Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1894. / by Marion Mahony. / B.S.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 58). / The difficulty in designing low-income housing is !hat. it will not sit quietly, other problems keep Jostling about it. To design low-income housing one must consider the extreme conditions of poverty and urban problems, deal with sociology, history, politics and the economy. The second difficulty is the breadth of the subject. But this thesis project is not meant to answer all of the problems that low-income housing might have to deal with. It is meant to be a positive contribution to the development of this subject in Third World Nations, particularly Mexico. This thesis develops a housing prototype for the northern border cities of Mexico, in this case, is the city of Reynosa. The reason for choosing this Designing Housing in the Third World area is because northern border towns are expected to be the faster growing cities in Mexico in this decade, due to the large industrial development resulting from the Free Trade Agreement with Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A. The number of people that come to these cities looking for employment are encountering housIng problems. Different housing programs and solutions have been established by governmental institutions, private interests and individuals. All of these solutions, have tried to answer the problems in their own way. This thesis will compare these housing solutions for both their positive and negative characteristics in or~er to identify particular architectural design solutions that these communities need. On the basis of this research a new housing prototype for border towns will be designed. The housing prototype hypothetically is intended to be used by the INFONAVIT, a private developer or a self-help community group. This prototype is developed from an existing project taking this research ~nto consideration, with the notion that by drawIng from these experiences and looking at these constraints, budgets, and overall proposals one can design a prototype for a real case and problem. / by Rodrigo M. Vargas. / M.Arch.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-155). / The thesis examines the physical and symbolic spaces of the eruv through a textual and visual engagement. An eruv is a synthetic single private domain to facilitate carrying in a city, which is otherwise only allowed within a private domain on Shabbat in orthodox Judaism. An eruv is created by constructing a continuous boundary and the symbolic pooling of resources of the community. Both the eruv's origin in Jewish law as well as contemporary analysis provide the framework for my own interpretation. The thesis bridges across several disciplines - from architecture, art, Judaism, anthropology, feminism, and cultural studies - to find an approach which opens this 2000 year old tradition to a contemporary encounter. The eruv's physical and intangible spaces are discussed as paradoxical spaces to create a site of encounter. In relationship to the existing and proposed readings, the contemporary significance of eruvin (pI. of eruv), not only for a Jewish community, but for any individual or community, local or foreign, is explored. The thesis discusses notions of a nomadic navigation of space, a symbiotic construction of belonging, an ethics of foreignness, and a site for encounters. More traditional interpretations that are often based on dyadic systems are contrasted with explorations of the topic in relationship to paradoxical spaces, so that a space for diverse identities and their coalition emerges. My encounter and photographs of the Boston eruv relate the mental spaces to the physical architecture and reveal its minimal physicality with in its urban context. Through photographs and text the eruv is recognized as architecture, and opens it to broader discussion of space and meaning. My research increases the presence of the eruv and positions the existing and proposed spaces for adaptation and transformation by others who might need an eruv that has yet to be designed. / by Miriam Levy. / S.M.

Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 102-105). / The Green Heart is an agricultural area situated in the center of the Randstad, a metropolis in the Western Netherlands. Like the rest of Holland, it is a constructed landscape. The region is facing twin challenges: the need to make room for water as a strategy to deal with climate change, and the fact that the liberalization of the European dairy industry will make it exceedingly difficult for small family farms to compete in the global market. Certain places retain a historical, urban or cultural significance that transcends their physical or ecological properties; in its embodiment of the Dutch pastoral, the Green Heart has become such a landscape. The pastoral myth has very real ramifications for the identity of the Randstad, and must be carefully negotiated in any intervention that attempts to change the image or form of the Green Heart. This thesis investigates how new natures can be constructed within the myth of the pastoral, through a study of this Dutch lowland landscape and a design proposal that encompasses the landscape and the architectural scales. The "Blue Heart" is both a strategic intervention that reinterprets additional water as an economic boon, as well as a building typology that enables farmers to capitalize on this new nature. / by Claudia Bode. / M. Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1991. / Title as it appears in the June 1991 M.I.T. Graduate List: The architectural culture of Islamic institutions in the West. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-242). / This thesis stems from an awareness, reinforced by personal design experience, of a dilemma which exists about character, in terms of appropriateness of and the representation of Islam, in the Institutions built for Muslim immigrants in the West. While architects building in Islamic nations are fighting their own battles against modernism in architecture in order to maintain continuity within the context of their traditional and contemporary cities, architects building for Muslim communities overseas are searching for appropriate images for their Institutions in cultures which historically have been unaware of the true nature of Islamic civilizations in the world. This study attempts to understand the complexities involved in designing for such building programs, which include mediating between the clients' insistence on the re-creation of the architectural traditions which have been left behind, and the immediate urbanistic, symbolic, social and political forces of the contexts which weave and knit the buildings in their surroundings. Within the limited scope of this endeavor, emphasis is placed on consideration of the architectural character of these religious institutions. However, one cannot completely ignore other aspects of the histories of these buildings, which illustrate the process of their making. These buildings are often loaded with self-conscious and fully acknowledged historical references, taken from the so called generic tradition of 'Islamic Architecture', and are collaged to impress upon the believer or non-believer alike, with recognizable imagery and form, the religious and ideological associations of their functions. However, this method of orchestrating often leaves an unstable territory, within which a critical evaluation of them reveals the inherent contradictions. The theoretical discourse of the thesis will deal with, on one hand, a wide range of general issues, such as the image of Islam in the eyes of the West, the human need for continuity and the use of typology in architecture, and on other hand, the distillation of arguments on specific topics such as the iconography of Islamic architecture and the various interpretations put forward to explain its extensive use of geometry and ornament. The case studies of the Friday Mosques in London and Rome and the Jamatkhanas in London and Burnaby extend and demonstrate the above dialogue with the past and will form the basis of formulation of design principles which might be utilized in future building programs. / by Hafiz-Ur-Rehman Sherali. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-39). / Light Dance is a conscious transfiguration of the body, its movement and the encompassing space; a transposition of matter to light exalted in the dance. This corresponds to the conceptualized spirit of the performer whose body is "consumed" by light. A transposition occurs between the performer and audience. The audience experiences the dissolution of the body into light. In this thesis I assemble fragments of visible and inner light experiences and concepts of the body by an intuition of the spirit . The purpose is to equate visible and inner light. The writing is based on light as the physical self of the spirit; the significance of the body and movement. Specific examples are cited to create a contextual fabric for the inspired design of Light Dance. / by Seth Riskin. / M.S.V.S.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1967. M.Arch. / Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-60). / by Scott L. Hauser. / M.S.

Thesis (M.C.P.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture, 1956. / Bibliography: leaves [175-176]. / by Malcolm D. Rivkin. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1951. / Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Serafin G. Aquino, Jr. / M.Arch.