Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1987. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-78). / This thesis is an exploration into a spit of land, called Sandy Neck Beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It is a barrier beach system which is experiencing many changes. These changes are manifest not only in its physical form but also in the impressions of the forms which use it. This project is therefore a documentation of the history of Sandy Neck and the problems that face it today, and a proposal for a resource complex intended to aid in the procreation of a better understanding of the natural processes of the land. / by Cynthia L. Solarz. / M.Arch.

Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2018. / 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 98-[100]). / This is an imaginary for the town of Allensworth, an unincorporated community of about 600 inhabitants in the Central Valley of California, located 50 miles from both the city of Visalia in the north and the city of Bakersfield in the south. Based on a series of historic oral and written interviews and through informal conversations with inhabitants, the narrative is told by multiple voices across time to recover the past, understand the present, and project to a future environment in which the township will continue to develop. Proposed within the shaping of this "future" environment is the Saltbush Collectives, a series of experimental hubs run by the community to promote the cultivation of the saltbush plant. Each center is composed of a crop field of saltbushes and a unique water tower dedicated to one of the various usages provided by the shrub: a test kitchen, a medicinal lab, a dye works, a sauna, and a seed bank. The architecture defining the town's imagined future is dominated by images of the agricultural icons in California since the late 19th century. In a slow transformation of the local landscape by the ongoing expansion of the saltbush shrub, large billboards of a cornstalk, an almond tree, stalks of wheat, an alfalfa plant, and an orange tree present monuments as questions of the relationships between human sociology, economy, and ecology. Visitors near and far travel to Allensworth to learn of the estranged saltbush and the community which supports it. There, they experience a landscape of symbolic contradictions that begs one to ask "why??" Yet, the extent to which the author will answer this question straightforwardly, dear reader, sums up as this: the Saltbush Collectives is a gathering. / by MỹDung T. Nguyễn. / M. Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78). / An investigation was carried out on the contents of the architectural texts in order to illuminate written architectural knowledge. The thesis takes as its case study the required reading list for Introduction to Architecture course at Yale College, Yale University, a mandatory course for undergraduate students majoring in architecture . This course, given at a school with a liberal arts education program, lists more readings than do any other similar courses given at other schools surveyed for this thesis. In this undergraduate course, the texts are used as background information for the students t o draw upon in order to do their assignments. The texts used for the course range widely, from a first-century treatise to articles published in the eighties. They represent a continuous development of architectural thought throughout the history of architecture. Yet the reading list exclude several major theoretical works of architecture. The examination of the texts shows that they are primarily theoretical,and expose different proper ties and principles of architecture and attitudes towards architects and architecture . Some of the texts contradicts with each other, others are in agreement. Very few of the texts are concerned with the practical knowledge of architecture. Humanistic, populist approaches, as exemplified by several texts written by previous faculty members of the school, seem to dominate the themes of the readings. The list does not attempt to include classical works written by non-architect authors. / by Eko Purwono. / M.S.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-147). / The core of this investigation is based on the design of built form at the public urban river edge. It proposes the transformation of a portion of public park edge into public built edge. The Esplanade embankment at the foot of Boston's Beacon Hill forms the site for this thesis. The project area runs from the Longfellow Bridge at Charles Circle to the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge near the Hatch Shell. The thesis investigates built provisions for public inhabitation of the water's edge. At the size of the full project area the work explores built connections between the city and use of the river. At the building size design exploration focuses on extended public pavilion forms at the water's edge for a variety of uses. Through design, analysis and critical assessment this investigation seeks to test the following hypotheses: -- 1) The urban water-edge should provide direct built connection between the city fabric and use of the water. -- 2) Through provision for collective everyday use and inhabitation of the water-edge certain areas of the river bank should act as social condensers. -- 3) Built definitions of physical form along the river can manifest an urbanism that celebrates density and diversity -of use and of population- as necessary positive attributes of contemporary civil life. The above mentioned project area is well suited for testing these hypotheses. The street pattern of the neighborhood is oriented toward the river yet it has been cut off from the water by Storrow Drive. Charles St. at the base of the hill has long provided a strong core of public use. In addition this is an area in which some variety of use is already made of the river bank despite the physical barrier of the roadway. It is important to note that this thesis is an exploration of built form at the urban water's edge and not a comprehensive city planning effort. Its core thrust is directed at architecture: that is, at the organization of habitable physical definitions and their spatial and experiential implications. / by Daniel Gorini. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--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. "February 2013." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-166). / Urban vulnerability to climate change is constantly increasing. Many coastal cities will need to begin sea rise mitigation efforts soon, and now is a critical time for architects to intervene in this process with good design that takes on the issue of sea rise in the city, not just as a problem but as an opportunity and catalyst for change. Data published in August 2012 revealed that the US East Coast is experiencing a rate of sea rise that is four times the global average. The city of Boston in particular has a high percentage of flood-prone areas due to the city's dramatic history of landmaking. Of all the neighborhoods comprising Boston, the often-overlooked neighborhood of East Boston is the most flood-prone. The project is site-specific in that it is sited in the context of East Boston, but the design methodology and synthesis of technologies serve as a prototype to be applied to any urban waterfront. This thesis project address the issue of sea rise in an urban context as a unique condition related to the construction a sustainable environment. In order to meet seemingly contradictory need for sea rise defense and capacity for future urban growth, the project reconsiders waterfront architecture as a new hybrid of architecture plus infrastructure as a means of building resilience and addressing scientific uncertainty. The project establishes a systematic approach to a layered buffer zone that mediates between the sea and the vulnerable urban fabric of East Boston. The buffer is conceived of as a framework for future development that balances energy collection, environmental enhancement, and social enrichment through the allocation of productive, inhabitable, and recreational spaces within a defensive landscape. Through careful orchestration and layering of multi-disciplinary sea rise mitigation tools, the designed framework projects a new future for the urban waterfront - one that promotes social as well as physical resilience and adaptability in an ever-changing coastal environment. / by Carolyn Jenkins. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-51). / As a means to keep pace with today's globally networked society, the home is reconceived as a portable, transformable device that adapts and reconfigures itself to coexist within a range of changing terrains. Ownership will no longer act as a geographical constraint limiting world-wide, long-term travel. Mobile housing affords one the means to explore the landscape without sacrificing the sense of place and permanence provided by "home". Analogous to the work of Archigram, "homes" of the future will have the ability to migrate according to the needs and desires of their populations. This thesis explores the possibilities of transformational, mobile architecture that delivers a diverse range of settlement options. As a means of demonstrating the flexibility of this concept, this micro-home will be incorporated into the social and technological framework of the modem metropolis and examined at both the urban scale of the city and at the micro-scale of the individual. / Christian D. MacCarroll. / M.Arch.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1974. M.Arch.A.S. / MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN ROTCH LIBRARY. / Bibliography: p. 55. / M.Arch.A.S.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-133). / The thesis investigation began with my experience with storytelling. Verbal stories told to me as a child provided a form of cultural continuity. Stories were a way of transferring culture, ideas, religion, morals, and values. The moral of the story changed depending on who was the storyteller. My mother's and later my sister's stories changed depending on my age and my ability to understand. No matter the age, narrative acted as a connection to culture, places, and family. The thesis takes storytelling as an architectural agenda. This leads to the question, Can storytelling be experienced through architecture? The thesis explores the possibility of experiencing storytelling through physical form. The exploration focuses on the act of reading and recording of stories. Providing places for reading and recording is the starting point of the architectural investigation. The program used to explore these issues is a children's shelter in Venice, California. A shelter for children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse, and or neglect. The shelter is a place were storytelling can be re-introduced into the children's lives, since their parents or storytellers are no longer with them. / by Sandra Ventura. / M.Arch.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 70). / Introduction: In spring 2011, while I was working on my thesis in architectural Design degree, I came across with an interesting problem in design: a parametric river. I realized that it is not possible to control the river parameters without understanding the geometry of the surface of terrain. in other words, the shape of the terrain or topography may change the shape of the river down the hills. I started to look up more examples in geoscience and geomorphology to find out more about this topic. I came across drainage patterns which vary based on the shape of the terrain in different parts of the world [Howard 1967]. As a designer, the first thought passed through my mind was: "is it possible to design a terrain using drainage patterns?" There must be a way to derive the landscape geometry from the one of the river!" Later on, through searching related topics in geoscience, I realized that this topic has interested researchers from 1858 and there is a quite enormous body of research on that in geo-computation and geography and computer science. I made this topic as the main goal of present thesis to explore the design possibility of such representation in architecture and connecting the world of design with hydrological and geological characteristics of the land. Recently the design proposals tend to become more engaged in sustainability aspects, more recently in energy generation. Therefore, many designers now seek approaches to integrate architectural ideas with interdisciplinary subjects to tackle the different aspects of energy constrains and sustainability issues. There is a recently developed area of research among architects which tries to define the design through the lenses of energy production. This field has received more attention in landscape design and planning strategies. Among all energy generating methods such as wind and solar, there are no many examples of addressing the design through hydropower energy generation which is the main basis of investigation in current study. In order to explain the goals of the thesis it is important to clarify the objectives of this study in a simple question: Is it possible to construct complex geometry of the surface of the terrain using drainage analysis? Or is it possible to embed required information of 3-dimensional space into 2-dimensional drawing. In that case, designers can design complex geometries using simple plan drawings which might result in more function-oriented design. / by Masoud Akbarzadeh. / S.M.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1985. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 100-104. / by Gordon Kent Gonzales. / M.S.