Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 45-47). / Our collectively developed methods of structuring information through graphical and natural user interfaces (GUI, NUI) largely emphasize visual and visuo-spatial representation over other types of sensory information. As our interfaces continue to develop we seem to select for fidelity of visual stimulation, while neglecting the behavioral aspects of physical materiality. In this thesis, I advocate for the use of expressive mediums of material engagement as part of the design of interaction within interfaces. I present an approach to interfacing using Computer-Mediated Material Interaction (CMMI), by augmenting the visual appearance and behavior of clay. This approach considers the subject's situated learning as the crucial factor in building coherent and immersive interfacing. Taking precedents from the domains of perceptual science and cognitive ecology, such as information-search, affordances and adaptive learning, I suggest that the sense of immersion and ease of learning in an interaction stems from how much it supports the subject's self-guided, iterative, discovery process. To illustrate this approach, I present a series of oil clay augmented-reality prototypes that encourage situated mappings to be discovered by the subject. I also discuss how interface design could further honor the adaptive principles latent in human-material-interactions. / by Julia Litman-Cleper. / S.M.

Thesis: S.M. in Architecture Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2018. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-140). / This thesis introduces an architectural design approach that is founded on working with digital fabrication machines, materials, and time: Machine Delay Fabrication (MDFab). MDFab is characterized by the materialization and manipulation of the time taken by digital fabrication machines to do work. MDFab contrasts with other approaches to digital fabrication that architectural design has appropriated from adjacent fields (for example, human-computer interaction and automated manufacturing). In particular, MDFab is a response to "real-time" digital fabrication techniques, which use embedded sensing to immediately interact with the designer, material, and/or environment. Real-time techniques have negatively distanced architectural designers from material, temporal, and instrumental understanding. Further, the current dependence on real-time points to a future of anti-anticipation: a time in which architectural designers--and human beings, in general-- will not have to anticipate what happens next. MDFab is an alternative to this future: it offers a way to interact with digital fabrication machines that enables architectural designers to advance the material thinking, improvisation, and speculation that are--and should always be--fundamental to the architectural design process. The first part of the paper is concerned with the historical, theoretical, and practical contextualization of MDFab. MDFab is situated within work in both the arts and sciences that has explored the productive potential of delay. These experiments in delay set up critiques of three contemporary architectural design approaches to digital fabrication. These critiques are supplemented by an examination of digital fabrication projects that have opened alternative contexts for architectural design research. The first part concludes with a discussion of the science and practice of curing in concrete fabrication. The second part of this paper is dedicated to the introduction of Machine Delay Fabrication. The foundational concept of MDFab, machine delay, is introduced. The conceptual design implications of MDFab are discussed. The method of 3D printing concrete that was invented to explore MDFab is presented through a detailed account of its design. The findings of the concrete 3D printing exploration are used to speculate on the aesthetic, constructive, and ethical possibilities of MDFab in architectural design. Finally, the work is recontextualized in terms of the not-so-distant future that awaits architectural design practice. / by Zachary Cohen. / S.M. in Architecture Studies

Thesis (B.Arch)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1940. / MIT copy bound with: A theater for Bowdoin College / William E. Lunt, Jr. [1940] -- Standardized propaganda units for war time and peace time China / Ieoh Ming Pei [1940] -- A one family housing unit for workers / J. Martin Rosse [1940] -- A home for Ukrainian children / Louis V. Russoniello [1940] -- A conservatory of music for Boston, Massachusetts / Samuel Scott [1940] Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 34). / by Pedro A. de Castro. / B.Arch

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-132). / by William Daniel Gause. / M.S.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1965. M.Arch. / Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / Bibliography: leaves 55-56. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-77). / by Chi Chong Wong. / M.S.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1968. M.Arch. / Includes bibliographical footnotes. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 28). / This thesis is the design of a monastic retreat on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia. The island serves as the source of the generative concept that organizes the sequence of spaces within the monastery. The thesis proposes that light possesses the capacity to reinforce the generative concept. This capacity might be called a narrative use of light in which light tells us of the intentions behind the concept. A narrative use of light is expressed in Louis Kahn's design for the Unitarian Church in Rochester, New York. Kahn employs the light to evoke a sense of roundness within the square central room. By this simple move, Kahn has softened the comers, thus retaining the essence of his initial concept which depicts the space as a circular room. His attitude towards the light tells us of the generative concept. The thesis is composed of three sections. The first describes a walk through the island which collects impressions about the nature of the island. The second section describes how impressions of the island have been transformed into architecture, and how light tells a story, as one walks through the buildings. As a reference, religious buildings by Tadao Ando and Jorn Utzon are evaluated in the third section, as additional sources for creating a narrative with light. / by Jose Marcos Sama. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.C.P.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture, 1950. / Bibliography: leaves 62-64. / by Frederick H. Reuter. / M.C.P.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 54). / Based on the new architectural excavations by Prof. E. Nekrasova, the thesis will re-read and re-analyze the historical development of the Ark and the Shahristan, the historical cores of the city of Bukhara, and the relationship between them in the formation of the city's urban fabric. Most of the previous theories on the development of Bukhara were based on old historical chronicals. Analyses of the urban fabric were not supported by actual archeological facts. Drawing from my extencive fieldworks and surveys in Bukhara during the last two years, my thesis intends to combine the most acceptable ideas and facts into one persuasive proposal. The theoretical analysis of the paper argues with proposals made by two scholars from Uzbekistan. It takes into account the theoretical framework from both of them and applies it to my analysis of the historical formation of Bukhara. The first is the proposal of Prof. Notkin, who has based his theory of the city's development on the reading of the urban fabric. He believes that the city of Bukhara grew gradually and extended its borders in all directions throughout the city's development. The second proposal, by Prof. Bolshakov, contents that hte city of Bukhara was created according to Roman rules for a city grid, and then subsecuently defonned over the course of 2,000 years. Based on the generalized understanding of the city grid, Prof. Bolshakov presented a theory of the city plan in the beginning of its existance. Beginning with the 5th. c. A.D. through the 19th. c. A.D., my thesis will analyze the urban pattern of Shahristan and its relationship to the Ark in the smaller scale. Using architectural excavations within the Shahristan, my thesis will interpret the words of Narshahi, a writer of the 10th. c. A.D.who said that "Shahristan was divided into four parts and every part was organized as a village" - in a new way. Many scientists interpreted this sentence in the relation to the two roads that crossed the Shahristan from the North to the South and from the West to the East. Recent archaeological excavations reveal several patterns of the old wall in different parts of Shahristan. Using this data, my thesis will recreate and analyze the developments of the patterns of the Shahristan and the Ark and their relationship to the city and society of Bukhara. / by Georgiy G. Levashov. / S.M.