Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-152). / The cityscape of contemporary Tokyo is undergoing a dramatic transformation caused by a proliferation of technology, such as the rapid mass transit network and the advanced telecommunication system. On the one hand conventional urban design criteria such as physical proximity and spatiotemporal consistency are challenged or even rendered obsolete; on the other hand many new characteristics of the city are being established, and some of them have become prominent criteria in comprehending today's Tokyo. In order to apprehend this process of transformation and its impact on the city's form, and eventually to respond to the new situation, it is necessary to identify those unconventional characteristics brought to Tokyo by the proliferation of technology. In this thesis those peculiarities of contemporary Tokyo are pinpointed through a process of analogy with cyberspace, which bears tremendous resemblances to Tokyo. Contemporary Tokyo is found to contain two cities: the visible chaotic city and the invisible ordered city. In the visible city, the intonation of criteria used to form the mental image of a city is transformed; time is given importance over space; schizophrenia is a persistent theme; the boundary between human and machine is blurred; hierarchies and distinctions among objects are eliminated through codification. In the invisible city, the pattern of city's evolution is prescribed as piecemeal decentralized spontaneous growth; each node contains all the information of the whole system - the part equals the whole; connectivity becomes the prominent feature of a place - it promotes concentration and deconcentration simultaneously, and replaces Euclidean geometry with topology; layers of matrices cast ubiquitous control and circumscription over the whole city. The two cities rely on one another yet never compromise with each other; together they lay down the affordances and constraints of the city, and give it a new form. Both the visible city and the invisible city are the offspring of the Japanese culture of congestion, of which a full embrace or a total rejection will only cause lament. / by Tong Chen. / M.S.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-119). / In recent years an unprecedented ecological awareness has taken hold, not only within the discipline of architecture, but throughout our society as well. No longer are we, as a culture, accepting of the long established traditions of buildings holding dominion over nature at all cost and without consequence. Today there is concern with bringing mankind and all things manmade into a benign harmony with our natural environment. Architects can no longer be content with simply satisfying basic requirements of health, safety and welfare in their buildings. More esoteric investigations into the poetics of space, theoretical experimentation, or symbolic reference also are not enough. A new layer of expertise and understanding is now required of our discipline. The pursuits of design expression must now work in tandem with the advancement of sustainable technologies to achieve an architecture that responds in a positive and sensitive way to the environment in which it resides. Sustainable issues have become a significant participatory, yet not dominate, element within architectural design. It is the position of this thesis that there is a recent- and widespread--convergence of sustainable technologies and design expression that is occurring and affecting the entire discipline of architecture. The logical synthesis of technology and design is fundamentally altering not only what is built, but also how it is built. The physical implications of this convergence on contemporary architecture are that it is creating a new formal vocabulary never seen before. In many cases, a new typology is emerging. This thesis is primarily focused on identifying the physical architectural evidence associated with this convergence. The physical manifestation of the synthesis of sustainable technologies and design expression can be seen in a wide range of projects throughout the discipline and is bound by no aesthetic or formal category. These concerns have seemingly transcended all formal categorization, and are affecting architecture regardless of function, style, or theoretical position. Whereas once sustainability was relegated to its own category, today it has become apart of all categories. It is important to identify this phenomenon; understand how it is affecting the discipline of architecture; and to realize where the industry is going as a result. / by Jason Patrick Phillips. / S.M.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-131). / This thesis applies architectural principles sympathetic to reciprocity between buildings and the landscape. It is composed from generic vocabularies derived from Scandinavian and other references, and is demonstrated by a study for a health retreat at Poland Spring, Maine. The site and program were teamed on t he premise that communion with the landscape can develop, for the willing user, awareness to holistic health. Structural elements were deployed to signal the nature of places, such as circulation, shelter or exposure. The site is organized into receiving, athletic, treatment and retreat clusters. At both building and site size, they range from containment to openness as appropriate for Maine's variable climate. / by Julie Patricia Carbin. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-74). / The problem addressed in this research is understanding the nature evolving and new technologies into the domain of architectural design and building technology. This thesis, essentially, is an exploration of the ways that "Artificial Intelligence" techniques may support systematic and rational architectural design and, by extension, the "Building Systems" process. The motivation for working in this area of research stems from the serious need to develop a new methodological design approach for architects. Given the fact that computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) in particular, is an evolving domain for problem solving techniques, it is believed that it could be a comprehensive tool for achieving that goal. Thus, this thesis describes a generic design methodology using intelligent computers, that may eventually help generate a new approach to architectural design, and assist in the development of new building technologies. This research traces two discrete, but related, concerns: the questioning of the nature of the architectural design paradigm, and the applications of artificial intelligence technology in architecture, both discussed within the context of DESIGN AUTOMATION, where their common ground is establishing a thinking model of how to approach a problem.. / by Yasser M. El-Quessny. / M.S.

Thesis (B.Arch.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture, 1955. / MIT copy bound with: A resort hotel for Cotuit, Massachusetts / John M. Dixon. 1955. Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / Includes bibliographies. / by Marilyn Fraser. / B.Arch.

Thesis (S.M. in Architecture Studies)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2013. / 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 (p. 62-66). / Computational design tools in architecture currently fall into two broad categories: Tools for representation and tools for generative design, including scripting. However, both categories address only relatively methodical aspects of designing, and do little to support the design freedom and serendipitous creativity that, for example, is afforded by iterative sketching. Calculating with visual rules provides an explicit notation for such artistic processes of seeing and drawing. Shape grammars have validated this approach by formalizing many existing designs and styles as visual rule-sets. In this way, visual rules store and transfer design knowledge. Visual calculating in a more general sense supports creativity by allowing a designer to apply any rule she wants, and to capriciously see and re-see the design. In contrast to other explicit design methodologies, visual calculating defines a decomposition into parts only after the design is calculated, thus allowing formalization without impeding design freedom. Located at the intersection between design and computation, the computer implementation of visual calculating presents an opportunity for more designerly computational design tools. Since parametric visual calculating affords the largest set of design possibilities, the computer implementation of parametric visual calculating will allow flexible, rule-based design tools that intelligently combine design freedom with computational processing power. In order to compute with shapes, a symbolic representation for shapes is necessary. This thesis examines several symbolic representations for shapes, including graphs. Especially close attention is given to graph-based representations, since graphs are well suited to represent parametric shapes. Based on this analysis, this thesis proposes a new graph for parametric shapes that is clearer, more compact and closer the original formulation of visual calculating than existing approaches, while also strongly supporting design freedom. The thesis provides algorithms and heuristics to construct this "inverted" graph, for connected and unconnected shapes. / by Thomas Alois Wortmann. / S.M.in Architecture Studies

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 173). / by Randall Alan Johnson. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-99). / This study describes and analyzes the changing impact of "security" on the form of cities by exploring two residential settings, Nova Ipanema and Novo Leblon, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. These developments have established a new post-modern version of the European medieval walled cities. The need for safety in the city has caused affluent citizens to react, by supplying themselves with the kind of services that were once the municipality's responsibility. As a result one can see increased subdivision of the urban fabric into virtual miniature cities. These secluded residential pockets are a tentative answer to a pervasive need for security and control, which is significantly disrupting the traditional form of the city. The study concludes that, as local economic problems worsen and government services lessen, increased private-based measures are likely to dominate the urban scene. / by Roberto Scipiao Ribeiro. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-109). / Industrial processes have addressed with various degrees of success the question of housing production. If assembly-line methods have proven their efficiency in the production and distribution of low-cost housing, they have been less successful in achieving product diversification, and now suffer from a negative image resulting from this weakness. On the other hand, open and closed systems, based on component kits of parts allowing various assemblies, show a greater potential for variety generation; but their implementation has to face resistances arising from the production systems themselves and from their implications in terms of product conception. Considering variety as an essential value in the richness of our environment, and regarding individual differences as a variety generator, the purpose of this work is to understand the match between people and industrial systems involved in housing production and to explore the capacity of industrial processes in satisfying individual requirements. / by Catherine Chimits-Cazaux. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaf 65. / by Mark H. Temkin. / M.S.