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Architecture Thesis Projects: A Comprehensive List of 30 Topics to Pick From (Updated 2024)

Neha Sharma

13 min read

March 18, 2024

Table of Contents

Architecture Thesis: A culmination of all those years of intense training, sleepless nights, countless submissions and unforgettable memories. The grand finale!

It is a real test to showcase all the skills you’ve gained over the years in a single project. Naturally, choosing the right topic from an ocean of architecture thesis topics is one of the biggest challenges you can face as a final year student, as the topic itself may define the trajectory of your thesis!

To ease your conflicted mind, we have curated a comprehensive list of popular architecture thesis projects you might want to explore in your final year, along with links to relevant theses across the internet for your ready reference.

Go on, have a look! What sparks your interest?

Housing/ Residential Projects

1. Affordable Housing

“Housing for all” is a major goal developing countries are striving to achieve. Not everyone has the resources to own a house or even rent one out. Conscious and well-planned housing design can turn cities into places where owning a house is not merely a dream. And architects can play a pivotal role in achieving this noble goal.

2. Gated Communities

With the city centres choking with pollution, traffic congestion and over-population, many people are now moving to the suburbs in closed, secure and private gated communities. These colonies circumference almost every major city now, with more emerging as you read. A gated community design could be an interesting (though slightly controversial) architecture thesis topic to explore residential neighbourhood planning.

3. Modular/ Disaster Relief/ Emergency Shelters

Land and resources are limited but the demand for them only keeps increasing giving rise to environmental hazards like deforestation, pollution and depletion of natural assets. In a rapidly changing, calamity-prone world, the design of modular, mobile, disaster relief shelters is the need of the hour!

4. Slum Redevelopment

Urban informality may be a fascinating, complex issue to tackle for your architecture thesis projects. Many people have varied opinions on the dense, informal urban developments popularly known as ‘slums’ , but few are willing to tackle the difficult issue from top to bottom (or bottom up!). Are you one of the few?

Institutional Projects

5. Educational and Skill-Training Institutions

Schools play an important role in shaping a person and are key in bringing up generations of bright individuals. Educational and skill-training institutions have vast options, ranging from kindergartens to higher-education institutes; schools of dance to special-needs institutes ! Ready to shape minds?

6. Rehabilitation and Wellness Institutions

A sound mind and sound body are key to a happy life!

Unfortunately, sometimes individuals have to be institutionalised to get their health back on track. Rehabilitation centres and centres for people with depression or trauma aim at people’s mental wellness, while public gyms and civic sports centres aim at people’s physical wellness. If healing architecture and landscape is something you like, this could be the best architecture thesis topic for you!

7. Research Institutions

Progress in science, technology and humanities improves our way of living and ensures our well-being. The Sheldon Coopers among us wouldn’t be happy to see any fewer research centres and laboratories than there are!

Public Infrastructure Projects

8. Hospitals

Healthcare services are undoubtedly the most important services any region needs. The pandemic has made us understand how under-equipped even the best hospitals can be and so there is an even bigger reason for every hospital, be it multi-speciality/ speciality , maternity, special needs, public or private , to be as well designed as possible. This, more than ever, is the need of the hour and can make for a pressing architecture thesis project.

9. Transit Hubs

Airports , Bus Terminals , Railway Stations , Inland Waterways, Seaports.

Do you love to travel? Have you ever waited for a train and imagined how much better that railway station could be? Then what are you waiting for? Be the change!

10. Sports Stadia

Remember that first stadium experience of watching a cricket or football match? The energy of the crowd, the adrenaline rush! Most group sports stadia ( Cricket , Football , Hockey, Baseball, etc) and sports cities require meticulous study before designing, making a very suitable architecture thesis project for students.

11. Urban/Street Redevelopment

How often do we walk the streets of our cities and almost die because a bike passed within inches of us? Street redevelopment projects catering to pedestrianisation are proven to improve the lives of millions and are rapidly gaining urgency in the urban design domain.

These projects often require extensive site study. Not sure what all to cover in your site analysis? Read - Site Analysis Categories You Need to Cover For Your Architecture Thesis Project .

12. Waterfront Development

Rivers are considered sacred and life-giving across the world. The pitiful conditions of water bodies today have led urban designers to take up River/Canal-front Development Projects which aim at minimising water pollution, a smooth transition from land to water, and ultimately encouraging visitors for leisure and fun activities.

13. Public Parks and Plazas

Parks are the lungs of the concrete jungles many of us live in. After a day of intense work, all we need is some greenery and fresh air; or to grab a beer at that corner cafe in the city square! The design of public parks, plazas and playgrounds could be the best architecture thesis topic for an urban/landscape enthusiast.

14. Social Infrastructure

A robust, well-functioning society accommodates and facilitates the wellness of all its citizens and living beings. Infrastructure like orphanages , nursing homes , animal shelters , night shelters , daycare centres, banks, prisons , juvenile schools, community development centres , and many more tend to those social needs of the society which cannot be overlooked. Inclined towards public welfare? Look no further!

Socio-Cultural Projects

15. Community and Convention Centres

Humans are social animals. Now and then, we crave a meet-and-greet. Community and Convention Centres cater to this very need, and exploring the design angles for human interaction may be something worthy of your architecture thesis project. Be ready for competition though, this is one of the most popular architecture thesis topics students undertake!

16. Museums and Libraries

The culture-lovers among us would understand the value of a good museum or library and appreciate a well-designed one. Be it a museum of arts and crafts, culture, architecture , history or science, if the give and take of knowledge through some entertainment and delight (infotainment) is something you see yourself doing, then this could be the best architecture thesis topic for you.

17. Memorials

Memorials are the physical manifestations of the struggles endured, victories earned and life-changing events in history. They remind us to never forget the past, hoping for a better future at the same time, making memorial design both a fascinating yet weighted exercise.

18. Places of Worship/ Spiritual Centres

One cannot separate a human from their faith. Having a place to worship or connect with one’s spiritual self is as important to a human as going to school or a cinema hall. Places of worship like temples, churches, masjids, gurudwaras, monasteries , etcetera; and spiritual or meditation centres serve as places for gathering and become important landmarks in a settlement.

Conservation and Heritage Projects

19. Conservation of Heritage Structures

Conservation of the priceless built heritage like palaces, monuments, places of worship, ancient settlements, etc has always been on the agenda of organisations like UNESCO and the Archeological Survey of India. If historical significance gets your heart rate up, hi history nerd! Help in conserving our heritage structures !

20. Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Buildings

History nerd, if you’re still here, here’s another architecture thesis topic for you. Some heritage can be conserved to attract tourists and some that are too out-of-order could be modified and reused for a different purpose, generating economy. Converting royal palaces into heritage hotels, a king’s court into an emergency ward for covid patients or factories into community spaces, adaptive reuse of the built form requires fine skill, respect for heritage, and an active imagination!

Offices/ Corporate Projects

21. Government Buildings

Workspaces for all government officials are mandatory for smooth administration. The scale of government buildings is diverse, from the Central Vista Redevelopment Project (*ahem*) to a district-sessions court. Some common categories are high courts, government-owned banks, secretariat and corporation buildings , income-tax offices, assembly and gathering centres , media offices and so on.

Sounds boring? Don’t be so sure. What originally sounds typical is where there is maximum potential to surprise your critics!

22. Corporate Office Towers

We all have seen or at least talked about the famous corporate jungles of our towns. They not only serve as important landmarks but help in increasing the economic value of a region (Very SEZ-y!). If you wanna tame the jungle, you could explore corporate office-building design for your architecture thesis topic.

23. Co-working and Remote-working Spaces

A popular trend before COVID was sharing workspaces, which now have the potential to be thought of as remote-working spaces! Rethinking the design of co-working spaces is very relevant to the times and has great scope for innovation.

With the times we live in, this could be the best architecture thesis topic!

Entertainment and Commercial Projects

24. Theatres and Auditoria

Who doesn’t like good showtime with family and friends? Theatres, auditoria and performance centres are the core of spaces showcasing and witnessing talent, and fall under another typology which has the potential to be reworked post-pandemic. The design of such entertainment stations can test the knowledge of large-span structures without losing a strong grip on creativity and functionality.

25. Multiplexes and Malls

Malls and multiplexes are very popular among the masses as they possess multiple brands of shopping, entertainment and food centres. Whether or not you agree with the mall typology, more keep coming up in growing towns every year. So why not study how they work and improve the concept for your architecture thesis project? The consumerist urbania will thank you!

26. Marketplaces

Shopping for groceries and essential commodities is a frequent need, and most people head to a single marketplace for all their essential goods shopping. A place with a high frequency of movement requires meticulous and thorough design, but can also be one of the most fun challenges to take up! Think farmer markets, community-owned produce markets, mandis, harbour fish markets, and flea markets, the possibilities are endless!

27. Mixed-Use Hubs

Taking your design challenge up a notch is by taking up a mixed-use hub . This is a high-density area that caters to more than one function and has mega economic value. It could be a combination of residential, commercial, institutional, or hospitality, commercial and public space, or much more. This concept is taken to another level by bringing transit hubs into the fray with transit-oriented development!

28. Film, Photo and Animation Studios

The use of digital media has increased multifold in the past couple of decades. A lot of creatives express themselves through digital content, increasing the need for more film , photo, animation and integrated studios . Since these functions can be highly specialised, there is a lot of potential to do impressive research for your architecture thesis project!

Hospitality and Tourism Projects

29. Eco-Tourism Resorts and Visiting Centres

Imagine spending a weekend at a secluded place, close to nature, with all the facilities you need to relax and just de-stress! Ecological resorts and tourist visiting centres aim to cause as little damage to the environment as possible. Keen on environmental sustainability, eco-tourism resorts should be encouraged in the tourism and hospitality industry and make for very relevant architecture thesis topics.

Landscape architecture enthusiasts, where are you all at?

30. Backpacker Lodging/ Youth Hostels

While the question of travel arises, not everyone can afford finely kempt hotels or resorts to lodge at. The youth may opt for backpacking trips to save money as well as to have an interesting experience! Backpacking/ youth hostels like Zostel and Nomads World are buzzing for their affordability, convenience and prospects of networking with like-minded people. If this is your jam, consider creating innovative spaces for it!

Futuristic/ Sci-fi/ Conceptual Projects

How about a settlement on Mars? Or a concert hall in the air? A transit hub of 2050? A forest within the city? Perhaps a residential colony on the water!

Such futuristic or conceptual architecture thesis topics are all the more enthralling as they might not have any precedents. They stretch a creative brain to its limit, and in the process may transform into a brilliant idea. Challenging conventions, thinking out of the box and taking up a futuristic architecture thesis project could be your achievement (both in design and in convincing the faculty) as a young designer!

Having read about some common architecture thesis topics, it is important to know that you must not be limited to the above list. Your architecture thesis is your own brainchild, and it does not need to conform or even fit within a category.

A great architecture thesis is also a key ingredient in creating a kickass architecture portfolio ! So give your all. Who knows, you may even end up receiving an award for your architecture thesis !

Hoping you found the inspiration you were looking for!

Need more guidance with your architecture thesis project? Head straight to our A-Z Architecture Thesis Guide !

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Explore Thesis projects from the Class of 2021

Review Book:  https://issuu.com/mitarchitecture/docs/20-01-05_marchthesisbookletsqsinglep  

Master of Architecture (M.Arch) Website:  https://www.mitmarchthesis.com/theses

Post -arium Arditha Auriyane Advisor: Mariana Ibanez

Priced Out of Paradise :  Reconsidering cooperatives in response to climate gentrification in Miami’s communities of color Adiel Alexis Benitez Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw

To Know is to Empower :  Chagos Institute of Environmental Humanities Chen Chu Advisor: Miho Mazereew

Reclaiming the Estranged :  Reimagining the Architecture of the Excess Sydney Cinalli Advisor: Brandon Clifford, Deborah Garcia

Ferrous Futures :  Scenario Planning for Global Steel Charlotte D'Acierno, Clarence Lee, Jaehun Woo Advisor: Mariana Ibanez

Seven Ways of Reading The House of the Seven Gables Isadora Dannin Advisor: Mark Jarzombek

Gardens of Resistance Nynika Jhaveri Advisor: Azra Aksamija

After Aura :  Authorship, Automation, Authenticity Kailin J. Jones Advisor: Azra Aksamija

The Factory of Coexistence Melika Konjicanin Advisor: Cristina Parreño Alonso

Screen Time Jeffrey Landman Advisor: Rania Ghosn

Architecture for Revision Emma Pfeiffer Advisor: Rosalyne Shieh

Thorough David Allen White Advisor: Mark Jarzombek

Spring 2021

Review Book:  https://issuu.com/mitarchitecture/docs/21-05-21_allthesisbookletpages

Master of Architecture (M.Arch) Website:  https://mit-march-sp21.com/

The Houseful(l)ness of Public Space Xio Alvarez (M.Arch & MCP) Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw, Larry Vale

Still Standing :  Cooperative strategies for the renovation of Soviet mass housing Ben Hoyle, Eytan Levi (M.Arch & MSRED) Advisor: Ana Miljački

Concetividad Alegal :  Remaking and Resilience in the bay of Havana        Lucas Igarzabal, Marissa Concetta Waddle Advisor: Hans Tursack

M.I.celium mexicanus :  Rejecting Modernity through Zapotec Futurism Lynced Torres Advisor: Sheila Kennedy View project site here!

Heirlooms :  In Search of the Fifth Ecology Erin Wong Advisor: Sheila Kennedy

Building / Unbuilding   Andrew Younker Advisor: Azra Akšamija

Space of Mind :  The Hidden Architecture in the Time of Pandemic Ziyu Xu Advisor: Axel Killian

Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS)

SMArchS Architecture + Urbanism

Third Landscape Dries Carmeliet Advisor: Rania Ghosn

Mediating Chana :  Seeding Synergies Between Doves and Development Eakapob Huangthanapan Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw

Mokumitsu Districts in Tokyo :  Urban Renewal by Housing Cooperatives against Disaster Risk Ryuhei Ichikura Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw

To Build Home and To Live In (U)Hygge Wuyahuang Li Advisor: Mark Jarzombek

Collecting Ideals :  Re-Envisioning Ejidos as Climate-Action Platforms Luis Alberto Meouchi Velez Advisor: Lorena Bello Gomez, Nicholas de Monchaux

Made in Rural China Siyuan Sheng Advisor: Brent Ryan

Generative Urban Design toward Thermal Synergy :  Inspire sustainable urban configuration under distributive heating & cooling schemes Qianqian Wan Advisor: Caitlin Mueller

SMArchS Architecture Design

Velvet Garage :  Narratives of an Education in Architecture Marianna Gonzalez-Cervantes Advisor: Liam O'Brien

Nightrise :  Through the Valley of Jabal ‘Amil’s Shadow Mohamad Nahleh Advisor: Sheila Kennedy

SMArchS Building Technology

Mass Balance :  Design Strategies for Lightweight, Thermally Massive Construction Systems Eduardo Gascón Alvarez Advisor: Caitlin Mueller

Evaluating Overheating Preventative Measures in Residential Buildings and Passive Survivability Yesufu Oladipo Advisor: Les Norford

SMArchS Computation

A Machine Learning Model for Understanding How Users Value Designs :  Applications for Designers and Consumers Jeremy Bilotti (SMArchS Computation & SM in CS) Advisor: Terry Knight

The Untold Narratives Rania Sameh Kaadan Advisor: Terry Knight

Sonic Others :  Metaphorical Sonification of Collective Events Wonki Kang Advisor: Axel Killian

Networking Knowledge and Experience :  An Instrumental System for the Personal Development of Individual Designers Bowen Lu Advisor: George Stiny

Sonic Urban Transformations :  A Computational Model to Study and Represent Temporal Changes in the Walking Experience Elina Oikonomaki Advisor: Terry Knight

Monstrous Space :  Architectural Production in an Age of Algorithms Alexandra Waller Advisor: Larry Sass

Investigating Design Intentions :  Use of Eye Tracking and Machine Leearning to Study Perception of Architecture Xiaoyun Zhang Advisor: Takehiko Nagakura

SMArchS History, Theory & Criticism

"A Great Civilizing Agent" :  Architecture at MIT, Drawing Education, and Boston's Cultural Elite, 1865-1881 Katherine Dubbs Advisor: Arindam Dutta

Surveilling Sin :  Locating Sodomy in the Early Modern Florentine Bathhouse Aidan Flynn Advisor: Kristel Smentek, Jodi Cranston

SMArchS Aga Khan Program

Fractured and Dissolved, Architecture Ablaze :  Towards an Understanding of Ayeneh-Kari in Iranian Palaces Reza Daftarian Advisor: Nasser Rabbat

Scripting Inclusion Amanda Merzaban Advisor: Renee Green

Master of Science in Building Technolgy (SMBT)

Using Urban Building Energy Modeling to Meet Carbon Emission Targets :  A Case Study of Oshkosh, Wisconsin Zachary Berzolla Advisor: Christoph Reinhart

Early Design Stage Building Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) of Cost & Carbon Impact :  A Seamless Addition to the Conceptual Design Process Jingyi Liu Advisor: Jeremy Gregory, Randy Kirchain, Les Norford

Machine Learning for Human Design :  Developing Next Generation Sketch-Based Tools Bryan Ong Wen Xi (SMBT & MEng in CEE) Advisor: Caitlin Mueller

On the Relationship Between Spatial-Temporal Outdoor Thermal Comfort Simulations and Bike Ridership Elizabeth Young Advisor: Christoph Reinhart

Bachelor of Science in Art and Design (BSAD)

Digital Narratives for Self-Therapy Rachel Seo Yeon Kwak Advisor: Lee Moreau

Digital Communities x Collaborative Storytelling Clare Liut (BSAD & SB in 2A) Advisor: Mikael Jakobsson

Concrete Alternatives for Large Scale Additive Manufacturing Chloe Nelson-Arzuaga Advisor: Skylar Tibbits

Image Credits:

01. Ferrous Futures. Courtesy of Charlotte D’Acierno, Clarence Lee and Jaehun Woo (MArch).

02. Space of Mind. Courtesy of Ziyu Xu (MArch).

03. Nightrise. Courtesy of Mohamad Nahleh (SMArchS Architecture Design)

04. Untold Narratives. Courtesy of Rania Kaadan (SMArchS Computation).

05. Mediating Chana. Courtesy of Eakapob Huangthanapan (SMArchS Urbanism).

06. To Build Home and To Live In (U)Hygge. Courtesy of Wuyahuang Li (SMArchS Urbanism).

07. Concetividad Alegal. Courtesy of Lucas Igarzabal and Marissa Concetta Waddle (MArch).

08. The Houseful(l)ness of Public Space. Courtesy of Xio Alvarez (MArch + MCP).

09. Mass Balance. Courtesy of Eduardo Gascón Alvarez (SMArchS Building Technology).

10. Early Design Stage Building Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) of Cost & Carbon Impact. Courtesy of Jingyi Liu (SMBT).

Published July 1, 2021

Selected Architecture Thesis Projects: Fall 2020

Clockwise from top left: “Citing the Native Genius” by Taylor Cook, “Pair of Dice, Para-Dice, Paradise: A Counter-Memorial to Victims of Police Brutality” by Calvin Boyd, “The Magic Carpet” by Goli Jalali, “Stacked Daydreams: Ceiling-Scape for the Neglected” by Zai Xi Jeffrey Wong, and “Up from the Past: Housing as Reparations on Chicago’s South Side” by Isabel Strauss

Five films showcase a selection of Fall 2020 thesis projects from the Department of Architecture.

Pair of Dice, Para-Dice, Paradise: A Counter-Memorial to Victims of Police Brutality

This thesis is a proposal for a counter-memorial to victims of police brutality. The counter-memorial addresses scale by being both local and national, addresses materiality by privileging black aesthetics over politeness, addresses presence/absence by being more transient than permanent, and lastly, addresses site by being collective rather than singular. The result is an architecture that plays itself out over 18,000 police stations across America and the Washington Monument at the National Mall, two sites that are intrinsically linked through the architecture itself: negative “voids” at police stations whose positive counterparts aggregate at the Mall.

The critical question here is whether or not the system in which police brutality takes place can be reformed from within, or if people of color need to seek their utopia outside of these too-ironclad structures. This counter-memorial, when understood as an instrument of accountability (and therefore a real-time beacon that measures America’s capacity to either change or otherwise repeat the same violent patterns), ultimately provides us with an eventual answer.

Author: Calvin Boyd, MArch I 2020 Advisor: Jon Lott , Assistant Professor of Architecture Duration: 11 min, 2 sec

Thesis Helpers: Shaina Yang (MArch I 2021), Rachel Coulomb (MArch I 2022)

The Magic Carpet

The Persian Carpet and the Persian Miniature painting have served as representation tools for the Persian Gar­den and the idea of paradise in Persian culture since antiquity. The word paradise derives from the Persian word pari-daeza meaning “walled enclosure.” The garden is always walled and stands in opposition to its landscape. This thesis investigates the idea of a contemporary image of paradise in the Iranian imagination by using carpets and miniature paintings as a tool for designing architecture. The garden, with its profound associations, provided a world of metaphor for the classical mystic poets. One of the manuscripts describing the Persian garden is called Haft Paykar – known as the Seven Domes – written by the 12th century Persian poet called Nizami. These types of manuscripts were made for Persian kings and contain within them miniature paintings and poetry describing battles, romances, tragedies, and triumphs that compromise Iran’s mythical and pre-Islamic history. The carpet is the repeating object in the minia­ture paintings of the manuscript. This thesis deconstructs the carpet in seven ways in order to digitally reconstruct the miniature paintings of the Seven Domes and the image of paradise with new techniques.

Author: Goli Jalali, MArch I 2021 Advisor: Jennifer Bonner , Associate Professor of Architecture Duration: 8min, 28 sec

Up from the Past: Housing as Reparations on Chicago’s South Side

Do people know what the Illinois Institute of Technology and the South Side Planning Board and the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois and the United States government did to the Black Metropolis? If they know, do they care? Is it too hard to hold these entities accountable? If we held them accountable, could we find justice for those that were displaced? What would justice look like? What comes after Mecca? What types of spaces come after Mecca? Are they different than what was there before? Are they already there? What defines them? Can Reparations be housing? How many people are already doing this work? How many people are doing this work in academia? On the ground? Is the word “Reparations” dead? What do we draw from? Who is this for? Do white men own the legacy of the architecture that defined the Black Metropolis? How personal should this work be? How anecdotal? How quantitative? Does the design need to be inherently spatial? Or atmospheric? What should it feel like? How do I draw a feeling in Rhino? What are radical ways of looking? How do we reclaim racialized architecture? Do we? Should we even talk about these things?

Author: Isabel Strauss, MArch I 2021 Advisor: Oana Stanescu , Design Critic in Architecture Duration: 4 min, 4 sec

Soundtrack Created By: Edward Davis (@DJ Eway) Production Support: Adam Maserow , Evan Orf , Glen Marquardt Collaborators: Rekha Auguste Nelson , Farnoosh Rafaie , Zena Mariem Mengesha , Edward Davis (DJ Eway) Special Thanks: Caleb Negash , Tara Oluwafemi , Maggie Janik , Ann Whiteside , Dana McKinney Guidance: Stephen Gray , John Peterson , Chris Herbert , Cecilia Conrad , Lawrence J. Vale , Ilan Strauss , Mark Lee , Iman Fayyad , Jennifer Bonner , Mindy Pugh , Peter Martinez Collage Credits: Adler and Sullivan , Bisa Butler , Carrie Mae Weems , Dawoud Bey , Deborah Roberts , Ebony G Patterson , Ellen Gallagher , Frank Lloyd Wright , Howardena Pindell , Jordan Casteel , Kerry James Marshall , Latoya Ruby Frazier , Lelaine Foster , Lorna Simpson , Mark Bradford , Mickalene Thomas , Mies van der Rohe , Nick Cave , Njideka Akunyili Crosby , Romare Bearden , Sadie Barnette More Information: architectureofreparations.cargo.site

Stacked Daydreams: Ceiling‐Scape for the Neglected

Elderly Care Adaptive Reuse of Hong Kong’s Vertical Factory

This thesis operates at the intersection of three domains of neglect:

• In the realm of building elements, the ceiling is often considered as an afterthought in the design process.
• Across building types, the vertical factory sits abandoned and anachronistic to its surroundings. It spiraled into disuse due to Hong Kong’s shifting economic focus.
• In society, the elderly are often subjected to social neglect, seen as a financial burden, and forced toward the fringes of society.

These parts experience obsolescence that led to indifference, and subsequently to boredom. I intend to draw the parallel of deterioration between the body of the elderly and the body of the vertical factory. Using a set of ceiling parts in the manner of prosthetics to reactivate the spaces into elderly care facilities, revert boredom to daydreams, and reimagine the concept of elderhood as an experimental second stage of life.

Author: Zai Xi Jeffrey Wong, MArch I AP 2021 Advisor: Eric Höweler , Associate Professor of Architecture & Architecture Thesis Coordinator Duration: 4 min, 53 sec

Citing the Native Genius

Reconstructing vernacular architecture in Hawai’i

For over 120 years, Americanization has tried to demean and erase Hawaiian language, culture, and architecture. In contemporary discourse, the vernacular architecture of Hawai’i is mostly referred to as ancient and vague. As with many Indigenous cultures, Western perspectives tend to fetishize or patronize the Hawaiian design aesthetic. Within this hierarchy of knowledge is a systemic assumption that Hawaiian vernacular architecture cannot effectively serve as a precedent resource for contemporary architects. Those who do reference the original vernacular will often classify it as utilitarian or resourceful. Regardless of intent, this narrative takes design agency away from the people involved. As a corrective, a respectful use of vernacular domestic form would benefit designers that are struggling to connect with Hawai’i’s cultural and architectural traditions.

Mining the European gaze and influence out of revivalist publications, archeological surveys and historic images reveal unique characteristics of Hawaiian domestic space. Geometric quotation and symbolic referencing are the foundational instruments in applying the discrete components, form, and organizational logic of the vernacular. The result is a design process that creates an amalgamation of decolonized form and contemporary technique. This residential project intends to revive Hawai’i’s erased domestic experience by revisiting the precolonial vernacular form and plan.

Author: Taylor Cook, MArch I 2021 Advisor: Jeffry Burchard , Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture Duration: 5 min, 13 sec

Special Thanks: Jeffry Burchard, Cameron Wu, Kanoa Chung, Nik Butterbaugh, Carly Yong, Vernacular Pacific LLC More Information: www.vernacularhawaii.com

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the galleries in Gund Hall have been turned ‘inside out,’ with exhibitions shown through a series of exterior projections on the building’s facade. View some images from the screening of these films below:

2021 Thesis

MIT Architecture Final Thesis Reviews, May 21, 2021

BSAD SMBT SMARCHS MARCH

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE MIT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING SA+P

MIT Architecture Final Thesis Reviews, May 21, 2021 Bachelor of Science in Art and Design (BSAD)

Seo Yeon Kwak 6 BSAD

Clare Liut 8 BSAD

Chloe Nelson-Arzuaga 10 BSAD & 2A

Master of Science in Building Technology (SMBT)

Zachary Berzolla 14 SMBT

Jingyi Liu 16 SMBT

Bryan Ong Wen Xi 18 SMBT & MEng in CEE Elizabeth Young 20 SMBT

Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS)

Jeremy Bilotti 22 Computation & SM in CS

Dries Carmeliet 24 Architecture & Urbanism

Reza Daftarian 26 Aga Khan Program

Katherine Dubbs 28 History, Theory & Criticism

Aidan Flynn 30 History, Theory & Criticism

Eduardo Gascón Alvarez 32 Building Technology

Marianna Gonzalez-Cervantes 34 Architecture Design

Eakapob Huangthanapan 36 Architecture & Urbanism

Ryuhei Ichikura 38 Architecture & Urbanism

Rania Sameh Kaadan 40 Computation

Wonki Kang 42 Computation

Wuyahuang Li 44 Architecture & Urbanism 2

Bowen Lu 48 Computation Luis Alberto Meouchi Velez 50 Architecture & Urbanism Amanda Merzaban 52 Aga Khan Program

Mohamad Nahleh 54 Architecture Design

Yesufu OIadipo 56 Building Technology

Elina Oikonomaki 58 Computation Siyuan Sheng 60 Architecture & Urbanism Alexandra Waller 62 Computation Qianqian Wan 64 Architecture & Urbanism Xiaoyun Zhang 66 Computation

Master of Architecture (MArch)

Xio Alvarez 70 MArch & MCP

Ben Hoyle 72 MArch

Lucas Igarzabal 74 MArch

Eytan Levi 72 MArch & MSRED Lynced Torres 76 MArch Marisa Concetta Waddle 74 MArc

Erin Wong 78 MArch

Andrew Younker 80 MArch

Ziyu Xu 82 MArch

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE MIT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING SA+P 3

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE MIT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING SA+P 5

Digital Narratives for Self-Therapy Seo Yeon Kwak BSAD Advisor: Lee Moreau Reader: Cherie Abbanat

The process of building positive, healthy mindsets has been studied throughout many years, but today, it is something that should be emphasized more than ever before. Unhealthy attitudes seem to be much more prevalent in modern times; according to studies, our society may be experiencing a “narcissism epidemic”1.

the need for accessible and everyday methods of emotional growth and healing. Digital products are a promising solution to making self-therapy methods more accessible and flexible to individuals’ lifestyles.

Digital Narratives for Self-Therapy aims to explore specifically the application of digital narratives in encourWith COVID-19, social isolation has aging positive and healthy mindsets in become a norm and has illuminated individuals. Storytelling has been a sig-

Both images by the author. 1

Neff, Kristin D. “Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, and Well-Being” January 4, 2011. Accessed October 8, 2020.

nificant means of learning and growth throughout all of human history and across all cultures. The potential for reading personal stories to become a popular means of emotional comfort has already been experienced, such as through the success of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series.

animated, and interactive elements. It also makes possible a scalable and flexible system for lightweight selftherapy that can be accessed by many people around the world, at any time or location that fits into each individual’s lifestyle. The Digital Narratives for Self-Therapy project is meant to serve as a case study that can be expanded in the future to create a robust system for self-therapy through digital storytelling.

Turning personal, moving stories into digital experiences opens the opportunity to enrich them with audio, visual,

Digital Communities x Collaborative Storytelling Clare Liu BSAD Advisor: Mikael Jakobsson Reader: Takehiko Nagakura All virtual spaces are driven by the people who reside within them, from the way the architecture is constructed and rearranged to the way people choose to inhabit and utilize these spaces. Although the methods of communication, the concept of identity, and the persistence of these digital spaces differ from their physical counterparts, how they should be designed and inhabited remains an inevitable question. In this thesis, I perform an ethnographic inquiry into a virtual roleplay community situated on the text and voice-chat program, Discord. My goal with this research was to provide insight into a niche corner of Internet communities, understand the affordances of the program and how they were utilized, and finally understand how these implements allowed the community to develop their own culture and succeed. By engaging with member activities within the virtual community, I documented my insights within the following scaffold: the members, their creations, the Discord platform, and the member-arranged server architecture. In my analysis, I sought to understand the relationships that emerged between the constraints of the platform, how users utilized these constraints, and how they interacted with one another, eventually proposing this virtual community’s process as one way to design a digital space for a creative community.

Implementing Continuous Fiber Reinforcement for Concrete Additive Manufacturing Chloe Nelson-Arzuaga BSAD & 2A Advisor: Skylar Tibbits Concrete additive manufacturing is

Current methods of reinforcing con-

a promising alternative to standard

crete 3D printing mainly consists of

concrete con-struction, but the in-

manually adding rebar into cavities

ability to print reinforcement as

acreated during the printing process.

part of the manufacturing process

Since the rebar has to be cast into

is a signifi-cant limitation. This the-

place by hand, many of the benefits

sis proposes a method of extruding

of having an autonomous process

continuous fiber reinforcement dur-

are reduced. This project designed

ing the 3D printing process. Rein-

an extruder for a continuous strand

forcement is important in the pro-

of Kevlar to be extruded alongside

cess of creating concrete structures

the concrete extrusion. Through

because while concrete is strong in

controlling the speed at which the

compression, it has almost no ten-

Kevlar extruder was linearly trans-

sile capacity. Reinforcement com-

lated, different densities of Kevlar

pensates for this by introducing a

were created within two layers of

high-tensile strength material such

concrete. These reinforced concrete

as steel rod into the con-crete to

pieces were then tested against a

give it tensile properties.

similar, but unreinforced piece. The

results of this test showed an in-

rial and could lead to a more flexible

crease in the residual strength of the

method of adding reinforcement to

concrete as the density of Kevlar

3D printed concrete.

was increased. This proves the validity of Kevlar as a rein-forcing mate-

MIT Architecture Final Thesis Reviews, May 21, 2021 Master of Science in Building Technology (SMBT)

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE MIT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING SA+P 13

Using Urban Building Energy Modeling to Meet Carbon Emission Targets: A Case Study of Oshkosh, Wisconsin Zachary Berzolla SMBT Advisor: Christoph Reinhart Jurisdictions around the world are

sustainability consultant to build up

striving to meet aggressive emissions

a model of their building stock and

reduction goals in a short timeframe.

test various scenarios to meet the

This paper lays out a six-step process

desired emissions reduction goals.

to meet emissions reduction goals

Through a case study of Oshkosh,

using urban building energy modeling

Wisconsin the six- step process is

to identify a combination of build-

tested and a concrete action plan

ing energy efficiency and renewable

to meet their 80% emissions reduc-

energy deployment strategies. The

tion goals by 2050 is presented. The

process involves key decision makers

final recommended solution involved

in each jurisdiction working with a

upgrading all residences in Oshkosh

to EnergyStar Home standards, in-

presented in this paper will need to

stalling cold climate heat pumps to

be carried out in jurisdictions around

displace fossil-fuel based heating, and

the world. The approach has been

deploying solar over an area equiva-

shown to be flexible and applicable to

lent to most of the available rooftops.

any jurisdiction with emissions goals

To aid in the final step of the pro-

and access to building footprint and

cess, implementation, the city-wide

characteristic data.

strategies were broken down into actions individual homeowners could take and what the cost and payback periods for these actions would be. In order to meet global emissions reduction goals, the six-step process Image 1 (Opposite): The Oshkosh, WI urban building energy model showing the energy use intensity (in kWh/ m2) of all 13,000 buildings in the city in the energy efficiency + heat electrification scenario. The three scenarios (baseline, energy efficiency, and energy efficiency + heat electrification) are shown in a representative neighborhood on the right. The energy efficiency + heat electrification scenario leads to a 65% average reduction in energy use from the baseline. Similar reductions in carbon dioxide emissions are also possible. Image 2 (Above): Screenshot from a presentation of the case study results to the Oshkosh, WI Sustainability Advisory Board. This presentation shared the concept of town-wide energy efficiency retrofits as crucial to meeting Oshkosh’s emissions reduction goals and sought the board’s feedback on the proposed strategies. Going forward, the board will be instrumental in supporting any programs to reduce Oshkosh’s emissions.

Early Design Stage Building Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) of Cost & Carbon Impact: A Seamless Addition to the Conceptual Design Process Jingyi Liu SMBT Advisors: Jeremy Gregory, Randy Kirchain & Leslie Norford

Our research developed a workflow that recommends sustainable building solutions in the early design stage, based on the minimization of lifecycle cost ($) and carbon impact (kgCO2eq). Most LCA tools rely on detailed models, which takes time to build. However, our workflow analyzes conceptual geometries and generates recommendations in two aspects: sustainable building attribute features & optimal detailed design solutions. Cutting-edge technologies are applied, including machine learning, optimization, and data visualization. Our workflow is

developed in Grasshopper, a codefriendly platform in the conceptual design software Rhino. The workflow helps save ~10% on cost and ~20% on carbon in the U.S. on average by following the recommendations. Take a medium office in the U.S. as an example; 10% cost saving corresponds to ~$6 million. The workflow also reduces its analysis time to ~30 minutes, whereas building a detailed model takes hours. As for attribute features, three results are delivered. One is the optimal ranges of numerical at16

values for numerical attributes and select their favorite categorical options to tailor the design needs. A 3rd factor, distance, is then quantified to add diversity among multiple construction schemes when recommending detailed design solutions.

tributes. Another is the rankings of categorical options. The other one is their sensitivity analysis. Although the level of importance varies with the weather, the cost-carbon ratio, and the analysis period; the window-to-wall ratios and equipment efficiencies are considered the most influential numerical factors. The categorical choices of wall type and façade type are notably influential, followed by glazing types and equipment systems. Apart from these, the workflow also recommends solutions with detailed construction schemes. This workflow is unique because it delivers strategies during the early design stage with high flexibility. Ranges and rankings give users freedom when following recommendations. The workflow also allows users to customize the boundary

Images by the author.

Machine Learning for Human Design: Developing Next Generation Sketch-Based Tools Bryan Ong Wen Xi SMBT & SM CEE Advisor: Caitlin Muller Formal computational approaches in the realm of engineering and architecture, such as parametric modelling and optimization, are becoming increasingly powerful, allowing for systematic and rigorous design processes. However, these methods often bring a steep learning curve, require previous expertise, or are unintuitive and unnatural to human design. On the other hand, analog design methods such as hand sketching are commonly used by architects and engineers alike. They constitute quick, easy, and almost primal modes of generating and transferring design concepts, which in turn facilitates the sharing of ideas and feedback. In the advent of increasing computational power and developments in data analysis, deep learning, and other emerging technologies, there is a potential to bridge the gap between these seemingly divergent processes to develop new hybrid approaches to design. Such methods can provide designers with new opportunities to harness the systematic and data-driven power of computation and performance analysis while maintaining a more creative and intuitive design interface. This thesis presents a new method for interpreting human designs in sketch format and predicting their structural performance using recent advances in deep learning. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates how this new technique can be used in design workflows including performance-based guidance and interpolations between concepts.

Image 1 (Above): Two-tier surrogate model from hand-drawn input to performance prediction. Image 2 (Opposite): Suggestions via interpolations of 3 selected test cases from hand sketches.

On The Relationship Between Spatial-Temporal Outdoor Thermal Comfort Simulations and Bike Ridership Elizabeth Young SMBT Advisor: Christoph Reinhart Reader: Timur Dogan The United Nations estimates that by

Predicting resident comfort through-

2050, 68% of the global population will

out a city over time and predicting the

reside in cities. As of 2019, the trans-

impact of these thermal sensations on

portation sector in the U.S. accounts

mobility mode choice is an essential

for 29% of U.S. GHGs, making it the

part of encouraging urban planners

largest contributor among various

and policy makers to promote and

sectors. To decarbonize local traffic

implement thermal comfort concepts.

and encourage human-powered forms

The Universal Thermal Climate Index

of transportation such as walking or

(UTCI) is a biometeorological index

biking, pedestrians’ and cyclists’ safety

that has been linked to outdoor activ-

and thermal comfort in transit must

ity patterns and used to evaluate the

be addressed. The latter is increasingly

effectiveness of urban interventions to

important as temperatures rise in cit-

improve thermal comfort. However,

ies due to climate change.

calculating the UTCI at high resolu-

tions in urban spaces is complex as

patterns and UTCI values along each

it requires inputs such as the ambient

route is studied. Supervised machine

temperature, relative humidity, wind

learning models are applied to predict

speed and mean radiant temperature

bike ridership based on UTCI and

at the point of interest.

other predictors.

This thesis investigates how simulating the urban environment at increasing levels of spatial refinement impacts calculated UTCI values along three bike routes in Cambridge, MA. As a baseline, UTCI is estimated using data from a local weather file. Then, shading from buildings and trees along the routes are considered. Next, local wind speeds are incorporated from computational fluid dynamics simulations. Finally, surface temperatures of the surrounding environment are included. Subsequently, with the UTCI simulations

Imasger 1 (Opposite): Bike route between MIT (Amherst St.) to Mass Ave/Beacon St.

bike ridership data from Bluebikes,

Imasger 2 (Abolve): Average Bluebikes trip count per hour against UTCI from MIT to Beacon St (on MIT school days at 2-8pm).

Boston’s bike-sharing program, the relationship between bike ridership 21

MIT Architecture Final Thesis Reviews, May 21, 2021 Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS)

Jeremy Bilotti 24 Computation & SM in CS

Dries Carmeliet 26 Architecture & Urbanism

Reza Daftarian 28 Aga Khan Program

Katherine Dubbs 30 History, Theory & Criticism

Aidan Flynn 32 History, Theory & Criticism

Eduardo Gascón Alvarez 34 Building Technology

Marianna Gonzalez-Cervantes 36 Architecture Design

Eakapob Huangthanapan 38 Architecture & Urbanism

Ryuhei Ichikura 40 Architecture & Urbanism

Rania Sameh Kaadan 42 Computation

Wonki Kang 44 Computation

Wuyahuang Li 46 Architecture & Urbanism Bowen Lu 48 Computation Luis Alberto Meouchi Velez 50 Architecture & Urbanism Amanda Merzaban 52 Aga Khan Program

Elina Oikonomaki 58 Computation Siyuan Sheng 60 Architecture & Urbanism Alexandra Waller 62 Computation Qianqian Wan 64 Architecture & Urbanism Xiaoyun Zhang 66 Computation DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE MIT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING SA+P 23

A Machine Learning Model for Understanding How Users Value Designs: Applications for Designers and Consumers Jeremy Bilotti SMArchS Computation SM Computer Science Advisor: Terry Knight Reader: Stefanie Mueller a framework for collecting and interpreting user feedback at scale.

People value furniture designs in subjective and multifaceted ways. Understanding these nuances helps design-

In this thesis, I demonstrate a number of advances toward developing a machine learning (ML) model of how designs are valued. The model can be used to better understand the implications of furniture design decisions, as well as for commercial strategy.

ers develop intuition for creating new designs. And yet, while an abundance of furniture designs already exist, our ability to access and leverage data about how users value them is limited. If our goal is to continually improve the outcome of how users value fur-

Existing ML systems have been trained on the physical and aesthetic features of completed designs.These top-down

niture designs—whether through design practice or commerce—we need

ated by comparing results to a test data set split from the original data set.

methods do not capture the nuances of how users actually value the various functions of their furniture. To improve on these methods, I first develop a framework for ingesting and classifying user feedback about how designs are valued. Next, I conduct a user survey to test this framework, generating a bottom-up, labeled dataset which requires no post-processing. Finally, I develop a framework for the computational analysis of this data. The framework is based on a probabilistic ML model trained on the real user data collected.

This framework represents a step toward a future in which datasets for furniture—and other design domains—are more accessible. By making user feedback available to designers at scale, and establishing methods for collecting this data, we can accelerate the development of designer intuition and deliver significantly greater value to users.

Through visualizations, I demonstrate how the ML model can be used to show an overview of large data sets of user feedback, model the preferences of new users and augment existing data sets.The model’s efficacy is evalu-

Image 1 (Opposite): Credit: Photograph by David Rosenwasser for Rarify. Image 2 (Above): Bottom-up classification of a furniture design by users. Image by the author.

Third Landscape Dries Carmeliet SMArchS Architecture & Urbanism Advisor: Rania Ghosn Reader: Alexander D'Hooghe & Sheila Kennedy The global energy sector accounts for

failure, stalled projects and public op-

over 60 percent of all greenhouse gas

position to the top-down implementa-

emissions. Over the last decades, many

tion of renewable energy policies. The

studies from various perspectives have

aim of this research is to investigate

been conducted on its decarboniza-

the agency of bottom-up approaches

tion, yielding a range of strategies and

and local initiatives towards the cre-

policy proposals. Putting these theo-

ation of renewable energy landscapes.

ries into practice however, has proven

Therefore, renewable energy projects

more difficult. The field is littered with

are not just considered as technologi-

cal challenges, but as complex political, sociological, spatial and financial constructs that face barriers in each of these sectors. The most challenging barrier for a decarbonized society is the enormous spatial requirement of renewable technologies. Inevitably, these become visible and present in the landscape through their scale. The question thus shifts from “what” we can do about climate change, to “how” these technologies can be deployed and “why” various stakeholders would support them. cess of community participation in order to build a broad base of support.

To answer these questions, this research examines different typologies for wind and solar infrastructures that strive towards a symbiotic relation with the existing human, animal and plant lifeforms in Massachusetts. It imagines how these technologies become present in the landscape and are perceived by the local residents. Therefore an anatomy of wind and solar technologies is constructed that considers all different manners these infrastructures might impact their environment. Considering this anatomy signifies a fundamental shift from the top-down developer-led projects that aim to maximize profits, to a bottomup approach of local government led projects that center sustainability. Therefore the design typologies should be seen as a starting point to spark a public conversation and iteration, rather than end products. They are meant to be changed by the pro-

Finally, the implications are considered should such bottom-up energy projects become widespread. A strategy is proposed to make the US Northeast into a cohesive energy region that produces nearly all of its energy renewably and locally. In response to the barriers of siting new transmission lines, a landscape approach is proposed, using the region’s large rivers as spines to construct a new grid. This research breaks with the binary divide between natural and mechanical landscapes, and proposes a third landscape of symbiotic cohabitation of lifeforms and technologies.

Image1(Opposite): Spatial requirements of renewables. Image by the author. Image 2 (Above): Barriers blocking the implementation of renewables. Image by the author.

Fractured and Dissolved, Architecture Ablaze: Towards an Understanding of Ayeneh-Kari in the Early Modern Palace of Iran Reza Daftarian SMArchS Aga Khan Program Advisor: Nasser Rabbat Reader: Kristel Smentek Ayeneh-kari (lit. ‘mirror-work’), a term that refers to a surface encrusted with fragmented mirrored glass, is a form of architectural ornament found in myriad historic monuments across Greater Iran. This decorative medium first emerged in the celebrated palatial structures of the Safavids (r. 1501–1722) and culminated in the intricate geometric mosaics that became the preferred decorative schema for both palaces under the Qajars (r. 1789–1925). Despite this preeminence, at its zenith ayeneh-kari was largely denigrated by foreign visitors to Iran as garish and a feeble emulation of European ‘culture,’ an attitude which has unfortunately permeated a preponderance of the scant scholarly literature into the subject both in English and Persian. Unlike In response to the cursory inquiries dealing with the ornamental form, the present work examines the emergence of ayeneh-kari in early modern Iran and traces its evolution as both an ornamental form and an ideological mechanism. How did this medium evolve from an obscure ornamental program of Safavid palaces to a conspicuous decorative schema that became ubiquitous in Qajar monuments? What was the sociopolitical climate in which this peculiar surface ornament flourished, and how was it reflected by the self-conscious use of ayeneh-kari in palatial architecture? Herein lies the crux of the present study, which will treat ayeneh-kari as a multisensory art form in its own right and as a dialogic instrument wielded to simultaneously forge and enunciate the mystique, splendor, and authority of a sovereign figure. By tracing the transformations in composition, location, and scale of ayeneh-kari and contextualizing such shifts within their respective socio-historical moment, we can recognize how nearly four centuries of Iranian rulers have employed this ornamental form as an ideological contrivance. Ultimately, I contend that on account of its material, sensory, and symbolic qualities, ayeneh-kari was methodically availed in the architectural programs of the Safavids, and especially the Qajars, whose imperial enterprise was contingent upon a symbolic linkage to their predecessors, to convey a distinctively Perso-Shi’i configuration of kingship. 28

Image 1 (Above): Detail of a pendentive of Kakh-e Asli’s vaulted entrance adorned with a combination of fretted and eslimi ayeneh-kari. Photo by Nazanin Pourshiravi, 2017. Image 2 (Below): Mirrors and ayeneh-kari bands in the vertical interstitial space between Talar-e Ayeneh’s windows. Photo by Nazanin Pourshiravi, 2017;

"A Great Civilizing Agent": Architecture at MIT, Drawing Education, and Boston's Cultural Elite, 1865-1881 Katherine Dubbs SMArchS History, Theory & Criticism Advisor: Arindam Dutta Reader: Mark Jarzombek

This thesis examines the origin of ar-

of the perceived antidote to national

chitecture as an American discipline

disunity — as well as a justification

and its relationship to the concurrent

for growing financial inequality —

promotion of public drawing educa-

was the control of design knowledge

tion in the second half of the nine-

through the creation of pedagogical

teenth century. In postbellum Mas-

programs and cultural institutions.

sachusetts, textile manufacturers and

Drawing simultaneously negotiated a

their professional networks took con-

multifarious identity as an industrial

trol of local drawing education. Part

skill, a leisure activity, and a special30

ized profession. Bolstered by the rise

tual undertaking worthy of its univer-

in disposable wealth, Boston-based

sity setting. This history is illustrated

elites invested in drawing as a symbol

through Ware’s contemporaneous in-

of class status and industrial control in

volvement in the promotion of local

an increasingly stratified city.

drawing education, his advocacy for

This development coincided with the

professionalism in architectural education, and his design of new printed

mid-century emergence of architec-

tural education in American universities. In 1865, architectural educator William Robert Ware was hired to create the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the first architecture department in a university and

Image 1 (Opposite): Drawing class in MIT’s Architecture Department. Photograph. 1870s or 1880s. From: MIT Museum. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

the oldest architecture program in the country. For the duration of his tenure, Ware was part of a powerful

Image 2 (Below): Edwin James Lewis, Jr. Plate Number 43. Pencil and Watercolor on Trace Paper. From: Edwin James Lewis, Jr. “Architectural Drawings in Manuscript.” UF//L58. Boston Athenaeum. Boston, Massachusetts.

network of arts patrons and professionals in Massachusetts who ascribed a civilizing purpose to art, an idealized category which included architecture. As part of this effort, he was not only the founder of MIT’s architecture department but also a founding instructor at two other cultural institutions in Boston. Underpinning these elite ambitions, in Ware’s case, were both economic and intellectual aspirations to elevate architecture as a profession and to cultivate the architect as a cultural connoisseur. This thesis argues that Ware capitalized on the evolving status of drawing –– as a manual labor, a contractual document, a cognitive act, and a cultural marker –– to craft architectural education as an intellec31

Bawdy Bathers: Locating Male Bathing Culture in Early Modern Florence Aidan Flynn SMArchS History, Theory & Criticism Advisors: Kristel Smentek & Jodi Cranston Reader: Caroline Jones In 1552 Giovanni Conti banned males from accessing the holy interior of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral during certain hours “in order to obviate the obscenities and wrongs that are committed daily in that sacred place.” His legislation responded to sodomy—those blasphemous “obscenities” that had reportedly transpired at the cathedral. Defined as any non-procreative sex act, often used in reference to male-male sexual relations, “sodomy” generated anxiety throughout early modern Italian city-states. In Florence, police forces sought to legislate sex acts in an effort to restrict and punish the boundaries—real and imagined¬¬—between licit and illicit intimacies. In the premodern mind, sodomites could provoke divine wrath, leading to urban destruction, civic and religious disorder, as had transpired in the biblical city of Sodom.

While Conti’s legislation policed one particular building, it also illuminates larger spatial concerns related to sodomitical transgressions beyond church walls. The Florentine cathedral could be easily surveilled, while other spaces could not be controlled with the same level of legal and moral zeal, namely those indistinct places that blur the lines between church and state, public and private: a bathhouse. Using Passignano’s Bathers at San Niccolò (1600), an oil painting that depicts a contemporaneous scene of all-male bathing, imbued with suggestively transgressive male-male sex acts within a specific urban backdrop, my thesis asks: what can this particular visual stage tell us about the lived realities of sodomy in early modern Florence? When examined alongside topographical, legal, health, and religiopolitical archives, Passignano’s Bathers illuminates the intricacies of same-sex pleasure and punishment. I contend that by identifying this specific site along the Arno River, one can better achieve a history of sexual persecution, its civic surveillance, and various institutional efforts to control illicit sex within and beyond this aquatic space.

ing at and beyond the figures in Bathers, this project investigates the represented backdrop in which sodomitical activities are depicted to better understand this particular urban locale in which same-sex relations occurred. In so doing, this project also engages with larger historiographical issues, namely the ways in which premodern sex and gender have been mobilized in the works of postmodern theorists such as Foucault and Butler. My thesis aims to use this particular art object, alongside other works, as revelatory materials to examine and challenge the ways in which sex and space have been dealt with in various scholarly disciplines.

How might topographical and painterly representations of water, waste, and wantonness allow the historian to check written accounts (legal, religious, literary) of seemingly clandestine sexual encounters within specific architectures—and vice versa? Look-

Image 1(Opposite): Passignano, Bathers at San Niccolò (1600), private collection. Image 2 (Above): Stefano Buonsignori, Nova pulcherrimae civitatis Florentinae (1584), detail of ‘prato della giustizia’ (place of justice), Harvard Map Library.

Mass Balance: Design Strategies for Lightweight, Thermally Massive Construction Systems Eduardo Gascón Alvarez SMArchS Building Technology Advisors: Caitlin Mueller & Leslie Norford structural elements with embodied energy and thermal systems with an impact on the occupants’ comfort.

As decarbonizing the building sector becomes increasingly urgent in the context of the global climate crisis, opportunities for considering the integration of design strategies and systems are emerging as an important area of research. This thesis specifically focuses on the design of building components that interact as both

The design of lightweight, thermally massive construction systems offers the opportunity to simultaneously tackle two of the main challenges currently faced by the built environment: the need to reduce the use of con-

active cooling capacity. Moreover, the implementation of multi-optimization techniques allows for the exploration of Pareto-optimal designs that can further improve their thermal behavior up to 9.5% (passive) and 28% (active), at the expense of slightly lowering the material savings achievements to 38%.

crete, responsible for 5-8% of global carbon emissions, and the mitigation of heatwaves events, which are already becoming more and more recurrent worldwide. This thesis presents new methodologies and results related to the dynamic thermal behavior of structurally optimized slabs and considers the ability of the thermal mass and ceiling’s geometric shape to flatten daily temperature fluctuations and as a result, improve the occupants’ thermal comfort. At the same time, activating these floor systems by, for example, embedding water pipes is yet another opportunity of integrating functions and further improving the performance of these systems.

Image 1(Opposite): The shaped ceiling acts as a room-sized heat exchanger that increases its passive and active thermal performances through an optimal geometric distribution.

The results obtained demonstrate the possibility of designing shaped slabs that, in addition to a 55% embodied energy reduction relative to conventional prismatic solutions, can still increase 6.5% their passive thermal mass performance and 14.5% their

Image 2 (Above): Selection of Pareto-optimal design. All of the geometries considered outperform conventiona flat concrete slabs both structurally and thermally.

Velvet Garage: Narratives of an Education in Architecture Marianna Gonzalez-Cervantes SMArchS Architectural Design Advisor: William O'Brien Jr. Readers: Rosalyne Shieh & Hans Tursack If you had to share the work you’ve

unexpected repercussions of study-

produced in architecture school with

ing architecture : spatially, technically,

your family, what would you say about

but also emotionally.This thesis admit-

it? Could you speak about it with the

tedly looks backward as it reflects on

same conviction you do in front of

old work and past experiences, some

your jury at a final review? Would the

dating up to 10 years, but it does so

things you value in architecture trans-

by re-representing them in a new way

late to someone who doesn’t study or

that attempts to talk about architec-

practice it?

ture differently, in a more accessible manner.

Velvet Garage : Narratives of an Education in Architecture is an explora-

The thesis, then, is two-fold :

tion into many things, most obviously

a response to the current remote

garages and architecture education,

conditions we find ourselves in due

but perhaps, most importantly, the

to COVID-19, this thesis transforms

the domestic garage of my childhood

large part of what makes us who we

home in El Paso, TX into a center of

are. Velvet Garage : Narratives of an

architectural production, where the

Education in Architecture attempts to

“Velvet Garage” then allows for the

share stories that haven’t ever been

reframing of architecture pedagogy as

shared before with the very new audi-

visual narratives in the form of a short

ence of my own family.

film that incorporates both found and designed objects. This thesis believes that we unconsciously embed ourselves in our work, but that our work is also embedded in us. When we share our work, we also share a part of ourselves, and when

Image 1 (Opposite): Childhood Garage. Image 2 (Below): Velvet Garage.

we can’t, we fail to communicate a

Mediating Chana: Seeding Synergies Between Doves and Development Eakapob Huangthanapan SMArchS Architecture & Urbanism Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw Reader: Roi Salgueiro Barrio

Diagrams by the author..

For almost a century, domestication

form the pristine beaches and agricul-

of zebra doves for birdsongs has given

tural landscapes of Chana into special

Chana the reputation as the emerging

economic zones and the largest indus-

Southeast Asian capital of zebra doves.

trial complex in the south of Thailand.

In this rural district in the southern

The forces driving this development

coast of Thailand, the doves are not

are twofold: first, the centralized gov-

only worth more than gold but also

ernment has framed the project as

hold higher values in the local society

a way to promote national growth

and in the community stewardship to

through an opportunistic global trade.

the environment. In 2019, the national

Second, the plan is also driven by a na-

government of Thailand put forward a

tional-security agenda aimed at quell-

6,000-acre plan to build an industrial

ing the on-going ‘separatist insurgen-

metropolis and deep seaports in the

cies’ along the southern borders to

area. If realized, this project will trans-

Malaysia.The plan is not new; it is seen 38

as another reproduction of large-scale

industries. Countering the top-down

projects deployed under the highly

plan, the study’s goal is to move be-

centralized government. These plans

yond the impasse by mediating the

often deepen regional impasses by pri-

synergies between the cooing doves

oritizing economic development and

and the impending development.

simplify other complex socio-cultural and environmental dimensions. The thesis is looking at this tension between the two forces of globalization and the local culture. Drawing on the investigation of the unique relationships between humans and nonhumans in Chana, the thesis focuses on the doves, among other local assets, as the potential mediator in this contested site. The thesis presents insights from the field research and proposes a series of design scenarios to preserve the local culture, regenerate the local assets, and project future

Mokumitsu Districts in Tokyo: Urban Renewal by Housing Cooperative against Disaster Risk Ryuhei Ichikura SMArchS Architecture & Urbanism Advisor: Miho Mazereeuw Readers: Susanne Schindler & Kairos Shen Mokumitsu is a feature of urban dis-

serious issues for the nation, due to

tricts in Japan and means “densely

the districts’ large area and the high

built-up with wooden structured

probability of earthquake.

buildings”. Many of these buildings

Urban renewal—or the demolition

are categorized as substandard hous-

and reconstruction of so-called sus-

ing because they were built legally in

bstandard housing— is one of the

the last century but no longer fulfill

fundamental measures for disaster

the latest building codes. Mokumitsu

mitigation in Mokumitsu districts.

districts are considered severely

It is also significant for the exist-

unsafe in case of an earthquake be-

ing residents to keep living in the

cause the houses are structurally

same community after the renewal,

weak, combustible, and built very

in terms of disaster preparedness.

close each other. Especially since

However, the current policies for

the disastrous Kobe Earthquake in

the Tokyo’s Mokumitsu districts are

1995, Tokyo’s Mokumitsu districts in

not sufficient to facilitate this re-

particular become one of the most

newal. The subsidy for the develop-

ers hardly incentivizes design for the

with the residents to ask their de-

residents. Even with the direct sub-

sign preferences, tested the design

sidy for the residents, they face dif-

of the renewal, and analyzed the fi-

ficulties to rebuild their own houses

nancial feasibility from the perspec-

that they would prefer on the small

tive of real estate.

individual lands that would become even smaller and thinner after the road widening in the renewal. Accelerating the renewal in the Tokyo’s Mokumitsu districts by housing cooperative, this research aims to understand how renewal that is driven by consultants of housing cooperative can grasp the residents’ design preferences, and if it is

Image1 (Opposite): Townscape of Mokumitsu Districts. Image by the author.

financially feasible and scalable. The

Image2 (Below): A Mokumitsu District after Kobe Earthquake. Credits: Kobe City.

author conducted on-site interviews

Untold Narratives: Realizing Personal Design Identities Rania Kaadan SMArchS Computation Advisor: Terry Knight Readers: Lorena Bello Gomez & Nicholas de Monchaux Prologue How is a designer's creative identity to be developed? How can design students question design assumptions and experiment with a range of design practices that allow them to decide which intentions to amplify, discard, or replace? In this thesis, I examine the objective and subjective interest in finding our voices by introducing personal narratives as a design tool to emancipate design students' agency through worldmaking exercises. In the practice of both introspective and performative design protocols, students cultivate a personal sense of one's narrative, methods of representation, design language and their embodying unique socio-cultural, political and environmental identity.As an architect and a designer, this work has emerged from my own experiences, on one side, a student aware of mediated biases; and on another, an educator attempting to resist and mediate her own biases in design studios, hence avoiding a loss of students' agency in developing a personal design language, geometries, and visual imagination. Through a series of worldmaking exercises, students harness narrative evidence of their own stories, their own imagination, captured through a reflexive and performative practice of self-discovery. In this regard, this thesis does not offer theories of how-to-design, or seek to constitute a curricula review. Rather, it is an alternative contribution to a relationship that flows through interwoven narratives and sequences of time. That is on the one side political and on another personalist, the latter being a theory derived from the person or personality as a key to an interpretation of one's reality – a story of a long process challenging the limitations of colonized narratives to motivate transformation, a tale of designers' voice realization. Image (Opposite): A representation of a designer’s flow in an interwoven sequence of personal narratives.

Sonic Others: Metaphorical Sonification of Collective Events Wonki Kang SMArchS Computation Advisor: Axel Kilian Reader: Arvind Satyanarayan The year 2020 has brought many long-running global crises into light. The climate crisis has become more tangible than ever, and the pressures of the global pandemic further escalated racial injustice. Trying to make sense of such phenomena is overwhelming, and the efforts of journalists and data scientists to explain them in words or visual representations have repeatedly failed to evoke empathy from people. The reason is likely that global crises are hyperobjects, as defined by an ecological theorist Timothy Morton, objects that are in-experienceable due to their vast distribution in time and space beyond human’s perceptive capability1. Hyperobjects inevitably involve remarkably different temporalities than the ones relatable to human beings. Central to the thesis is the questioning of how the hyperobjects can be made experienceable. In doing so, I suggest a new way of engaging with the hyperobjects by bringing forward listening that has been considered as a mere backdrop of our experience. The thesis is delivered threefold. First, an overview of historical examples of how different senses have been utilized to raise empathy is conducted, and further argue how the auditory sense works best in doing so. Second, I propose a scalable framework to construct a sonic metaphor of a set of events that constitutes the hyperobject. The sonic metaphor is a conceptual metaphor, constructed through the conceptual blending of the sounds we are already familiar with. I describe collective events through the structure of meaning making, that is deeply ingrained in how humans learn abstract concepts based on their prior knowledge. Finally, the proposed framework is demonstrated to deliver multifaceted concepts of Black Lives Matter protests that have taken place in thousands of cities across the globe. By collecting and reconstructing the audio footages that have been recorded on site, I deliver an experience that is engaging and evocative. The ultimate goal of the thesis is to validate a hypothesis: hyperobjects are better heard than seen. Image (Opposite top): Constellation of sound events projected oanto semantic space. Image (Opposite bottom): The story delivered through navigating the sematic space. 1 Timothy Morton (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press.

To Build Home And To Live In (U)Hygge Wuyahuang Li SMArchS Architecture & Urbanism Advisor: Mark Jarzombek Readers: Rosalyne Shieh & Henriette Steiner Since the nineteenth century, Dan-

This thesis looks at the home as the

ish society has established a standard

site in which citizenship is produced

of normality through the building of

and performed through household

bourgeois homes.To write about Dan-

objects, furniture, and architecture.

ish homes is to write an ethnography

With an archive that builds on lived

of hygge, a nationalized domestic aes-

experience collected from minorities

thetic encapsulated in the sense of

living in Denmark, it looks at precari-

comfort, togetherness, and wellbeing.

ous bodies and nonnormative modes

Meanwhile, in mainstream media and

of living and loving to articulate

scholarship, the homes of minorities'

uhygge – the strange, foreign, otherly,

are largely represented as “ghettos,”

and unhomely – as the queerness in

distinct urban territories character-

heteronomative discourses of nation,

ized by social dysfunction and unem-

a spatial form of being together that

keeps the histories of diverse struggles intact. To Build Home and To Live In (U)Hygge is the production of a three-act play that reconstitutes the cultural meanings of uhygge through acts of passing, turning, and arriving. The play unfolds the narratives of home and belonging along scales of homeland, house, and body. Act I To Pass, or Nobody Passes positions the migrant and the queer of color as intersecting vectors of uhygge that haunt an essentialist Danish identity in order to re-evaluate the failures in assimilating social norms. Act II The Politics of Turning reflects on both the struggles of turning away from ma46

joritarian projects, such as hygge, and the different coalitional publics that this “turning” enables. Finally, Act III A Home Around Uranus arrives at a hybrid orientation between assimilation and marginalization to imagine a

refuge built with jouissance, one that delights in pain and danger. Images 1 and 2: A Remote Casting in Copenhagen: Call for Uhygge. Design by Wuyahuang Li; Photo by Francesco Martello.

Networking Knowledge and Experience: An Instrumental System for the Personal Development of Individual Designers Bowen Lu SMArchS Computation Advisor: George Stiny Reader: Paul Keel

Pursuing novelty and diversity, designers are trained through a wide spectrum of different disciplines, absorbing a tremendous amount of explicit knowledge and implicit experience. As design being extremely divergent and complicated, the insufficient development of design abilities is magnified in a fast-growing world of information, especially at the individual designer level. On one side, design education still depends on an apprentice-based practice that slowly forges personality into subconsciousness. On the other side, the technology surge of computeraided design increases productivity but limits our imagination with predefined structure and framework. There is not yet a promising method or technology that facilitates design thinking and creativity, especially in the long-term accumulation for individual designers. In this thesis, I propose a new theory of design ideation and develop an instrumental software system as the implementation of design technology. In constructing a personal network of knowledge and experience for design purposes, the system incorporates both science and art, including the symbolic structure 48

of combinatoric objects in problem-solving as well as the ambiguous perception of unrestricted imagination in visual calculating. Moreover, it provides a unified representation of a network where valuable knowledge and experience can be easily collected, retrieved, and transformed to create new ideas. The software is designed as an augmentation of design thinking, sharing designers’ cognitive burden of memory and attention. Taking verbal notes or visual sketches, human designers and computer systems collaborate and express each other’s strengths in more efficient learning and more creative designing. This research offers a human-oriented scope across design and technology by demonstrating a computationally augmented intelligence as networked knowledge and experience. The system has more potential in expanding the way we think, and future designers may benefit from this integrated approach of computing, both symbolically and visually. Image 1 (Opposite): Network Visualization: Personally accumulated knowledge and experience in a network of more than 15,000 nodes, including Conceptual nodes (purple, 1794), Episodic nodes (yellow, 13026), and 10 types of connections (50382). Image 2 (Below): System Interface: Graphic interacting system including inbox, viewer, and widgets that incorporates explicit knowledge (verbal) and implicit experience (visual) in order to fulfill the continuous workflow of input-store-retrieve.

Collecting Ideals: Re-Envisioning Ejidos as Climate-Action Platforms Luis Alberto Meouchi Velez SMArchS Architecture & Urbanism Advisors: Lorena Bello Gomez & Nicholas de Monchaux Reader: Diane Davis Established by constitutional decree in 1917, ejidos were considered one of the most successful outcomes of the Mexican Revolution’s fight to redistribute land back to indigenous populations in a collective land tenure system or ‘commons.’ After decades of operation in which neoliberal critics claimed that ejidatarios were insufficiently productive, the Mexican authorities reformed the constitution to allow privatization of ejidal lands. The 1992 NAFTA agreement further incentivized the commodification of such lands, and many ejidos were dismantled or transformed into private property. While ejidos have been studied by many disciplines, from agrarian law or social-economics to ethnography, urban scholars who have examined their impact urbanization have focused primarily on ejidos in the periphery of large cities, arguing that ejidal transformation is a key determinant of urban sprawl and intensifying metropolitan inequality. In “name of your thesis” I argue that ejidos have played a major role in the urbanization and development of more rural settings in Mexico, particularly in regions with small towns. I further argue that ejidal dynamics in such regions have their own peculiarities – particularly in terms of the potential impacts of ejidal privatization on the natural and built environment, and thus that planners need special tools to manage and guide the impact of ejidal production on urbanization in such settings. More specifically, I hypothesize that ejidos -- which still comprise 52% of Mexico’s land, could play a major role in Mexico’s fight to confront climate change in the twenty first century, in a manner that is fair and equitable to its common owners, particularly if the question of water supply is solved. To support this claim, my thesis uses mapping as a critical device to first spatialize and visualize the different outcomes of ejido privatization. Using the case of Apan, Hidalgo— in the Pachuca sub-basin region—I propose a series of measures to guide ejidal development in quasi-rural settings. After developing the Latourian concept of a critical zone to guide such processes, I propose the development of common platform for stakeholder engagement that could help visualize different scenarios and accommodate common interests to ensure water sovereignty for all. Keywords: Equitable-inclusive-resilient urban design, commons vs. commodities, ejidos.

Image: Tina Modotti’s photography: “Campesinos leyendo el Machete”. The newspaper header reads “All the land, not pieces of land”, 1926.

Scripting Inclusion Amanda Merzaban SMArchS Aga Khan Program Advisor: Renée Green Readers: Lara Baladi & Jesal Thakkar Kapadia Efforts to bring underrepresented modernist women artists of Arabic speaking countries into the scope of Western art exhibitions has been on the rise, particularly since the early 2000s. Who decides what artists get shown and how their stories are told? What are the power structures guiding their inclusion? I inspect the consequences of the prevailing power dynamic through a feminist lens. This thesis is meant to offer a way of reviewing these systems of power so it can be more explicitly analyzed and discussed in tandem with how art is inscribed into Western discourse. Image 1 (Opposite above): Walid Raad,Yet more letters to the reader, exhibition view, Fondazione Volume, 2017, © 2016 Federico Ridolfi, courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut / Hamburg

Image 2 (Opposite bellow and below): Video still: Imane Belle. Saloua Raouda Choucair – From Beirut to Tate Modern, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB1K4H0vx0g

Nightrise: Through the Valley of Jabal ‘Amil’s Shadow Mohamad Nahleh SMArchS Architectural Design Advisor: Sheila Kennedy Readers: Mark Jarzombek & Nasser Rabbat This thesis situates design at the intersection of two realms: a shared fascination with the night to which countless civilizations have contributed, and the exploration of a place rooted in the potential of its oral legacy. It offers a return to pre-capitalistic impressions of the night, to a time when darkness and light were not strictly opposed, and envisions the potential of such nuances today. Nightrise, then, not only reveals the clashes between the social expansion of the nocturnal landscape and the apparent rationality of sight, but inspires a design imagination that escapes the need to perpetuate and aestheticize the consumable forms of the day (and their respective publics). The seed from which this imagination grows is a twenty-six-night walk across the Lebanese hinterland, where moving shadows begin to awaken amorphous subcultures capable of weaponizing their formlessness in the name of self-preservation. Because the night resists the reign of any solitary subculture, these nocturnal cohabitations often rely on unspoken rules of civility all but invisible to strangers. And it was on the sixth night of this walk into the heart of Jabal ‘Amil – what is today known as South Lebanon – that my transgression of these rules was matched with an act of hostility

Image 1 (Above): The journey of a single night. Drawing by the author.

that, strangely, culminated in the opportunity to imagine and implement an architecture of nightrise: a path on the southern border of Lebanon between a mountain and a river. If a path for the day seeks to impose the lone perspective of a single direction, then this path for nightrise revels in the unseen, in the ability to interrupt, and perhaps invert, the ubiquitous association between eyesight and insight. The erasure of the unidirectional line comes to propose a series of scattered stations that whisper, hint, and conjure countless variations of the same path in the minds of its visitors. These stations draw out the nocturnal qualities inspiring some of Jabal ‘Amil’s oral myths and legends, and the politics that are deeply rooted within them: from distressing celestial appearances to the imaginal world of the Jinn, and from tales that follow the spread of

Shi’ism to the darkness surrounding the famous proverb, “Look under any stone in Jabal ‘Amil and you will find a poet.” Unfolding across the pages of this thesis is thus a peripatetic journey of two nocturnal voyages, one that begins in the past with the stories of my walk across Lebanon, and another in the future, on the Path of Nightrise, which will be implemented in the months following the submission of this work.

Image 2 (Below): Mount Qaf encircling the world and resting on the giant bull al-Rayyan, which stands on the vast fish Bahamut, which in turn is carried on the shoulders of an angel. Ajaib al-Makhluqat. Zakariya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini. 1553.

Evaluating Overheating Preventative Measures in Residential Buildings and Passive Survivability Yesufu OIadipo SMArchS Building Technology Advisor: Leslie Norford Reader: Leon Glicksman

Buildings that are thoughtfully

are within residential buildings.

planned for future climate sce-

The outdoor weather data se-

narios, designed well, and proper-

lected for the assessments is

ly maintained have the potential

from Boston, MA, and New York,

to provide thermally comfortable

NY during an extreme hot week.

environments. These same build-

Assessments made within this re-

ings can significantly reduce en-

search are intended to give guid-

ergy consumption and decrease

ance on the selection of the most

CO2 emissions. This research

appropriate combination of exte-

evaluates the impact of the use

rior wall properties and natural

of natural ventilation and modi-

ventilation strategies within a

fications to the exterior wall to

well-insulated and tightly sealed

decrease the probability of heat-

related illness and overheating.

The daily operations of build-

Assessments within this research

ings and the number of occupants 56

effective temperature (SET). SET

heat loads. Additionally, indoor

incorporates heat loss to the en-

air temperatures are impacted

vironment and an evaluation of it

by solar heat gain from glazed

is currently recognized by LEED

openings and heat transmitted

as a measure to promote passive

by conduction through exterior

survivability.

wall surfaces. Natural ventilation strategies can reduce indoor air temperatures and increase air velocities close to the skin. Increasing air velocities close to the skin can supplement an individual’s thermoregulatory system. Air flows near the skin allow the body to expel heat in a manner that reduces the necessity of skin wettedness. Skin wettedness aids in reducing the surface and core temperatures

through the dissipation of heat. Both surface and core temperatures can help to indicate the level of heat stress encountered by an individual. Two of the metrics used in this research are the thermal sensation scale predicted mean vote (PMV) and standard

Sonic Urban Transformations: A Computation Model to Study and Represent Temporal Changes in the Walking Experience Elina Oikonomaki SMArchS Computation Advisor: Terry Knight Readers: Arvind Satyanarayan, Andres Sevtsuk & George Stiny Cities are dynamically changing, complex environments, especially during unpredictable events like the global pandemic where parking lots and sidewalks evolve to become restaurants at certain times of the day. Yet, the current urban models used by urban planners and designers include only static representations of the city, that rely on visual information such as maps and images. These static representations of the city are incapable of capturing, representing, and accounting for the changing condition of cities and peoples’ lives. Thus, urban design and planning decisions remain insensitive to the social and spatial conditions that are in constant flux.

Urban spaces are ephemeral, temporal, and ambiguous in their nature and that they are best perceived in motion and through time.The thesis, I propose, forms a computational model to understanding and representing the temporal changes in the walking experience through sound. Sound offers a more dynamic representation of everyday life in the city as it can convey information about the changes in the practices, actions, and events that take place in the space. These temporal changes in the practiced space constitute not only spatial transformations but also sonic transformations that shape the walking experience. The development of a novel system of representation to enable the effective comparison between different walking experiences is a key component in this work. A specific walking route around Harvard Square was used as a case study to capture how the different phases of the pandemic changed the walking experience at street-level and the spatial conditions over time. By collecting visual, audio data and geolocation data, captured over a three-month period in the afternoons and evenings, the comparative model was built. Urban planners can use this model to understand how the planning decisions affect the walking experience and inform their decisions by the temporal multimodal representations of city life.

Made in Rural China Siyuan Sheng SMArchS Architecture & Urbanism Advisor: Brent Ryan Reader: Roi Salgueiro Barrio

While informal economics are treated as the “sickness” of the cities, they have their own treasure part to retain. In the era of great construction and rebuilding of the cities as urbanization mode, developing countries may take the informal economic site as a great chance to reap the benefits brought by the community.They are often mentioned as a problem that needs to be solved and, in most cases, it means reconstruction. Vested interests are happy to integrate these resources and announce that the threat to the cities is finally eliminated. They benefit not by the plunder of cap-ital, but by the elimination of the social subjectivity of those who have created value. E-commerce villages are one of those communities. They seized the opportunity of e-commerce development to make profit and also make the online economy grow rapidly and vigorously.The informality and the “unintegration” of those areas led to the reconstruction of them. However, the reconstructions are tending to take the existing urban pattern of residential areas as their template. This is the easiest and fastest way of thinking and not problematic in most of the cases but made the ecommerce villages lose their locality since the templates do not actually fit the operating mode of those villages. The thesis is proposing a possible choice for those villages based on the re-search on the local social relation and business mode by taking one of the villages as an example, trying to make the areas more economically efficient and more livable at the same time.

Monstrous Space: Architectural Production in an Age of Algorithms Alexandra Waller SMArchS Computation Advisor: Lawrence Sass Reader: Terry Knight and those belonging to spolia, architectural fragments produced through the ruination of existing architecture and repurposed as material in new constructions. A conceptual framework is developed which situates domestic-digital space in cross-disciplinary dialogue with other concepts and processes of hybridity and aligns the aesthetic qualities of domesticdigital space within the lineage of the grotesque in Western art and architecture.

In the last half-century, much attention has been paid in the fields of architecture and design towards developing methods of interfacing with machines, and to the production of objects in space through digital technologies. As a result of these efforts, the evolution of these technologies has advanced the field of architecture and design forward, enabling new and powerful methods of representation, novel approaches to fabrication and construction, and allowed for the unparalleled exploration of architectural form in space.

A methodology for architectural production is developed in response, including a structure for hybrid human-

This thesis provides an expanded understanding of the consequences of digital processes in architecture and design by investigating the way space itself is reconfigured as a byproduct of ubiquitous computation. It claims fertile territory for investigation: the physical-digital hybridization of domestic space and cloud-based peerto-peer video communication platforms. As a result of domestic-digital hybridization, raw architectural fragments are shown to be created. Critical parallels surface between the material qualities inherent to these fragments 62

machine design collaboration, and approaches to material creation, organization, and assembly. A fragment catalogue is produced, documenting and organizing a collection of digital spolia, and a series of speculative domestic architectures is constructed utilizing fragments from the catalogue. Differing approaches towards assembly are tested with the goal of

producing spatial qualities resonant with grotesque expression. Image 1 (Bottom): Collage, Draughtsman Making a Perspective Drawing of a Reclining Woman, (Albrecht Dürer, ca 1600) Image source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/366555?searchField= All&sortBy=Relevance&ft=Albrecht+Dür er&offset=360&rpp=20&pos=376 Image 2 (Below): Digital Spolia. Image source: Author.

Generative Urban Design Toward Thermal Synergy: Inspire Sustainable Urban Configuration under Distributive Heating & Cooling Schemes Qianqian Wan SMArchS Architecture & Urbanism Advisor: Caitlin Mueller Readers: David Birge & Leslie Norford

Investigating Design Intentions: Use of Eye Tracking and Machine Learning to Study Perception of Architectural Sketches Xiaoyun Zhang SMArchS Computation Advisor: Takehiko Nagakura Reader: Axel Kilian

\Are we able to perceive an architect’s intention through observation of his or her sketches? Yes, but it requires a probing process of observation. I propose a method to utilize eye-tracking as a translator between the graphics and the architects’ perception of three types of intention: shape, composition, and circulation. My hypothesis is that we can perceive how architects represent these intentions -- through the means of graphics, which allows a more ambiguous and dynamic translation between intention and sketches, we can probe the underlying process by observing a viewer’s eye movements. Furthermore, heat maps, obtained from eye movements, can be adapted to a machine learning algorithm -- Image-conditioned Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). I use this algorithm to translate the raw sense of space and visual gesture to capture humanlevel information acquisition of these intentions. 66

To demonstrate the work, I first discuss the history of visual power in design and a shift towards units and segmentation, covering the development from the emergence of design drawings to the innovation in parametric design. I then proceed with an eye-tracking study where I asked graduate architecture students to observe sketches by Louis Kahn. I study how the graphics of heat maps from eye-tracking decode the participants’ perception of intentions in sketches based on a shared educational background in architecture. Then, I propose a framework of utilizing such a representation system to train machines to predict human-level view patterns. Finally, I examine how effective this system will function with an image-to-image machine learning algorithm known as the imageconditional GANs. The study demonstrates that mechanical eye-movements implicates a shared visual-thinking procedure that has been unconsciously practiced by human designers. Such procedure, if learned by machines, will facilitate a creative process that utilize such informal dynamics derived from eye movement in visual representation in design.

Image 1 (Opposite): Kahn, L. I. Morris residence: Detail plan. Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania. Image 2 (Above) Sketch by the author.

MIT Architecture Final Thesis Reviews, May 21, 2021 Master of Architecture (MArch)

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE MIT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING SA+P 69

The Houseful(l)ness of Public Space Xio Alvarez MArch & MCP Advisors: Miho Mazereeuw & Larry Vale Readers: Nicholas de Monchaux & Garnette Cadogan This thesis takes up the role of archi-

defines membership through one’s

tects and urban designers in house-

proximity and access to property.

lessness, not through our positions

Public spaces of the city are then fur-

on affordable housing, but by consid-

ther policed in order to discourage

ering the ways that they play a part

uses and occupations that are discor-

in perpetuating the privatization of

dant with the recreational, ordered dominant use case.

domesticity. Domestic life - the programs and functions most closely as-

Despite this, the public spaces of cit-

sociated with housing and home - has

ies are made house-full by unhoused

been largely programmed out of the

residents. Lacking access to the pro-

public spaces of cities in order to

grams packaged in housing, unhoused residents piece together different

make them inhospitable to unhoused

rooms and play out different routines

residents and the urban poor more

of necessity and joy throughout the

broadly. Most visible in the form of

city. Attempts to design unhoused

so-called hostile architecture, these

people out of public space have re-

anti-domestic practices result in pub-

sulted in a universally hostile public

lic spaces that discourage lingering

realm whose impacts are unevenly

or gathering, in which it is difficult to

felt. Unhoused people are closest to

spend time. In doing so, they center

this problem and bear the brunt of

a long-lasting definition of the socio-

its violence. In this thesis I consider

political project of “the public'' which

what public space begins to look like

how can we center the domesticities of unhoused residents in that expansion? What happens when public space is seen as housefull?

when it changes its agenda. What could the public realm look like if we expanded its domestic possibilities rather than restricting them, and

Image 1 (Opposite and below): If housing can be understood as less of a totalizing Boolean yes-no condition, and more as a gradient of opportunities and access, we start to see how housed people share a dispersed network of domesticity in the city with unhoused neighbors. (img by author) Image 2 (Above): The criminalization of encampments in cities is willfully blind to the community development work they embody, and the ways that occupation of public land produces social infrastructures of care in the unhoused community. (Seattle Navigation Team Site Journal, 2019)

Still Standing Cooperative Strategies for the Renovation of Soviet Mass Housing Ben Hoyle MArch Eytan Levi MArch & MSRED Advisor: Ana Miljački Readers: Susanne Schindle, Kairos Shen & Marc Simmons

Mass housing across the former So-

vated, and many are neglected. But

viet Union is in varying states of dis-

in most places, residents own their

repair, having lasted much longer than

apartment units, having obtained them

it was expected to when built in the

at a minimal cost following the col-

1960s. Treatment of the buildings var-

lapse of the USSR. While this leaves

ies greatly depending on context, as

many apartment owners responsible

some are replaced, others are reno-

for common amenities that they don’t 72

have the means or incentives to maintain, it also puts them in a position to leverage the latent value of the Soviet structures they live in. Current trends do not take full advantage of these circumstances, and it is often external developers who manage to profit from the land value of Soviet housing, leaving residents with inadequate compensation. No matter what happens to the buildings, the legacy of mass housing is deeply entrenched and will continue to shape the built environment for generations to come. We argue that it is essential to keep the original structures — with modifications and updates — to create agency for residents in how this legacy is carried into the future. This thesis demonstrates three scenarios in which residents of the same type of prefabricated modernist housing — in sites spread across the former Soviet territory — collectively leverage their apartments to create renovations that serve their common interests. Using contemporary mass timber construction technology and Image 1 (Opposite): Model of a I-467 series residential building. Photo credits: Daisy Zhang

taking full advantage of local real estate markets, residents can self-orga-

Image 2 (Above): Existing I-467 buildings in Riga, Moscow, and Surgut

nize to improve their living spaces. 73

Conectividad Alegal Lucas Igarzabal MArch Marisa Concetta Waddle MArch Advisors: Hans Tursack Readers: Marie Law Adams & Axel Kilian This thesis investigates the rapid rate at which the changing of ownership, production, and policy has affected the Bay of Havana. In 2009, the Cuban government designated a single free port on the island just 40 kilometers west of the Bay.The Mariel marked an era of economic restructuring, a common occurrence in the past century. These policy changes aim to [ease the day-to-day lives of] of Cuban citizens but also leave them vulnerable to foreign industries who seek to mine the area for its unregulated resources, cheap labor, and proximity to US trade flows. The Bay, as a site of this intense geopolitical speculation and aging infrastructure, is emblematic of Cuba as a whole. The Bay, bracketed by an inoperable oil refinery and a degrading thermoelectric plant, is currently characterized by abandoned industry. While these forgotten sites restrict pedestrian access and foster pollution, they provide a critical connection to the shoreline, and therefore to the world at-large. The project is a speculation of a future that aims to return this site to its citizenry. It argues for the Cuban philosophy of resolver to leverage the resilient culture of Havana’s citizens against foreign opportunism. It explores the transformation of the site over the next five decades, as it adapts to the ever-changing economic, social, and political landscape of the country. The project salvages key components of the site, as opposed to depleting it of its resources. It develops new industries along the entire shore, adapted from abandoned factories, which circumvent material scarcity and access restrictions. The thesis operates between Havana’s historic ebb and flow of scarcity and surplus, defining a new vernacular of grassroots urbanism. 74

Image 1 (Top): Yield, Render of the site, 2021 (Original image by Lucas Igarzabal & Marisa Concetta Waddle) Image 2 (Bottom): Inventar, Render of the site, 2021 (Original image by Lucas Igarzabal & Marisa Concetta Waddle)

M.I.celium mexicanus: Rejecting Modernity through Zapotec Futurism Lynced Torres MArch Advisors: Sheila Kennedy & Gediminas Urbonas Reader: Lorena Bello Gomez [M.I.]celium mexicanus is an entry point for architects and humans to consider transforming their relationship to the Earth’s critical zone through reconciliation with mushrooms to cultivate fungal allyship. The thesis examines and reimagines a future of building that drives towards the biological vs. that which is mineralized and controlled through unempathetic forces such as extraction through mining, greenwashing renewable energy to sustain mining production, and commercialization of architecture and planning practices. These elements are contaminants in the culture and lives of the Zapotec community residing in Juchitan, Oaxaca and perpetuate a historical system of colonisation and exploitation by not only foreign powers, but their own country and people. The city itself currently as of 2021 has not completely been able to rebuild the damage faced in the event of the 2017 hurricane that struck in the southern coast of the Isthmus de Tehuantepec. Government aid is minimal and services towards westernized modular building units like the concrete block, which are not ideal given the hot climate, serve as a unitized symbol for economic status, and is also susceptible to destruction. The house and temple of the future embeds all the ideals, values, and ACTIONS that it may collectively take to revitalize the very soil and territory that offers itself as a substrate for life. The actions reflect and respect the rituals of the “The People” as they are no longer considered inhabitants of the past, incapable of appreciating and forging technology for the modern world. Rather, in an act of architectural and environmental anarchy, they guide the future away from extraction and towards circular economies through their collective wisdom of the past, experience in the survival of countless apocalypses, and with their close ties to mushrooms. 76

Image 1 (Above): Psilocybin Spirit Guide. Image 2 (Below): Mycelium Growth Plate (strain Mazatapec) photographed by Skylar Perez.

Heirlooms: In Search of the Fifth Ecology Erin Wong MArch Advisor: Sheila Kennedy Readers: Rania Ghosn & Nida Sinnokrot Deep in the bowels of an icy mountain on an island above the Arctic Circle lies a resource of vital importance. It is not oil, or coal, but seeds. Opened February 26, 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds the world’s largest collection of agriculture biodiversity. The seeds lying in the deep freeze of the vault include wild and old varieties, many of which are not in general use anymore. And many that do not exist outside of the seed collections they came from. Remote and inaccessible, the seed vault protects and preserves, while the seeds hidden away, sleep, waiting to be woken. It is time for a new type of heirloom seed institution, one that is decentralized and accessible, one that designs for the entire lifecycle of the seed. Therefore, this thesis asks how this new kind of “seed library” could be constructed. Where once in nature, heirloom seeds found ways to move by themselves, by wind, by ocean current, in the bellies of animals, or by ballistic dispersal, they must now be supported by new types of civic architecture. Vaults will no longer be the sole keepers of seeds. Set in the near future, in a period that has become known as the Awakening, this project investigates how the current food system in LA might be transformed. Here, in downtown LA, interventions in existing extractive urban infrastructures are designed to sponsor new practices of heirloom seed tending, and the cultivation of new relationships between communities, food, and land.

Building / Unbuilding Andrew Younker MArch Advisor: Azra Akšamija Readers: Mark Jarzombek & Nida Sinnokrot Waves of recent protests across the United States confronting structural racism demand a reckoning with colonial and Confederate histories which, far from being relegated to a distant past, continue to influence material, social and cultural formations in the present. There is a growing awareness of unstable environments where past constructions of history are losing their power to define national narratives for the masses and where the not-so-distant future is clouded with apocalyptic visions and existential threats. The present is haunted by both the past and future. Reciprocal networks of memory building and unbuilding are inscribed upon the surface of the land, or buried below, out of sight and out of mind. National monuments and parkland infrastructures stand as attractor points in these networks, refying hegemony and reaching simultaneously into the past and future to both define and control certain relationships between water, land, humans and non-humans. This project traces the wake of westward expansion through three of these sites and the watersheds they were constructed from. First, the Washington Monument which sits at the center of the National Mall, constructed from the wetlands of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. Second, the Jefferson Expansion Memorial, also known as the Gateway Arch National Park, sits on ground stabilized by a levee at the meeting of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Third, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, also known as the Shrine to Democracy, blasted and carved into ancient granite formations in the headwaters of the Missouri River. The apparent inevitability and permanence of these monumental sites are challenged through a kind of counter-tourism that builds the unbuilding left in the wake of progress. These projects reveal inconsistencies that lie at their foundations and open up space to engage with both the terror and beauty overwritten by the ongoing and incomplete project of settler colonialism.

Image 1 (Above): Pile of Stones Image 2 (Below): Monuments & Watersheds. Both by author.

Space of Mind: The Hidden Architecture in the Time of Pandemic Ziyu Xu MArch Advisor: Axel Kilian Reader: Cagri Hakan Zaman & Nicholas de Monchaux

and accumulated work traces, three virtual scenes are proposed to reveal the spatial construct we are not aware of: Follies of Cognitive Labor, Field of Imagery, and Garden of Data. Each of the scenes starts with a specific element of digital materiality and adopts its own growing mechanism. After the process of recording and translation, forms of spatial notations in response to mental activities would expand into these experiential scenes.

The thesis sets its background in the current and post pandemic context, where cognitive activities have outranged the imagination of static architecture.The virtual work environment raised a lot of questions to the physical rooms we are inhabiting in. The definition of location and space are blurred and gradually disconnected from programs, productivity and memories. In this project, Architectural spaces are envisioned to be the echo of actions and the extension of one’s state of

In a similar way to making physical architecture, the methodology of making virtual architecture addresses

mind. With the approach of Worldbuilding based on cognitive activities 82

three questions. Firstly. How to collect building materials? Secondly, what and how to construct? Thirdly, how can the built objects be perceived and navigated? The method of digital construction provides the potentials of enhancement or decay of the created Loci (built objects) based on interactions such as refocusing, and recalling. Essentially, the work aims to explore general ways and tools to materialize productivity and memories and the design part will be presented through the lens of my perception as an example. Following this narrative, different design results may emerge in different time of a day, and under various situations. The making of these architecture and scenes are impacted by individuality, randomness and time factors, and leverage invisible daily activities into a non-linear virtual construction. Image1 (Opposite): Toolkit for making virtual architecture.Image2 (Below): Hidden spaces behind the screen.

MIT Architecture Thesis Reviews, May 21, 2021 SPECIAL THANKS Architecture Faculty and Staff Eleni Aktypi José Luis Argüello Kathaleen Brearley Renée Caso Stacy Clemons Nicolas de Moncheaux Chris Dewart Deborah Garcia

Gina Halabi Chris Jenkins Sheila Kennedy Terry Knight Doug Le Vie Inala Locke Tonya Miller Amanda Moore

Andreea O’Connell Paul Pettigrew Christoph Reinhart Andrew Scott Cynthia Stewart Skylar Tibbits

Advisors and Readers (MIT and External) Cherie Abbanat Azra Akšamija Lara Baladi Lorena Bello Gomez David Birge Garnette Cadogan Jodi Cranston Diane Davis Nicholas de Monchaux Alexander D'Hooghe Timur Dogan Arindam Dutta Rania Ghosn Renée Green Jeremy Gregory Cagri Hakan Zaman Mikael Jakobsson Mark Jarzombek

Caroline Jones Jesal Kapada Paul Keel Sheila Kennedy Axel Kilian Randy Kirchain Terry Knight Marie Law Adams Miho Mazereeuw Ana Miljački Lee Moreau Caitlin Mueller Stefanie Mueller Takehiko Nagakura Leslie Norford William O'Brien Jr. Nasser Rabbat Christoph Reinhart

Brent Ryan Roi Salgueiro Barrio Lawrence Sass Arvind Satyanarayan Susanne Schindle Rafi Segal Andres Sevtsuk Kairos Shen Rosalyne Shieh Marc Simmons Nida Sinnokrot Kristel Smentek Henriette Steiner George Stiny Skylar Tibbits Hans Tursack Larry Vale Gediminas Urbonas

Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture & Planning Department of Architecture 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 7-337 Cambridge, MA USA 02139 617 253 7791 - [email protected] - architecture.mit.edu

© 2021 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Individual contributions are copyright their respective authors. Images are copyright their respective creators, unless otherwise noted. Booklet design by José Luis Argüello.

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2020 Student Thesis Showcase - Part I

Have you ever wondered what students design in architecture school? A few years ago, we started an Instagram account called IMADETHAT_ to curate student work from across North America. Now, we have nearly 3,000 projects featured for you to view. In this series, we are featuring thesis projects of recent graduates to give you a glimpse into what architecture students create while in school. Each week, for the rest of the summer, we will be curating five projects that highlight unique aspects of design. In this week’s group, the research ranges from urban scale designs focused on climate change to a proposal for a new type of collective housing and so much in between. Check back each week for new projects. 

In the meantime, Archinect has also created a series featuring the work of 2020 graduates in architecture and design programs. Check out the full list, here .

Redefining the Gradient by Kate Katz and Ryan Shaaban, Tulane University, M.Arch ‘20

Thesis Advisors: Cordula Roser Gray and Ammar Eloueini / Course: 01-SP20-Thesis Studio

Sea level rise has become a major concern for coastal cities due to the economic and cultural importance tied to their proximity to water. These cities have sustained their livelihood in low-lying elevations through the process of filling, bridging, and raising land over coastal ecosystems, replacing their ecological value with infrastructures focused on defining the edge between city and nature. Hard infrastructures have been employed to maintain urban landscapes but have minimal capacity for both human and non-human engagement due to their monofunctional applications focused on separating conditions rather than integrating them. They produce short-term gains with long-term consequences, replacing and restricting ecosystems and acting as physical barriers in a context defined by seasonal transition. 

To address the issues of hard infrastructure and sea level rise, this thesis proposes an alternative design strategy that incorporates the dynamic water system into the urban grid network. San Francisco was chosen as the location of study as it is a peninsula where a majority of the predicted inundation occurs on the eastern bayside. In this estuary, there were over 500 acres of ecologically rich tidal marshlands that were filled in during the late 1800s. To protect these new lands, the Embarcadero Sea Wall was built in 1916 and is now in a state of neglect. The city has set aside $5 billion for repairs but, instead of pouring more money into a broken system, we propose an investment in new multi-functional ecologically-responsive strategies. 

As sea levels rise, the city will be inundated with water, creating the opportunity to develop a new circulation system that maintains accessibility throughout areas located in the flood zone. In this proposal, we’ve designed a connective network where instance moments become moments of pause and relief to enjoy the new cityscape in a dynamic maritime district. 

On the lower level, paths widen to become plazas while on the upper level, they become breakout destinations which can connect to certain occupiable rooftops that are given to the public realm. The bases of carved canals become seeding grounds for plants and aquatic life as the water level rises over time. Buildings can protect high-risk floors through floodproofing and structural encasement combined with adaptive floorplates to maintain the use of lower levels. The floating walkway is composed of modular units that are buoyant, allowing the pedestrian paths to conform and fluctuate with diurnal tidal changes. The composition of the units creates street furniture and apertures to engage with the ecologies below while enabling a once restricted landscape of wetlands to take place within the city. 

The new vision of the public realm in this waterfront district hopes to shine an optimistic light on how we can live with nature once again as we deal with the consequences of climate change.

Unearthing the Black Aesthetic by Demar Matthews, Woodbury University, M.Arch ‘20

Advisor: Ryan Tyler Martinez Featured on Archinect

“Unearthing The Black Aesthetic” highlights South Central Los Angeles’s (or Black Los Angeles’s) unique positioning as a dynamic hub of Black culture and creativity. South Central is the densest population of African Americans west of the Mississippi. While every historically Black neighborhood in Los Angeles has experienced displacement, the neighborhood of Watts was hit particularly hard. As more and more Black Angelenos are forced for one reason or another to relocate, we are losing our history and connection to Los Angeles.

As a way to fight this gentrification, we are developing an architectural language derived from Black culture. So many cultures have their own architectural styles based on values, goals, morals, and customs shared by their society. When these cultures have relocated to America, to keep their culture and values intact, they bought land and built in the image of their homelands. That is not true for Black people in America. In fact, until 1968, Black people had no rights to own property in Los Angeles. While others began a race to acquire land in 1492, building homes and communities in their image, we started running 476 years after the race began. What percentage of land was left for Blacks to acquire? How then can we advance the development of a Black aesthetic in architecture?

This project, most importantly, is a collaboration with the community that will be for us and by us. My goal is to take control of our image in architecture; to elevate, not denigrate, Black life and culture. Ultimately, we envision repeating this process in nine historically Black cities in America to develop an architectural language that will vary based on the history and specificities of Black culture in each area.

KILLING IT: The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Amanda Golemba, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, M.Arch ’20

Advisors: Nikole Bouchard, Jasmine Benyamin, and Erik Hancock / Independent Design Thesis

For decades, post-industrial cities throughout the United States have been quietly erased through self-imposed tabula rasa demolition. If considered at all, demolition is touted as the mechanism for removing unsightly blight, promoting safety, and discarding the obsolete and the unwanted. Once deemed unworthy, rarely does a building survive the threat of demolition. 

In the last decade, the City of Chicago has erased over 13,000 buildings with 225 in just the last four months. Not only does this mass erasure eradicate the material and the spatial, but it permanently wipes the remnants of human bodies, values, and history — a complete annulment of event, time, and memory. 

But why do we feel the need to erase in order to make progress?

Our current path has led to a built environment that is becoming more and more uniform and sterile. Much of America has become standardized, mixed-use developments; neighborhoods of cookie-cutter homes and the excessive use of synthetic, toxic building materials. A uniform world is a boring one that has little room for creativity, individuality, or authenticity.

This thesis, “KILLING IT,” is a design proposal for a traveling exhibition that seeks to change perceptions of the existing city fabric by visualizing patterns of erasure, questioning the resultant implications and effects of that erasure, and proposing an alternative fate. “KILLING IT” confronts the inherently violent aspects of architecture and explores that violence through the intentionally jarring, uncomfortable, and absurd analogy of murder. This analogy is a lens through which to trace the violent, intentional, and premature ending and sterilization of the existing built environment. After all, as Bernard Tschumi said, “To really appreciate architecture, you may even need to commit a murder.”1 But murder is not just about the events that take place within a building, it is also the material reality of the building itself. 

Over the life of a building, scarring, moments in time, and decay layer to create an inhabitable palimpsest of memory. This traveling exhibition is infused with the palimpsest concept by investigating strategies of layering, modularity, flexibility, transparency, and building remains, while layering them together to form a system that operates as an inhabitable core model collage. Each individual exhibition simultaneously memorializes the violence that happened at that particular site and implements murderous adaptive reuse strategies through collage and salvage material to expose what could have been.

If we continue down our current path, we will only continue to make the same mistakes and achieve the same monotonous, sterilizing results we currently see in every American city and suburb. We need to embrace a new path that values authenticity, celebrates the scars and traces of the past, and carries memories into the future. By reimaging what death can mean and addressing cycles of violence, “KILLING IT” proposes an optimistic vision for the future of American cities. 

• Tschumi, Bernard. “Questions of space: lectures on architecture” (ed. 1990)

A New Prototype for Collective Housing by Juan Acosta and Gable Bostic, University of Texas at Austin, M.Arch ‘20

Advisor: Martin Haettasch / Course: Integrative Design Studio Read more: https://soa.utexas.edu/work/new-prototype-collective-housing

Austin is a city that faces extreme housing pressures. This problem is framed almost exclusively in terms of supply and demand, and the related question of affordability. For architects, however, a more productive question is: Will this new quantity produce a new quality of housing? 

How do we live in the city, how do we create individual and collective identity through architecture, and what are the urban consequences? This studio investigates new urban housing types, smaller than an apartment block yet larger and denser than a detached house. Critically assessing existing typologies, we ask the question: How can the comforts of the individual house be reconfigured to form new types of residential urban fabric beyond the entropy of tract housing or the formulaic denominator of “mixed-use.” The nature of the integrative design studio allowed for the testing of material systems and construction techniques that have long had an important economic and ecological impact.

“A New Prototype for Collective Housing” addresses collectivity in both a formal and social sense, existing between the commercial and residential scales present in Austin’s St. John neighborhood as it straddles the I-35 corridor; a normative American condition. A diversity of programs, and multigenerational living, create an inherently diverse community. Additionally, a courtyard typology is used to negotiate the spectrum of private and shared space. Volumes, comprising multiple housing units ranging from studio apartments to four bedrooms, penetrate a commercial plinth that circulates both residents and mechanical systems. The use of heavy timber ensures an equitable use of resources while imbuing the project with a familiar material character.

ELSEWHERE, OR ELSE WHERE? by Brenda (Bz) Zhang, University of California at Berkeley, M.Arch ’20

Advisors: Andrew Atwood and Neyran Turan See more: https://www.brendazhang.com/#/elsewhere-or-else-where/

“ELSEWHERE, OR ELSE WHERE?” is an architectural fever dream about the San Francisco Bay Area. Beginning with the premise that two common ideas of Place—Home and Elsewhere—are no longer useful, the project wonders how disciplinary tools of architecture can be used to shape new stories about where we are.

For our purposes, “Home,” although primarily used to describe a place of domestic habitation, is also referring generally to a “familiar or usual setting,” as in home-base, home-court, home-page, and even home-button. As a counterpoint, Elsewhere shifts our attention “in or to another place,” away. This thesis is situated both in the literal spaces of Elsewhere and Home (landfills, houses, wilderness, base camps, wastelands, hometowns) and in their culturally constructed space (value-embedded narratives determining whether something belongs, and to whom). Since we construct both narratives through principles of exclusion, Elsewhere is a lot closer to Home than we say. These hybrid spaces—domestic and industrial, urban and hinterland, natural and built—are investigated as found conditions of the Anthropocene and potential sites for new understandings of Place.

Ultimately, this thesis attempts to challenge conventional notions of what architects could do with our existing skill sets, just by shifting our attention—Elsewhere. The sites shown here and the concerns they represent undeniably exist, but because of the ways Western architecture draws thick boundaries between and around them, they resist architectural focus—to our detriment.

In reworking the physical and cultural constructions of Homes and Elsewheres, architects are uniquely positioned to go beyond diagnostics in visualizing and designing how, where, and why we build. While this project looks specifically at two particular stories we tell about where we are, the overall objective is to provoke new approaches to how we construct Place—both physically and culturally—within or without our discipline.

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Winners announced for architecture thesis of the year 2020, india architecture news - sep 02, 2020 - 16:30   29470 views.

theCharette encourages free flow of unfettered ideas that seek to develop ingenious solutions for complex problems of the future. theCharette has announced the three winning projects for Architecture Thesis of the Year 2020 . 

The "Architecture Thesis of the Year | ATY 2020" is an international architecture thesis competition organized by theCharette. The aim of the competition is to extend appreciation to the tireless effort and exceptional creativity of student thesis in the fields of Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape and Restoration. 

theCharette seeks to encourage young talent in bringing their path breaking ideas to the forefront on a global scale. The competition received over 1000 entries from 104 nations across the world. See the crème de la crème of thesis projects from students all over the world for the 2020 edition of the competition.

The full results, including the winners, the honourable mentions, and the top 30 shortlisted entries can be viewed at theCharette's website . 

The jury panel composed of Marcia Kogan (Studio MK27, Brazil), Bruno Rollet (Bruno Rollet Architecte, Paris), Daniela Deutsch (Associate Prof., NewSchool of Architecture & Design, California), DR. Caroline Hachem-Vermette (Assistant Prof, University of Calgary, Canada) and Stefan Kristofferson (Stratic, Germany, Sweden & India).

See top three winners and read short project descriptions below:

Images courtesy of the artists

1st Prize Winner

ISTHME // L e CHAOS SENSIBLE by Dafni Filippa and Meriam Sehimi from Germany took home the top prize with their people oriented project. The students from the Technical University of Munich designed a scheme that the jury described as "poetic, based on real-life observations, lightweight and extraordinarily beautiful."

Jurors loved the simplicity and fluidity of the masterplan and how another culture is interpreted. They felt that drawings are adequate, sensitive and stunning.

Images courtesy of the artist

2nd Prize Winner

Fabiola del Carmen Cruz Ballardo, from Peru, won second place for her project, AMAZONIA TRANS _ TRI _ FRONTERIZA. Three countries: Peru, Brazil, Bolivia; and two communities: Mancheron, Yamaha. All separated by artificial borders. Nevertheless, they share a common Amazonian culture. 

There is a will to unite people in this project, to respect different traditions, to propose different places, uniting past present and future with traditional languages, medical plants and culture. A "bridge" is created to consolidate this place and to respect it through the world: it can be seen like an SOS. Because this project is also implicitly about the amazon forest: calling to save its richness, be it natural or cultural.

3rd Prize Winner

Third place in the competition went to Philip Springall from United Kingdom. His project is a multidisciplinary exploration of Alzheimer’s disease, architecture and neuroscience. Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that slowly strips away the notions of place, memory, identity and the self. 

The project investigates the role that architecture and the built environment can play in improving the lives of those with Alzheimer’s disease. The jury felt that the project "...contemplates a powerful concept which might have great applications in the real world."

The ATY Competition is an annual competition and will be released again in Summer of 2021.

Top image: 2nd Prize Winner Fabiola del Carmen Cruz Ballardo

> via theCharette

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Home > HFA > Department of Architecture > Architecture Masters Theses Collection

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].

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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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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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• ALive! features

The Most Viewed B.Arch thesis projects in 2018

• December 28, 2018

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On many counts, the year 2018 has been incredible for us at ALive!. First, we reached a new milestone of 350,000 views from nearly 200,000 visitors.

Second, in addition to architectural and interior design projects, we also published many op-eds, ideas, thesis projects and research. We started publishing Thesis projects last year and this year too we were overwhelmed with the number of requests to publish thesis projects from architecture students across India and even Bangladesh. B.Arch Thesis projects have been a great source of inspiration for many students and teachers. We thank everyone who submitted their projects for publication and also those who shared them on Social Media, to ensure that the information reaches the maximum people. If you wish to submit your thesis, or an architectural project, click on the link below.

Among all the B.Arch thesis projects published in 2018, we are happy to share the list of five most viewed thesis projects below.

5. Urban Food Hub, INA At New Delhi by Vipanchi Handa, SCHOOL OF PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE, DELHI

The Thesis was guided by DR. AMIT HAJELA , AR. DEEPAK TANEJA

4. Revitilization of Le Corbusier’s Legacy: Sanskar Kendra, by Rahul Jadon, Faculty of Architecture, Dr. APJ AKTU, Lucknow

Guides: Prof. Mohd. Sabahat

3. Memorial for the rebels of land, at Pahartali, Chittagong – Md. Hansat, Bangladesh University

Guides and Advisors: Ar. Kazi Tarannum Hossain, Ar. Sefat Sultana, Ar. Mithun Chandra Nath., Ar. Iqbal Habib,, Ar. Bikash Saud Ansary, Ar. Qazi M. Arif, Ar. N R Khan

2. JASHN-e-PUNJAB By Harkunwar Singh Kanwal, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

Thesis Guide: Ar. Manish Gulati and Ar. Sambuddha Sen

1. Centre for Art and Architecture: Role of an Urban Catalyst, New Delhi, by Mohammad Suhail

Guides: Ar. Ritu Gulati, Ar. Shikhar Singh

We congratulate everyone who shared their thesis projects with us, and hope they keep sharing more work in the future too. Wishing everyone an eventful and joyous 2019.

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BEHIND the SCENES, Kerala, by LIJO.RENY.architects

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Integrated Production Facility for Organic India, Lucknow, by Studio Lotus

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Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer Centre, Lisbon, by Sachin Agshikar, HDR, and Joao Nuno Laranjo

The Champalimaud Foundation expanded its Cancer Research Centre in Lisbon into a pancreatic cancer hospital, 14 years post-construction by architect Charles Correa. Sachin Agshikar, Correa’s associate, led design alongside HDR and local architect Joao Nuno Laranjo.

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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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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.

Call for Submissions: Architecture Thesis of the Year | ATY 2020

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.

"Plastic Island" Imagines the Possibilities of Reusing Oceanic Waste in Architecture

With rising sea levels and incessant consumption of plastic, the state of the earth's oceans is rapidly deteriorating. Instead of discarding or burning this plastic, architects Erik Goksøyr and Emily-Claire Goksøyr questioned whether any architectural potential exists in this neglected material. By conducting an extensive material study, the duo designed three prototypes to postulate this theory. 

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.