Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 582-588). / This thesis is about reconciling three main pairs of ideas. First, it is about architecture and apartheid, and the ideological role which architecture plays within a particular political system. Second, it is about the attitudes of individuals involved in designing and building the townships, and the reconciliation of the apparently contradictory ideas of the provision of welfare in the form of housing with the exploitation of labor in the form of separate development. Third, it is about the ideals of the white Anglo-American suburbs (housing the whites) and how townships (housing the blacks) differ from them as a city form . The crux of this thesis is that the white suburban ideal was taken and corrupted to become the black township in South Africa, because of a combination of politics, (post-colonial) philanthropy and fear. The historical reasons for the formation of the townships are to be found in the relationships between the races beginning with the earliest European settlers in the country. The first conflicts were over the right to the land. With industrialization came urbanization and the formation of the policy of apartheid: legislation requiring the separation of the races. Anglo-American suburban ideals were used by the planners and architects who put the government's policy into practice. They built townships based on these ideals in an effort to transfer their values to the black people. They worked as technocrats, implicitly accepting the policy of apartheid and relying on "science" and middle-class suburban ideals to achieve their goals. The ideologies of apartheid have resulted in the political nature of space in South Africa, and theories of urban ideology can be applied to understand the complex situation. The result can be seen in the townships as corruptions of suburban ideals for political ends. / by Conrad Henry Margoles. / M.S.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009. / Leaf 70 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69). / Cambridge in the 1960s was a locus of experimentation and research in new computing technologies -from the production of transportation models for New England to the design of war games simulating the vagaries of the terrain in Vietnam. One research group, working in the nascent field of computer cartography, was formed in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University. The Landscape Architecture Research Office (1966-1979) represented a radical departure from existing practices within the discipline. At this time, NASA was making its first moves towards erecting image infrastructures in space-able to beam back streams of pictures describing the earth in seemingly infinite detail. The instrumental extension of man into outer space served to remake an imagination of landscape; and the research office, banking on the promise held out by satellites and computers, was preparing a technological ground to receive this new vision. This thesis will examine two of their early projects, the first a study that utilizes a computer mapping program (GRID), to draw multiple disciplinary objectives, from physical geography to governance to aesthetics, into the same syntactical register-using the map as a technological armature to craft a new theory of landscape. The second project was an experimental studio run by two of LARO's researchers, Carl Steinitz and Peter Rogers, in which they attempt to simulate the function of an imagined computer system able to model all the interconnected processes of urbanization. / (cont.) Using maps and students as analogue parts they proceeded to deploy game theory to play-act the computer's operational roles. By doing this, Steinitz and Rogers sought to delimit the role of designer or architect within the mechanisms of a representational system. While the work of LARO was influential in the development of what is known as GIS today, I wish to pull this historical episode out of the technological continuum-looking instead at this moment of profound indeterminacy and speculation over the role that technology could play in the process of design. / by Catherine F. McMahon. / S.M.

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Text of thesis is c1989. -- Videocassette 1. Harold Tovish: Sculptor, c1988, (30 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. -- Videocassette 2. Eadweard Muybridge: Motion studies, c1987, (22 min.) : si., col. ; 1/2 in. Videocassettes copied from videodiscs by the author. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61). / by James L. Sheldon. / M.S.V.S.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1973. M.Arch. / MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN ROTCH LIBRARY. / Bound broadside. / Bibliography: leaves 109-111. / M.Arch.

Thesis: S.M. in Architecture Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. "June 2018." / Includes bibliographical references (page 60). / We live in a world today where instantaneous transparency is the rule of thumb. Social media platforms such as Facebook or Linkedin have become the primary modes of communication and connectivity amongst professional and personal circles. Building Information Modeling, or BIM, is a 3D parametric modeling software. BIM visually assists architecture and engineering design teams remotely collaborate, innovate, and connect instantaneously with colleagues clients in more productive ways to create efficient construction projects. However, BIM's strengths in efficient transparency are often not extended to the principal stakeholders of any project: the community. This thesis will examine an intersectional interest known as Social Media Participatory Design (SMPD) or Makivism Design. SMPD is the integration of both 3D parametric modeling with social media. Network platforms, such as Facebook or Linkedin, are the primary modes of communication and connectivity amongst design professionals and community leaders today. By implementing SMPD into the built environment sector, community stakeholders can attain instantaneous access into the design process of a project through their favorite social media app. The primary research objective of this thesis is examine whether SMPD provides the designer, or user, the knowledge and communication they need to make the informed, transparent and inclusive design making decisions needed to collaborate on community-based projects. We will determine whether SMPD has the potential to empower those who feel marginalized and demand designers and clients alike to be more inclusive. / by Ty Austin. / S.M. in Architecture Studies

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2010. / 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. 180-181). / Dubai is in crisis. The overall vacancy rate of the city continues to grow as more buildings come online with few or no tenants; moreover, the population has declined by one quarter of a million in 2009 alone. Dubai's economic engine, which quickly transformed huge amounts of capital into new architectural "bling," has stalled, revealing the underlying instability of a city built on speculation rather than foresight. Large swathes of the city remain incomplete and largely uninhabited, creating vast urban blights. Dubai risks damage to both its image and its ability to function. The city's decline, however, presents a unique opportunity for immediate and sweeping intervention against urban decay. My thesis proposes a dialectical planning process of retrofitting and shrink-wrapping Dubai. The retrofit strategy engages stopped building projects crucial to Dubai's function and image. The technical goal is to generate corridors of urbanity that permit the city to operate while the population and economy recover. The theoretical aim is not to produce new models for planning, but to generate design proposals that overtly critique and improve upon the existing built environment. The shrink-wrap strategy repositions Dubai's vast oversupply of real estate as an investment for the future. This directive removes redundant buildings or even whole developments from the market and preserves them for eventual redeployment. The goal is to create an image of progressiveness and anticipation, while also physically maintaining these built assets to prevent further economic loses. These planning strategies are posited as theoretical and marketable rationales for investment in Dubai's urban future. / by Charles H. Curran. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-87). / by Sylvain Charles Morgaine. / M.S.V.S.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-120). / More than 300 million biospecimens - blood samples, saliva swabs, excised tumors - are housed in different collections all over the country right now. Meanwhile, biometric data is constantly being compiled by sophisticated security systems, by lifestyle products, and even by ordinary ATMs. Because private companies, hospitals, for-profit testing facilities, and security companies 'own' the information they collect, it can't work for you. Billions of dollars in grants are spent each year on focused medical studies seeking information that is most likely already available, but unobtainable. The availability of biometric information to researchers able to draw real statistical conclusions from it is impeded both by a shaky notion of individuals' privacy and the proprietary funding structure by which much of the information has been gathered. The data is out there - it's not a question of wanting to share personal data or not. Measures like the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act treat a symptom of the end of privacy, but by no means secure it. The only productive embrace of this national mine of information is to make it fully transparent, to make it available to the public and researchers alike, to nationally acknowledge the end of an antiquated notion of privacy, and to stave off the flow of research dollars into patented pharmaceuticals. The Biobank for America does just that by making transparent the collection and storage of biometric information on a national scale and finally collating it into a comprehensive, searchable archive. / by Sarah Hirschman. / M.Arch.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-69). / Architectural design involves the integration of diverse, sometimes conflicting, concepts and requirements into a coherent single composition. This paper proposes a method for negotiating architectural design across domains, by examining issues of ontology, perception, generation and evaluation, and detailing a prototype in which these mechanisms are augmented using computational agents for achieving coherence and innovation in remote collaborative design. The paper proposes a common geometric and topological database, from which multiple semantic models are constructed. Filter Mediated Design is intended to explore the processes and strategies of constructing intelligent designs and design intelligence. / by John R. Haymaker. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-61). / Architecture is not representational. It does not stand for something else. However, the process of its formation is inclusively dependent upon a series of dynamic graphic calculations that result into a series of spatial descriptions. This process can be equated to a non-linear sequence of computations with points, lines, planes, and solids, on the plane and in physical space. This study examines the functional and perceptual properties of points, lines and planes. How do basic elements behave in formal composition, and how do computations of form affect basic elements? The context of the study is composite. Shape computation theory that involves algebras of basic elements and shape rules provides a flexible and expressive computational apparatus, while the systematic approach of the Bauhaus on nonrepresentational composition, and the theories of P. Klee and V. Kandinsky in particular, provide artistic insight at a perceptual and interpretational level. / by Sotirios D. Kotsopoulos. / S.M.