistart.net)

Landscape architecture manifests the connection between humans and nature. The landscape thesis project proposes a series of technical elements for the creation of a seamless landscape between the urbanised territory of San Juan de Marcona in Peru and the suburban parts, thus forming a cohesive townscape which converses with the coastline and brings active life to the otherwise desolate expanse of the region.

3. Water Exploratorium - Satyam Gyanchandani

Water Exploratorium - Ace of Space Design Awards: Outstanding Student Thesis Award (Source: www.architectandinteriorsindia.com)

Water is a life-giving resource and considered sacred across many cultures. To sustain life on earth, it is important to save and use it with utmost efficiency. The architecture thesis project showcases experiential design through and for water. It also tackles design challenges like infotainment by educating visitors on water conservation and creating a static built form for an element as fluid as water for a wholesome sensory experience.

Want to know how to come up with such fascinating thesis topics? Read: 7 Tips on Choosing the Perfect Architecture Thesis Topic For You

4. Architecture for Blind People - Mariagiorgia Pisano

Between Light and Shadow: Architecture for Blind People - 1st Place: Architectural Thesis Award 2017 (Source: www.archistart.net)

Inclusive design offers a wide-spread net of research opportunities and is gaining much-needed recognition today!

Design for people with disabilities is dealt with empathy in this architecture thesis project, where the focus is exploring innovative design solutions for the visually deprived and getting the design of rehabilitation centres as close as possible to meeting their needs.

5. Mosul Postwar Camp - Edoardo Daniele Stuggiu and Stefano Lombardi

Mosul Postwar Camp - 1st Place: Architectural Thesis Award ATA 2019 (Source: www.archistart.net)

War does permanent damage to a person’s mental health. The survivors experience trauma, loss and even destruction of self-identity. The architecture thesis project proposes a postwar camp at Mosul, Iraq, aiming to create a place where people of various backgrounds can peacefully coexist and build a community based on humanitarian values to prevent war in the future.

6. Consolation through Architecture - A New Journey through the Abandoned Landscapes of Varanasi - Navin Lucas Sebastian

Consolation Through Architecture - COA National Awards for Excellence in Architectural Thesis 2016 (Source: www.coa.gov.in)

The intangible aspects of design are tough to pinpoint but necessary for the essence and feel of it. This urban design thesis project shows light on architecture’s influence on one’s emotions with the holy city of Varanasi in India as the backdrop. With a focus on issues arising due to the city’s cremation grounds, the thesis explores innovative and sustainable solutions for the same.

7. Unfinished Tor Vergata Scenario - Carmelo Gagliano

Unfinished Tor Vergata Scenario - 1st Place: Architectural Thesis Award 2020 (Source: www.archistart.net)

When it comes to building projects, the trend of the ‘unfinished’ is something Italy has been increasingly seeing in the past few years. The most popular unfinished public work is Calatrava’s Olympic Stadium, which is the main object for reuse in the proposal of a science museum at Rome Tor Vergata.

This architecture thesis project explores the existing building trends of the region, aims to reinvent the iconic building and become a scientific attraction for tourists and locals.

8. Chachapoyas Peri-Urban Park - Nájat Jishar Fernández Díaz

Structures for Incidents in Nature: Chachapoyas Peri-Urban Park - Special Mention: Architectural Thesis Award ATA 2019 (Source: www.archistart.net)

Growing urban areas are a concern as they slowly consume the ecology surrounding them. Chachapoyas (forest of clouds) in Peru faces a similar problem from the expanding urban confinements which are slowly taking over the beautiful landscapes for which the place is particularly famous.

The project aims to mend the damage by connecting every speck of open land available in the region and converting it into a network of green corridors, making for an interesting urban planning thesis!

9. Garden of Reconciliation, Kashmir - Jay Shah

Garden of Reconciliation: Miniature Drawing - COA National Award in Excellence for Architectural Thesis 2018 (Source: www.uni.xyz)

Cultural and political unrest in a region has always been the glue for controversies, leading to public tip-toeing around such topics. This bold architecture thesis project looks at the conflicted region of Kashmir, to analyse its cultural, social and artistic practices and then come up with an architecture program best suited for the region. This is traversed in the form of a mixed-use landscape that aims to find a solution and is not the solution itself!

Such theses usually require intensive site studies. Read: Site Analysis Categories You Need to Cover For Your Architecture Thesis Project to know more.

10. Adaptive Reuse of STP Grain Silos - Alila Mhamed

Poudrière Community Hub - 2nd Place: Architectural Thesis Awards ATA 2020 (Source: www.archistart.net)

Adaptive reuse of spaces that have been uninhabited for a long time does true justice to the core values of architecture and design. This thesis project explores the creative redefinition of the old STP Grain silos complex, the first mill constructed as a part of the Poudrière industrial park in the present-day city of Sfax, Tuscany, Italy, by converting it into a mixed-use hub for art, commerce, trade, administration and collaboration.

Numerous amazing architecture thesis projects come to light every year and the list is not limited to this one! At the learning stages, people have the power to unleash their creativity without any limitations and such scenarios might just lead to the right solutions for the time and society we live in.

Giving your architecture thesis project? Check out our A-Z Architecture Thesis Guide!

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Thesis defence: Jordan Crowder

Transcendence: being on the edge of meaning.

The erosion of the body, the other, and the tangible world now permeate all facets of contemporary existence, extending beyond the confines of debilitating disease—a mode of non-existence until death. We are separating ourselves from the human condition, encapsulated within a server; we are no longer present, instead existing in a palliative state where information proliferates, yet being diminishes. Servers, both physical and digital, become central to our existence, embodying non-real forms that collapse into one another, displacing both the real and us with it. Our existence becomes inauthentic, with no alternative to exist outside of it. Without presence in the server, one does not exist at all. Man is enslaved in this state, celebrated as progress erasing him from the picture, until there is no longer a picture to erase. Instead, a virtue signaling for more control, sedated from a disease that is life, until disappearing entirely. Greater anesthesia is induced, keeping him in a coma, only to need more.

When an individual is presented with his own condition and a series of unavoidable losses, he is compelled to ask and reflect – to fight an incurable condition; one akin to the server that alienates one from the body, the other and reality. Man however finds himself searching for meaning in a world devoid of it. To embrace one’s pain and suffering where the other has removed it entirely; here one brings man towards death and the other hides it away, both however pull towards disability. This frustration, born from the desire for freedom only to be constrained by his condition, signifies a descent into non-being, lacking both a functioning body and, potentially, mind. Conversely, a mode of existence the world too becomes, that a collective complies towards. For man, however, falling into both results in a double disappearance.

The condition, while physically and mentally debilitating, serves as an opportunity to confront more clearly the realities of life and death, independent from the server's palliation of it. The server's nature offers an escape to realms beyond, liberated from a hyperreal and disabled existence. The rooftop, both metaphorically and physically, connects to reality, offering a liminal vantage to reflect on the essence of being one is increasingly pulled away from. Here, man transcends the body's limitations, the notion of access, and the reality of disability. He surpasses the server's digital and physical confines and his condition, reconnecting with the remnants of the real world and its corporeal existence. The rooftop clarifies his condition and the underlying loss of being. Although man's fate remains inescapable, this distancing from non-existence rekindles his freedom to that when he was a child, while drawing him as close to heaven as possible, so that when death does occur, he is already there.

In this realm, man falls in love with being in the very places he should not.

The examining committee is as follows: Supervisor: Robert Jan Van Pelt Committee member: Tara Bissett Internal-external reader: Colin Ellard External: Peter Sealy The defence examination will take place: Thursday, April 25, 2024, 9:00 a.m. In person, in the Riverside Gallery. A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.

This thesis will be on view in the Riverside Gallery from April 22 - 26.

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thesis: The Latest Architecture and News

The second studio podcast: preparing for architecture thesis.

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes , Spotify , and YouTube .

This week David and Marina discuss undergraduate architecture thesis projects and studios, covering the differences between thesis projects, capstone projects, and dissertations; how to select a thesis topic; how to choose the right studio/professor; the value of doing a thesis; the unique challenges of thesis; and more.

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Charles Correa’s 1955 Master Thesis Uses Animated Film to Explain Public Participation in Urban Processes

Charles Correa Foundation has recently released several snippets of ‘You & Your Neighbourhood’ , Charles Correa ’s 1955 Master Thesis at MIT , an animation film for which the architect was scriptwriter, animator, photographer and director. The thesis put forward the idea of a participatory process for the betterment of neighbourhoods, with a strong emphasis on creating a framework for improving urban conditions in a bottom-up approach.

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The Charette has launched ‘Architecture Thesis of the Year | ATY 2020’ - an international architecture thesis competition that aims to extend appreciation to the tireless effort and exceptional creativity of student thesis in the fields of Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape, and Restoration. We seek to encourage young talent in bringing their path-breaking ideas to the forefront on a global scale.

UnBuilding Building | 2020 Post-Professional M.Arch Thesis Virtual Exhibition

Princeton School of Architecture is pleased to announce UnBuilding Building, an online exhibition by the 2020 Post-Professional M.Arch Thesis class coordinated by Professor Jesse Reiser. The website showcases projects by five students—Catherine Ahn, Esra Durukan, Sarah Etaat, Kyle Weeks, and Olga Zakharova—collectively named "V".

UnBuilding Building

Our built environment is in a constant state of destabilization by changing environments, influences, and functions. In a landscape where architecture is often pushed to sublimate into other types of creative practices, permanence in architecture is no longer something that can be taken for granted. We confront this question of permanence of buildings through actively constructing

Architectural Thesis Award - ATA2020

Archistart promotes the fourth Architectural Thesis Award, the international thesis award, launched with the aim of promoting, rewarding and giving visibility to young talents in architecture. The three last editions of the Architectural Thesis Award were a great success among young talents in architecture. There were, in the last one edition – ATA2019, 202 participants from different nationalities with 148 projects. The ATA2019 winning thesis project was MOSUL POSTWAR CAMP ( https://www.archistart.net/portfolio-item/mosul-postwar-camp/ ) by Edoardo Daniele Stuggiu and Stefano Lombardi. The project excels for the completeness of the methodological approach, with a proposal that analyzes and solves all the design scales.

Prize-Winning Harvard GSD Thesis Questions the Skin-Deep Application of Vernacular Design

Each year, the Boston Society of Architects offers the James Templeton Kelley Prize to the best final design project for the MArch degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design . This year, the March II recipient was Ziwei Song for their thesis titled “Not so skin deep: vernacularism in XL” for exploring alternative ways of integrating the Chinese vernacular with modern “XL” developments.

Ziwei’s thesis sought to re-approach the typical developer project in China , and demonstrate the capacity of the vernacular image to positively-effect the sequence, perception, and exposure of space. To test this, the project was placed on Chongqing, a typical second-tier city in China with a concentration of XL developer projects.

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Though starting out as a humble thesis , this project is being actualized under the organization, Out of Ocean. From the shores of the Koster Islands in Sweden , plastic samples were collected and studied for their various material performance in areas such as color, texture, light, and translucency.

UnIATA - Unfuse International Architecture Thesis Awards 2018

UNFUSE serves as a platform to create a global community of architects and designers who are pushing the boundaries of architecture discipline to enrich our built environment. At UNFUSE we promote exceptional works, ideas, experimentations in the field of architecture, landscape, urban Design, society, culture and ecology.

"Faith Estates" Proposes a New Approach to Religious Pilgrimage by Excavating Holy Sites

In a time of what seems to be ever-increasing religious and political conflict, Bartlett students Akarachai Padlom, Eleftherios Sergios, and Nasser Alamadi instead chose to focus on collaboration between religions in their thesis project entitled “Faith Estates,” which outlines a new method of mass religious tourism . In an area around the Dead Sea characterized by disputed boundaries and conflicting ownership claims, the group aims to reimagine the relationship between the world’s three monotheistic religions, but also to rethink the relationship between religion, tourism, and the landscape. The design consists of large-scale excavation sites which form tourist resorts along a pilgrimage route with the goal of forming a mutually beneficial relationship.

Self-Aware Nanobots Form Futurist Megastructures in this Thesis Project from the AA

Architecture is a swarm, and a self aware one at that. That's the vision presented by noMad: a built environment made of Buckminster Fuller -like geometric structures that compile themselves entirely autonomously, according to data gathered and processed by the units. Developed by Architectural Association students Dmytro Aranchii, Paul Bart, Yuqiu Jiang, and Flavia Santos, on a basic level noMad's concept is fairly simple - a small unit of motors that is attached to several magnetic faces, which can be reoriented into different shapes. Put multiple units together, however, and noMad's vision becomes an entirely new form of architecture: non-finite, mobile and infinitely adaptable.

"Engineered Paradises" Takes an Imagined Look into the Possibilities Between Palestine and Israel

“Engineered Paradises”, a thesis by Zarith Pineda from Tulane University , looks into a possible future for Hebron , exploring the condition where peace never comes to the West Bank, but where the mutual destruction of both sides is addressed through the creation of safe spaces for the expression of universal emotions. The thesis proposes that in this way, both parties may be unified by their plight. The project was created based on observation of the city of Hebron and on-site interviews with Hebronites. Their true stories then became the narrative dictating the program of the project.