Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-159). / The Hunza Valley, a remote area of mountainous northern Pakistan, is undergoing rapid change culturally, socially, and architecturally. Many of these changes are linked to the exchange of information and commerce facilitated by the Karakoram Highway. This highway, completed in 1974, has allowed a culture and lifestyle dating back many of hundreds of years to be influenced by lower Pakistan and western cultures. Architecturally, these changes have led to the use of new, non-traditional, building material (concrete block and window glass) and new building designs which are climatically inappropriate and more consistent with the mild climate of lower Pakistan. This study examines these changes from an energy perspective in the homes and schools in and around Karimabad, a central village in the Hunza Valley. To assess baseline energy consumption, recorded indoor and outdoor temperature data for three homes and two schools were analyzed. These data were used with a steady state energy model to assess and compare energy consumption of a traditional and a modem home and assess energy conservation measures and design changes. The results showed a 30 percent reduction in heat loss in the traditional home compared to the modem home. This reduction is mostly due to the higher wall and roof thermal resistance values of the traditional home. Further insulation of the walls in both home types is recommended. In the case of the modem homes adding R-5 of rigid foam insulation is estimated to reduce heat loss by 46 percent, over the base case modem home, with a simple payback of 3.8 years. The use of windows is recommended on the south facing facade netting a simple payback of 3.9 years and the use of buried walls (into the north slope) and shared walls (cluster housing) were each estimated to save 17 percent over the standard modem home. Indigenous insulations were researched for use in homes and schools. Sawdust and straw were found to be the most practical and were used with a gluebinder to make 1.5"x 15"x 25" panels. These panels were tested in a flat screen thermal conductivity tester specifically built and calibrated for this study. The measured thermal resistance values were R-2.89/inch (+ /- 9.7 %) for the ... / by Gregory Patrick Sullivan. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-86). / The objective of this thesis is to develop design approaches to structural optimization. In the example of three-dimensional grid structures, widely known as 'space frames', possible configurations are explored which maximize the load-bearing capacity of the system in relation to its weight. The study has been organized in two chapters: The first chapter starts with a brief review of structural concepts. Along with Gothic as a historical example to optimization, modem analytical methods to optimal structural design are presented which include Maxwell's Lemma, Michell's Fields and Ultimate Strength Analysis. In the second part of the thesis the design solutions are presented. The emphasis lies on a deployable space frame which is based on bar-joist like elements. / by Memduh Ali Tayar. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Bibliography: leaves 72-74. / In the recent decade, China has been facing serious housing shortages and inequalities in the urban sector. Shanghai, the largest and the most congested city in the country, represents housing problems of China in its extreme. Based upon the situation of this city, the thesis demonstrates the working of China's urban housing policy: its achievements in eliminating urban slums at the early stage and its failure of providing adequate housing later on. The analysis of the housing problems is focused on the notion that housing should be a universally provided welfare commodity. A variety of negative effects resulted from this notion are broken down to illustrate: i) low priority and of investment and low production; ii) inequalities in distribution; iii) heavily subsidized rents; iv) difficulties in cost recovery; v) "stereotyped" new residential construct ion. In the light of the analysis, the thesis discusses the current experiment in housing policy reform. Although the direction of the reform toward commercialization seems appropriate, the actual remedial policy provides only a temporary relief of the housing shortage but complicates inequalities in the urban sector. The argument of the thesis is that practical reforms should challenge the investment pattern and the distribution structure which have together led the problems. A combination of market and non-market methods to channel state housing services and subsidies to different income is suggested as a more effective way. In addition, the reform of policy will inevitably have its impacts on architectural design. The aim of the thesis is to provide an overview of housing development in China. It shows that China shares with many industrializing countries a shortage of housing and housing inequality in the urban sector. Its housing problem, however, is brought about by a peculiar set of policy directives and institutional arrangements that differs entirely from many countries. The study provides a reference for future policy formulation in China. / by Ruijue Peng. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-128). / by Hong Wang. / M.S.

Thesis (M.C.P.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture, 1949. / Appendix contains numerous pamphlets. / Includes bibliographies. / by Larz Torquil Anderson. / M.C.P.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1972. M.Arch. / MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN ROTCH LIBRARY. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.Arch.

Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2014. / 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 (page 74). / Protestants today seem to approach public worship with one or the other of two quite different attitudes. Many Protestants understand worship as primarily a matter of feelings; others see worship as basically work done in God's service. While there are glamorously designed churches emphasizing value of sacredness and its symbolism, there are also practical and temperate churches valuing people rather than the place. Whether the latter development of secular church forms were developed out of liturgical sincerity or as the result of Capitalism due to economic competition, it is most prevalent form of Protestant churches today. Specifically on my site near Flushing, NY, with high density of Korean immigrant settlements who mostly serve on ethnic commercial and service business, many of informal church typology of pet architecture started to emerge. Its phenomena along the main artery of Korea Town in Flushing are so predominant that there are multiple churches per every single block of city fabric on Northern Boulevard. One cannot distinguish a church from a commercial store if there was not a signboard indicating its name. Liturgical principle of religious space is completely ignored with invention of commercial churches. The term megachurch generally refers to any Protestant congregation church with a sustained average weekly attendance of 2,000 or more in its worship services. With its high density of pet churches in Flushing, NY, average total attendance of weekly Korean Protestant worship easily exceed 10,000. My thesis is about invention of typology of new megachurch. Rather than a giant space occupied by a single congregation, it is an infrastructure for agglomeration of religious spaces that can expand and contract based on its demand. Acknowledging abnormal high density of religious needs around Korean immigrant community and the importance of service industry, a new mutant typology of sacred and secular spaces in coexistence is proposed. Simply put, it is a shopping mall of churches offering their religious services in competition, which the exact situation is happening in Flushing today. / by Jaeyual Lee. / M. Arch.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2016. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Page 58 blank. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 57). / This thesis proposes a framework for deploying a tool that provides designers with an alternative spatial environment in Virtual Reality (VR). The physical, projected, and immersive spaces are examined as three kinds of available spaces for them to operate. To compare these spaces, a series of subject experiments is conducted in architectural space. Then a framework for a new tool is prepared with consideration to the experiment results, and a prototype is created to demonstrate its unique user interface for virtual reality environment. Three experiments are designed to probe the differences and similarities in human perception amongst the three spaces and to prove the following hypotheses. * Hypothesis 1: VR technology can simulate perception of scale and proportion of physical space with minimal error. * Hypothesis 2A and 2B. * 3D model with realistic textures do not enhance the degree of perception for scale and proportion of the physical space; * 3D model with realistic textures enhances spatial perception with greater confidence and shorter recognition time. * Hypothesis 3: Compared to a first person view in VR, a bird's-eye view mode in 2-D screen offers better perception of orientation and location of different objects. * Hypothesis 4: Compared to bird's-eye view in 2D screen, the first person view mode in VR offers better perception of scale of objects. The results from these experiments lead to a framework for creating a user interface for VR. The experiment on hypothesis 1 supports that virtual space can replace physical space for spatial design purposes. The experiments on hypotheses 3 and 4 suggest that virtual UI should simultaneously include dual perspectives: bird-eye view and first person view. And the experiments on hypotheses 2 and 3 support providing two different modes of renderings. For dynamic interactions, such as between and among moving objects, the rendered mode should be without texture for computational efficiency. For visual interactions, such as navigation, the space can be rendered with photo-realistic textures without losing efficiency. A prototype UI that implements this framework in VR environment is built, and demonstrate how design process can be enhanced. In summary, a framework for unique Virtual Reality User Interface (VRUI) is explored for spatial design. It is derived from the way people perceive physical, projected, and immersive virtual environments. Designers can use this novel multidisciplinary design tool, whether they design for physical architecture or 3D environments for digital video games. / by Joshua Choi. / S.M.

Thesis: Ph. D. in Architecture: History and Theory of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. "For copyright reasons, images in this dissertation have been redacted"--Disclaimer Notice page. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-244). / Thinking about cities became increasingly global during and after WWII. 'Global' here refers to how, in the context of the war, the roles and meanings of cities in the world were beginning to be understood differently. This dissertation investigates urban histories since the 1940s in their connection to changing imaginaries of the world that were shaped by the experience of war, and that have received little attention in historical literature. The dominant narratives of postwar urban history are focused on issues such as destruction and reconstruction, and the ideological divides between East and West. Global history is here employed as a non-hegemonic methodology for going beyond these larger narratives, and to demonstrate that in an age of global war, cities were becoming global long before economic discourses on globalization labeled them as such. New York City, West Berlin, and Tokyo are used as case studies because they are the principal cities of three industrialized nations that were heavily affected by WWII. New York became a center of the US war industry and beacon of the proclaimed Western values of freedom and democracy. However, the hypocrisy of fighting for freedom and democracy abroad, while racial violence and injustice was experienced at home, led to housing and segregation in New York being seen in global context. Discourses on fighting fascism at home and abroad, and artistic representations of the city illuminate these narratives. In Berlin-especially with the founding of the two German states in 1949 and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961-urban planning and development are most easily understood to be part of East-West ideological divides. Visions for the city of the future that were produced in secluded West Berlin demonstrate, however, that the city was also imagined in ways that transcended its local conflict and positioned it as a democratic tool for a global urban society. Tokyo's destruction during WWII, and its subsequent reconstruction, dominates the city's postwar history, but Japan's experience of war and nuclear bombings led to the creation of urban models that were more global in scope. An analysis of Japanese involvement in world's fairs and of architectural and urban thought in response to the nuclear bombings connects these threads. In different ways, these case studies substantiate the connection between global war and global cities and introduce global history methodology into the analysis of global thinking in urbanism during and after WWII. / by Sebastian Schmidt. / Ph. D. in Architecture: History and Theory of Architecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1970. M.Arch. / One unnumbered leaf inserted. / Bibliography: leaves 78-79. / M.Arch.