Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-75). / The 1972 publication of The Limits to Growth marked a watershed moment in ongoing environmental debates among politicians, economists, scientists, and the public in the postwar period. Sponsored by the Club of Rome, an influential think-tank established in 1968, the report was published against the backdrop of the progressive activism of the 1960s, and prefigured the neo-conservative politics of the 1980s. It represented a decisive moment in that it appeared to reconcile critiques of consumerism and capitalism by linking the limits of global consumption to a finite totality of resources on the planet. As a pre-history to current systems of valuation, this thesis looks at some of the intellectual tendencies that under-girded mindsets such as those manifest in the report. More importantly, it follows the intricate logics and narratives buried within the enigmatic web of geometric symbols and snaking lines that suffuse the writings of systems thinkers, tracing a genealogy of this mode of thought that begins with semiotic language of ecologists Eugene and Howard T. Odum, and of Jay Wright Forrester and the Systems Dynamics Group at MIT, to its manifold ends. These actors will ground the implications of systems theory-in-practice, its implications, and its biases. In doing so, the thesis reconstructs how "environment" was first defined and captured by systems thinking. Navigating through a series of international conferences in which these principles were substantiated, the thesis looks at the ramifications of systems thinking in the present. / by Irina Chernyakova. / S.M.

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 (pages 108-109 ). / Skyscraper is a by-product of 19th century American industrialism. spirit, and disaster. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a catastrophe that necessitated dense and rapid reconstruction, both of which the high-rise provided. The accidental discovery of this new typology forever changed the contemporary urban habitat. Demand required density, which produced profit. Relentless pursuit of maximum mass and profit in 20th century New York City transformed the skyscraper into shameless public display of cash cows for the elitist few of the capitalist society. Enslaved by its financial incentives, the promise it once held was negated by repetitive banality. Today, starchitects are desperately prolonging the life of a typology that has not been invested with new thinking or ambition since its inception (Koolhaas, 2004). The intensification of density it initially delivered has been replaced by carefully-spaced isolation to maximize its visual superiority. Skylines of emerging civilizations have become test sites for celebrity architects to display their brands which are more Interested in its private agenda than greater public good. By 2050, 70% of the world's population will be living in urban areas (United Nations, n.d.). In 2012 alone, 66 buildings taller than 200 meters were constructed worldwide (CTBUH, 2013). In an age when explosive growth is not imminent, but inevitable, the developing societies continue to "adopt the skyscraper as the symbol of its modernity" (Koolhaas, 2004). Skyscraper is a critical architectural specimen that will not only symbolize that growth, but also accommodate and sustain it. The typology was born out of necessity. pushed to the limits through its financial objectives, and is now polluted with vanity of celebrity architecture. The objective of this thesis is not to design the "perfect" skyscraper: Rather, it challenges the century-old methods of envisioning and designing skyscrapers in order to resurrect its urban significance. The typology must be re-imagined in its totality through the fundamental understanding and re-investigation of the flow of elements that make the skyscraper possible. / by Juney Lee. / M. Arch.

Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / BREXIT caused an existential crisis in Northern Ireland, by March 2019 the Irish border, between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland will become the EU's only land frontier with another union. Considering more than double the number of land crossings (275) exist on the Irish border than the entire eastern block of the EU, coupled with Northern Ireland's conflicted history, how this new border should function has caused a political deadlock, and stalled UK/EU negotiations on their formal divorce. Following the 2015 migrant crisis in Europe, the BREXIT slogan "take back our borders" promoted the xenophobic vilification of a particular kind of outsider. This is particularly significant given 2016 saw a record number of visitors to Ireland in the island's history. At same moment that the idea of national sovereignty is intensifying, so too is the need for open borders. BREXIT revives the Irish border, which had all but disappeared, threatening the recovery of the region's towns, which suffered decades of militarized violence, customs checks and the general friction of the geopolitical abstraction of a border. Given this history of conflict, the UK has vowed for a "frictionless"and "invisible" border, while no proposals have been made for how this could be avoided. The only consensus between Belfast, Dublin, London and Brussels is that no "hard infrastructure" should be proposed, a non-solution based on the violent image of the Irish border's past, and wishful thinking given the administrative imperative of border management. This thesis instead argues that if construction is going to happen, it should be an architecture that takes the border town as its subject, and serves local life while attracting visitors. Indeed the majority of the border is made up of waterways that already act as anchors for an array of local and visitor activities. Having historically bore the brunt of the border's imposition; border towns have developed numerous cross community initiatives to attract EU and Tourism investment. The thesis proposes to leverage these sources of funding for grassroots community initiatives, to propose locally tuned architectural interventions along the waterways of border towns. In a context anything but stable this thesis aims to produce a space for architectural stability, bringing people together at a point of division; to float, drink and otherwise not care about the border. Soggy Sovereignty offers a space to soak in the jurisdictional ambiguity, and ultimately, challenge the Irish Border. / by Hugh Magee. / M. Arch.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2004. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63). / by Alison E. Mori. / S.M.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-111). / Through an examination of changes in urban structure and building form, I will consider the continuity of historical Spanish urban form in the American Southwest. The study encompasses three phases of increasing Anglo American influence between 1821 and 1900. An analysis of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Socorro and Las Vegas, New Mexico, and Tucson. Arizona will be made in reference to: culturally- embedded models of city form in 16th century Spain and 19th century North America: modifications to those models due to a frontier location; and the geographical context of the Southwest. The method of analysis is based on a matrix of transformation processes and hierarchical levels of scale in the environment, and is applied to historic maps, photographs and written descriptions of the five towns. This method identifies elements of form and processes of change that continue to influence the form of these cities and are thus relevant considerations for architectural and urban design interventions in the present. / by Nina V. Brew. / M.S.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Page 283 blank. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 278-282). / The aim of this dissertation is to explore the evolution of both architecture and urban space, in terms of mutual relationship between solids and voids, with particular attention to two transitional moments of ancient and modern history: the Hellenistic and Baroque periods. This study is the result of the consideration that in certain periods, at least in western history, there is a clear predominance of either interior or exterior space in relation to architecture. If on one hand external space seems to predominate in Greek and modern architecture, interior space is prevalent between the Roman and the Renaissance periods. The hypothesis is that both the Hellenistic and Baroque periods represent intermediate phases in the historical transition between interior and exterior space and that this transition is manifested, through the transformations of the urban fabric, in the enclosed civic spaces of forums and squares. The methodological approach can be more easily described defining what this analysis is not meant to be: this examination is neither intended to be an urban theory nor a historical study. The intention is to interrelate theory and history, remaining distant from the necessary abstraction of urban design theory and, at the same time, avoiding the indispensable specificity and attention to details required by architecture history. / by Daniele Cappelletti. / S.M.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1973. / Unbound Archives copy in Rare Book Room, folio section. / by Andrew Franklin Merriell. / M.Arch.

Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2015. / 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 103). / This thesis propose a flexible public space for both the MIT community and the city of Boston in response to the unknown future of the university campus, questioned by the rapid growth of online learning. Despite the various opinions on the future campus, the value of physical social interaction remains the primary method of incubating ideas. MIT i2 is an architectural solution to this issue, and is situated on the Charles River along the Harvard Bridge, the point of greatest pedestrian activity compared to the other parts of the waterfront. This project ultimately changes the Charles River from a barrier to a new urban destination where various social and intellectual activities can occur. Two radical interventions address completely different relationships with the water: spaces above and below the water. These typologies create different spatial experiences for different programs, but remain flexible for the unknown. / by Suk Lee. / M. Arch.

Thesis: M. Arch., 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. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 108-109). / The experience of the urban inhabitant in the NOW, is a persistent crisis of time management. In the era of accelerated ecommerce, NOWness fulfills and entangles us further with every synaptic push of an Amazon dash button. Our desire increasingly relies upon a vast, networked engine of tightly coupled information management and material handling, promising to move physical stuff through congested cities with the speed and fluidity of data and capital. Once consolidated and remote, this infrastructure must increasingly make contact with our daily lives, and the frictions therein, to ensure customer satisfaction NOW. Our patience contracts. Time intervals diminish. All mail becomes media mail, and the city is further rationalized into a dynamic field of moving parcels / packets. At work, is a fundamental redefinition of the basic spatial units of urban life within the space-time rubric of NOW; one predicated on a smoothness of mobility and logistics. New hybrid typologies of temporal infrastructure will mediate material culture, and operate as social condensers to a public which lives, works, and consumes everywhere, and in the NOW. In the process, the egosphere is disaggregated into the urban; segmented into the functional voxels of our mobile life. These Parcels, the components of our urban time / life-support, the requisite volumes of storage, pickup, sharing, consumption and hygiene, proliferate and coalesce at the intersections of distribution networks all for the sake of efficiency. Here, we are enacting a strange form of commons, building cities at scale, NOW. / by Austin Wade Smith. / M. Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 61). / This thesis aims to examine the cultural effect of transformation through the lens of procedural techniques applied to the human body and architecture. The body and architecture both operate as landscapes of transformation. Technological advancement has increasingly enabled cosmetic surgery and contemporary architectural techniques to encourage a cultural aesthetic of transformation. In both the human body and architecture, transformation offers a physical and psychological effect. As a cultural enterprise, how can architecture both benefit and contribute by engaging the cultural caprice of transformation? How can architectural procedural techniques define an urban project which engages the consumption of transformation? This thesis proposes a response to the cultural effect of transformation and is developed through the architectural process of testing procedural techniques. The thesis also responds to the notion of gradient as a residual witness of transformation, revealing the techniques by which the transformation was brought about. The first part of this thesis engages the idea that the human body is a landscape of transformation as cosmetic procedures continue to redefine the operation of its interiority. The second part of the thesis presents Central Park as a mechanical artifice and an operative site for the procedural techniques of transformation. / by Emily Ambs. / M.Arch.