Master of Architecture

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Master of Architecture

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/73245

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Degree Series

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School of Architecture

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 196

Sustainable energy in military base design & layout

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-05-10) Campbell, Ira Lee, Sr.

The purpose of this study is to exlpore the possibilities of power generation using human and mechanical means. This paper will introduce alternative means, methods, and procedures for the implementation of cutting edge technologies to address the energy needs for today and the future. Further, this project will serve as an aid in the development of a base camp facility layout optimization system by understanding the proximity relationships between base camp components, developing a facility layout domain, and comparing generated layouts to existing models and camps.
How modest, incremental site-driven interventions differ in their impact on slum upgrading from iconic projects

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-05-20) Rodas, Mario Rene

Urban informal settlements have increased dramatically over the last decades throughout major cities in developing countries. Post war industrialization, increased economic opportunities and social freedoms continue to drive urban-to-rural migration despite of the challenging living conditions in this context. As an example of this phenomenon, approximately 20% of Rio de Janeiro’s six million inhabitants live in the city’s favelas (shanty towns) or other types of informal settlements. Despite physical proximity, rigid class segregation maintains strong physical and social boundaries between the formal and informal city. On the one hand favela residents suffer from a marked social stigma mainly due to the violence and crime associated with local or exterior drug traffic wars in their communities - suggesting the need for top-down "solutions." On the other hand, some scholars are increasingly celebrating the entrepreneurialism of the slums' informal economies and self–organized communal structures, suggesting that successful improvements must be incremental and community-driven. This thesis asks how modest, incremental site-driven interventions differ in their impact on slum upgrading from top down iconic projects. The thesis identifies current strategies of slum upgrading through analysis of both theoretical proposals by scholars and contemporary built projects. The thesis proposes that a hybrid blend of these strategies will address multiple audiences and goals and better guide practitioners on how to intervene and design within these types of spaces. The multiple goals focus on the provision of social integration, self-organization and economic opportunities which will result in bettering the quality of life of the people who live in these communities. This hybrid combination of community networked strategies and iconic gestures is tested and applied in a design proposal for the Complexo da Maré favela compound in Rio de Janeiro.
Rethinking the work space

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-05-15) Duncan, Rebecca

The idea of the open plan workspace has been a popular model for office design since the 1960’s. The openness was thought to encourage collaboration and group thinking while also allowing for more supervision and a more flexible space overall. This model, however, is too instrumental. It neglects the fact that the modern workplace is a setting not just for work but where we spend a significant part of our public life. We enact presentations of self in the workplace, enter into planned and unplanned transactions, forge networks, create group identities, and at times withdraw from the public eye for contemplative work and for refuge. In the open-plan model, every activity becomes a ‘front stage’ activity where people always feel as if they are constantly putting on a performance. The model does not adequately address other needs. This holds particularly true in the creative professions where more seclusion is needed in order to produce innovative ideas. This thesis offers a new model to think about the workplace by taking the school of architecture as an example. The work is in two parts. The first, an analytical study of 10 schools, drawn from a larger sample of 26, shows that despite many innovations in form-making, schools of architecture have followed this model of the open plan workspace closely, particularly in the way studio spaces are designed. As a result activities like enactment of self, expression of identities, negotiation and encounters, and withdrawal from social life happen in ad hoc and re-purposed spaces. The second part offers a design response to this condition by proposing an intervention for one of the most well known schools of architecture and one that embodies a logically extreme version of the open plan idea, Crown Hall. This intervention, which proposes radical changes to the interior organization of Crown Hall while respecting its conceptual form and broad design intent, illustrates how a modern workplace can offer a space that allows the full complexity of the drama of daily life to enfold in a workplace setting.
Counter-spaces and notation machines

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-04-29) Shivers, Christina Nicole

The modern American city is organized into a multitude of spaces based upon function and use. These organized spaces dictate a prescribed behavior and social awareness resulting in a landscape of ill-fitting and awkward territories existing in opposition to one another. An unintended byproduct of these collisions is the counter-space. Akin to slag, sludge and waste resulting from modern industrial processes, the counter-space is the left-over and neglected space of the city resulting from the ever increasing hegemony of society. Hidden within plain site, abandoned and unused, these spaces exist everywhere. This thesis seeks to understand and reveal these counter-spaces and their subsequent populations within the city of Atlanta in order to bring an awareness to the design of the city for all populations. The spatial-temporalities of counter-spaces will be understood through a de-territorialization of representation through notation and mapping. Through this act, a “cartography of events” will be created for each counter space using series of notation machines in which temporal stimuli from each counter-space site will be used as inputs for the machines.
Resilient cities: an analysis of resilient urban form

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-08-27) Aguilar, Johnny R.

This thesis studies the theories, scientific evidence and spatial relationships within urban form to determine means and deviations that developments can use to determine the resiliency of urban form within a given location. Resiliency within urban form functions as modulations around a morphological mean. Rather than replicate the mean, resilient cities modulate with low standard deviations around the mean. As a result, while many look aesthetically different, resilient cities are structurally more similar than dissimilar. Cities can use this information to inform their projects on a schematic design level to determine if they are improving their urban form or if they are deviating from the resilient mean.
Bantam towns of Georgia: Small town revitalization and economic development

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-05-19) Riley, Rebecca Dawn

Over 80-percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas that occupy a mere 3-percent of the country's total area. Development problems and infrastructural stress caused by urban overpopulation can already be seen in the nation's largest cities. Scattered across North America are small towns that, at one time, were largely sustained by agriculture or industry, but have watched as farming and manufacturing operations leave them behind. Rooted in these economic conditions is the growing gap between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. The high concentration of rural lands and high poverty rates in the South makes this region particularly vulnerable to the effects of rural economic distress, and put it in desperate need of solutions. For many small towns in Georgia, the last two decades have brought either rapid population growth, as seen in the areas surrounding Atlanta, or great population decline, most clearly depicted in the southeastern region of the state. Each condition produces a host of different challenges for these small communities, illustrating no simple solutions. It is the focus of this research to determine what proximities, economic assets, and formal characteristics are necessary for small towns in Georgia to successfully revitalize and grow. Furthermore, it is the aim of this research to present a means of analyzing the assets of small towns in order to determine where outside investment is most likely to make a difference, and how resources can best be utilized.
Retrofitting closed golf courses

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-05-16) Plummer, Audrey L.

In the 80s and 90s in America, residential developers believed that the best way to make money was to build a golf course community. Premiums of homes on golf courses ranged from 30% to 100% more than the price of a similar home not adjacent to a course. Today, the bottom has fallen out of the golf market leaving over 2,400 courses closed in America. Residential homes bordering a closed golf course experience an 11.7% loss of value. Many owners and potential developers want these large parcels of land to be up-zoned so they can build higher density residential and make a profit. Neighbors do not want to lose their greenspace and public officials do not want to be seen as harming single-family residential. This thesis argues that to retrofit a closed golf course, developers, community members and other stakeholders must first understand the morphological and environmental implications of the different types of golf courses, the context surrounding closed courses and the location of these courses in a greater regional area. By understanding closed golf courses in this way, a framework can be established that results from negotiation among golf course residents, neighbors, developers and public officials.
Floating Tybee: planning and designing for rising seas

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-05-16) Manley, Canon Randolph

There is a statistically high probability that within this generation's lifetime, the mean sea level in the south eastern coast of the United States will rise from three to six feet above what it is today. The easiest response to this scenario and its complicated and devastating repercussions is to flee, or to put up a wall. This reaction is defending current lifestyles and cultures against the liabilities and complicated problems associated with sea level rise. This thesis asks: "How can we convert the liabilities of sea level rise into assets?" Using Tybee Island of Chatham County, Georgia as a case study, this thesis will answer this question by exploring 5 topics: 1. Understanding sea level rise 2. Understanding barrier islands of coastal Georgia and Tybee Island 3. The current Sea Level Rise Adaptation Plan for Tybee Island and Where it is Lacking 4. A new urban design strategy in planning for sea level rise on Tybee Island 5. Existing instances of aquatic and amphibious architectures and a new type of amphibious architecture for Tybee Island
Designed for disassembly: the push for a new approach to sports architecture in the 21st century

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-04-10) Myers, Scott J.

The architecture of the sports stadium has evolved dramatically throughout its history. From the ancient gladiatorial arenas to the domes and retractable-roof ballparks of the 20th Century, the stadium has become an iconic and integral part of life, in our modern society. Through the globalization of sports and sporting events, such as the Olympics and World Cup, new and more exciting opportunities are being extended to those who, historically, have been without the resources or infrastructural means to support such endeavors. However, for all the excitement and optimism that accompanies the initial design and planning, the actual development of the necessary structures and support systems rarely provides the expected return on what, ultimately, becomes a staggering investment of time, money, and labor. In fact, operators have found it nearly impossible to provide for the continued operation, maintenance, and regular occupation of these facilities, thus resulting in an overwhelming burden on the local community. It is the purpose of this thesis to provide a survey of architectural precedents from selected mega-events of the last 100 years, as well as a number of other contemporary stadium projects, in an effort to fully convey the magnitude and relevancy of this issue, to identify industry trends and practical models, and more definitively present the need for an alternative approach to design. Additionally, a proposal will be put in place for more of a focus on modularity and prefabrication, in order to transform the Olympic or World Cup stadium into a less permanent element within the urban landscape. It is the hope that the systemic issues, currently associated with hosting international sporting events, may be remedied through the architecture, and ultimate disassembly, of the 21st Century stadium. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce the negative impact of such undertakings, and to aid in the realization of the inherent potential for positive change therein.
Blurred lines: reinvestigating the design possibilites of architecturalized furniture and furniturized architecture in contemporary housing

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-04-10) Pierce, Allen Carl

Blurred LInes seeks to reopen discussion of the scale and interrelation of architecture and furniture, traditionally conceived. It traces the recent history of furniture and architectural making from the high-point of the “built-in” through the manufacturing age, questioning the corresponding stratification of our immediate built environment into building, infill and objects. Engaging modernist and contemporary criticism, it explores a return to unified building in which the architecture might well become the furniture and vice-versa, erasing built hierarchy and asynchronicity. The paper describes lessons learned from modern masters of the discipline from Adolf Loos to Nader Tehrani and attempts to identify key formal, spatial and constructional considerations in the successful integration and “blurring” of this line. All of this comes to bear in the establishment of design experiments to be carried out in studio, testing the possibilities and viability of the paper's theoretical models.