Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 48). / The thesis investigates, by research and design, spaces which are located between the street and the privacy of home, focusing on the case-study of Ajami; a mixed Palestinian-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli neighborhood in Jaffa, lying on the seashore of the Mediterranean. The houses in Ajami are separated from the street with a sequence of semi-inside spaces, steps and turns in which the privacy of the house is reached gradually as the in-between spaces unfold. While these spaces separate the house from the street they also open, at points, a space for communication between the private and the public. The houses in Ajami reflect a long process of additions, modifications and subdivisions of a once one-family villa surrounded by a courtyard-garden and a wall. The qualities of spaces and movement within the existent buildings were used in the thesis to inspire a building type that was employed in the design of two houses, comprising of thirteen units overall. Behind the relatively simple envelopes of the buildings a variety of in-between spaces are interweaved in the design to form each unit its distinct story of arrival and inhabitation. / by Noa Havilio. / S.M.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1967. M.Arch. / Bibliography: leaf 17. / M.Arch.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1967. M.Arch. / Bibliography: leaf [36]. / by Oliiver R. Jones, Jr. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1985. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-47). / A prototype system for concurrent printing and scanning of documents has been constructed. By taking a personal computer ink-jet printer and modifying it to include a line-scan sensor, major benefits are derived. Both conventional printers and scanners contain mechanisms for moving either documents, sensors or mirrors. Combining a printer and a scanner into a single device offers a potential reduction in cost because the printer's mechanisms then serve a double duty. A scanner makes available to the personal computer user established commercial applications such as image digitization and facsimile. Moreover, unique document processing features are possible when a scanner is present in a printing device. With documents already containing some information, intelligent printing annotation can be performed. For example, a previously scanned and digitized picture can be printed on a new document already containing text and open space. Scaling, positioning and printing of the digitized picture to fit within the open space is archived through scanning and analyzing the new document. The physical and functional characteristics of the printer/scanner system are described. Principles relevant to the design, construction and application of the printer/scanner are given, and present and future applications discussed. / by Jeffrey David Keast. / M.S.V.S.

Thesis (M. Arch)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1959. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69). / by Chang Sup Yoon. / M.Arch

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page [103]). / Within the past half century many African nations regained independence and in the process, imported various development models from the Western World. Joan Clos, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations claims "it is now evident that all these models have failed to achieve the goals that African nations had set themselves". Considering these past failures along with rapidly increasing urbanization rates, a poor economic outlook and on-going vulnerability to natural disasters, the need for reconsidering urban strategies is more pressing than ever. The relatively nascent state of urbanization on the subcontinent should be see as an opportunity to embrace new paradigms of urban development. No African city is more poised to become a test bed for change than East Africa's center for innovation and globally connected capital of Kenya - Nairobi. The thesis proposes a project for the Nairobi metropolitan region. A current population of 8 million people is set to double by 2050. And, by some estimates, up to 60% of these people currently live or work outside of the formal sector. The project unfolds across scales, from global and regional concerns down to housing clusters. Richard Neuwirth's notion of harnessing the power of the informal plays out here by carefully calibrating how much public participation or indeterminacy is built into the interventions at each scale. Housing types and clusters have endless permutations while the regional plan is centrally instated. The design project resonates with the New Town movement in scale and ambition, specifically in cases where these ideas were exported to the Global South in the fifties and early sixties. It also embodies a critique of these projects Utopian visions that sought to 'solve' the 'problem' of the city and the totalizing approach these took. / by Andre De Merindol Malan. / S.M.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 106-110). / Ant farm was a collective group of architects established in 1968 in San Francisco. Through critiquing the reversal of TV and automobile, Ant Farm reinterpreted television into Inflatable Architecture and Inflatocookbook, and reinterpreted automobiles into the Media Van and Truckstop Network. Ant Farm created a techno-utopia for "nomads" in the 1960s. By bridging their designs with the media theories from Marshall McLuhan, I develop a method from McLuhan's Laws of Media, called Media Interpretation, to decomposed Ant Farm's design process. The Media Interpretation contains four processes: taking advantage of what the media enhance, rejecting what the media reverse, redesigning what the media retrieve and participating in what the media make obsolete. Based on the background research, my thesis shifts its focus on the pervasive media from 1960s to today and applies the method of Media Interpretation as a design and critical tool. My thesis chooses social networks to critique, from which I reinterpret social networks into an application Artwitter. Through combining social networks with augmented reality, Artwitter enables its users to post their moments as texts, graffiti or virtual objects in the physical world. Artwitter extends the mechanism of social networks to offline social awareness to engage its users into social interaction in the physical space. Artwitter also releases the power of crowd-sourcing physical spaces to explore the potential of reconstructing the physical world with virtual objects. / by Rungu Lin. / S.M.

Thesis (S.B. in Art and Design)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2002. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 26). / The library is intended to be an egalitarian institution for the dissemination of knowledge to the public. With the advent of the internet, information has been further democratized and the status of the library has been questioned. However, its status as a symbol of the city's vitality has not lessened. While the internet can speedily distribute kernels of information, books provide the means of realization. As an important cultural center of the city, the library takes on various roles in the quest to create a culture that fosters education. Thus, it is more important than ever to create a space that challenges the identity of the library as it is today and provides a forum for the interactions of the city. The work of this thesis examines the library's influence on the reader, the community, and the world at large. The importance of occupying a library building rather than "remotely accessing" it must be understood. Finding factoids online is a solitary activity. Speed replaces the communal activities of searching, understanding and realizing, often replacing accuracy as well. The internet cannot simulate the feeling of the book, its weight, feel, and smell. Even the taboo food stains and pencil markings in the margins of a book trace the presence of the body, the mind, and the evolution of knowledge. The history of the book can be seen not only through the printed words, but within the markings left behind and the dates stamped in the back cover. Space, materiality, and activity must be emphasized in the library to underline the difference between information of the mind and understanding of the whole. The need for interaction among patrons has lead to a broadening of the term "library" and its uses. This word now refers to a cultural center intended for the spread of knowledge of all sorts. What once housed the source of man's cumulative education written for posterity in books, now also serves as a source of understanding between people. This "secular cathedral" has merged the museum, the concert hall, and the community center, validating their lessons: What we know is not only fact, but feeling. The library touches our senses as much as our mind. The library has become a site of sharing experiences learned from study and learned from the World, brought together in one building. It is a physical manifestation of enlightenment. The library is often considered figuratively to be the container of all knowledge. Though this is impossible, the library still remains the symbol of enlightenment in a city. Thus, the stacks can become a jewel box, displaying the books as an enticement for the public. Whether this takes the form of a transparent glass cube or a isolated, self-contained capsule, the stacks can be a beacon, guiding people towards education. The journey through the library to reach the books is important, as is the method of threshold through which they are revealed. This project seeks to set an example for what a community building can be to a city by examining a site at the corner of Massachusetts and Western Avenues in Central Square, the heart of Cambridge, Massachusetts. This site, however, is vital for the municipality and would demonstrate the city's dedication to the education of all its citizens. Several bus stops begin at that very corner and the Central Square T-stop is just a block away. The transportation and governmental infrastructure is present near the site and make it ideal for a community library. The City of Cambridge currently has plans to expand its central library, located near Harvard Square. There is also a small branch library a short distance off of Massachusetts Avenue. Central Square is a vital front on which the library could expand it readership. Currently this area of Cambridge is populated with what one might call "undesirables." However, the creation of the library is an opportunity to attract these people to the joys of reading. Perhaps it begins as a warm place to rest, but the library should ultimately entice its occupants into the pursuit of knowledge within its walls, as well as outside of them. The library must relate to its urban context in order to draw people in. Although Central Square appears to be very disordered, there is in fact a regular pattern of parcels which extends perpendicularly from Massachusetts Avenue. In addition, each block has two "fronts" which also create an axis. The library responds to the overlapping of these two perpendicular systems, allowing one of the grid areas to remain open as a plaza. The building is also striated by function, according to the fabric of the land. / by Julie Hui-Guang Kaufman. / S.B.in Art and Design

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-117). / Perceived as symbols of national development or degeneration, megacities continue to dominate discourse and action related to urbanization, particularly in developing countries like India. Simultaneously, a large portion of urbanized space continues to be described by small and medium sized cities residing in between the rural hinterland and hyper urbanism. These cities are characterized by an intermediate and decentralized form of urbanism, often haphazard and contrasting substantially with their larger counterparts and smaller villages. Because of their size and location, small cities form a vital link within the hierarchy of settlements and are important for the diffusion of development, technology, knowledge and migration between the rural and the urban. Economic liberalization in India has been fostering new social and political mindsets which have translated into policy, governance, investment and concomitantly, urbanization strategies. An important physical manifestation is the spawning of large scale regional and national infrastructure projects-ambitious mega highways, waterways, special investment zones and industrial corridors which transect the hinterland, surround and pass through urban agglomerations and encounter many small cities along the way. Seen as catalysts of transformation befitting an emerging 'superpower', these endeavors are predicted to have contrasting effects ranging from increased connectivity, economic opportunities and growth to loss of quality of life, environmental pollution and social inequality. Regardless of the nature of consequences, small cities are set to be affected in unprecedented ways. The thesis reassesses the potential and future of small cities within this scenario and proposes strategies which utilize the proximity of large infrastructure projects to spawn interventions based on the specific conditions of the city. The historic city of Navsari, Gujarat, located along the western rail corridor and the proposed Delhi Mumbai Industrial corridor (DMIC) has been studied in greater detail to understand the effects of the mega scheme and propose interventions for a sustainable future for the city. / by Sagarika Suri. / S.M.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-53). / Crime-fighting has become one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Consequently, the construction of facilities which serve as the end-product of that fight, prisons, has become one of the nation's fastest growing industries as well. The architecture of those facilities, which logically would fall somewhere in the middle, has yet to catch up. The intention of this project is to begin to explore the possibility for architecture within the context of the prison. It investigates ideas of space-making within a building which combines programmatic complexity with a requirement for security and control. It addresses notions of individual versus collective within the culture of the prison. It questions the relationship of the public to the imprisoned, of outside to inside. / by Robert Matthew Noblett. / M.Arch.