This thesis is tripartite. It is at once a search for the universal principles of good architecture, an architect's personal search for what is valuable, and the exploration of some particular ideas in a particular project. The successful thesis joins the universal and the particular and calls into use the rational and the intuitive. The thesis began with an attempt to name some of these universals and from them to distill some "clear and distinct"² ideas about the making of architecture. Together these ideas make a manifesto, not in a positivistic sense but rather as a way of beginning this "creative dialectic" between universal and particular. They are ultimately to help address the issue of significance in architecture. / M. Arch.

This master's thesis is the design and discussion of a glass gallery and museum for the Blenko Glass factory in Milton, West Virginia. It is an exploration of Hertzberger’s concept of warp and weft. Let us take the image of a fabric such as constituted by warp and weft. You could say the warp established the basic ordering of the fabric, and in doing so creates the greatest opportunity to achieve the greatest possible variety and colorfulness in the weft. The warp must first and foremost be strong and of the correct tension, but as regards to color it needs merely to serve as a base. It is the weft that gives color, pattern and texture to the fabric, depending on the imagination of the weaver. Warp and weft make up an invisible whole, the one cannot exist without the other, they give each other their purpose. / Master of Architecture

"A building is a small city, a city is a large building." Alberti Even though Alberti wrote this quote hundreds of years ago, it still raises relevant design issues that can be explored in the architecture of today’s buildings. The quote addresses a modern architectural question in the design of large scale mixed use buildings by offering an architect the similarities between city-building and building interior spaces. These relationships all share design possibilities such as views, thresholds, passageways, public spaces, private spaces, places for activity, and places for rest. These are just a few of the physical and emotional ties that allow a city/building/interior space the opportunity to relate to its surroundings and ultimately create its surroundings. / Master of Architecture

The spaces we inhabit, the urban fabric, the interplay between the two: this architectural thesis seeks to explore the many components of a mixed-use project, its relationship to the city, and its use by potential inhabitants. Through this mixed-use project, many aspects of similar commercial/residential projects in the Washington, D.C. are challenged and rethought. It explores the impact of design on the way people live and work in a city. Research and analysis include architectural language, the workplace, the urban dwelling, the relationship of these to each other, and the relationship of these to the surrounding context. What follows is the documentation of these explorations, from site analysis to final drawings, and the beginnings of an understanding of how architecture can impact the working and living environments. / Master of Architecture

The site, located in Alexandria, Virginia, is three acres and bounded by a road to the north, existing single family homes to the east and west, and a wooded area to the south. The slope falls away from the road and there is a swale running down the center of the site. The site strategy has three elements. The first is a private drive running along the western site boundary which will allow access to all six dwellings. Large site walls, dividing the site for each dwelling, comprise the second element. The third element is building walls set perpendicular to the site walls which begin to establish each dwelling. Following the site strategy, the dwellings are composed of three basic areas. The public side includes a carport which is set close to the drive, and alongside of it the beginning of the major axis leading through each dwelling. The dwelling itself exists in the space created by the walls established upon the site. The living rooms are composed of indoor and outdoor space separated by large glass walls set into and between building walls. On the private side outside rooms are established, between and beyond the frames created by the building walls, which terrace down the slope. The materials, concrete masonry units and poured in place concrete are utilized as different building elements so the walls reveal their purpose through their form. / Master of Architecture

Master of Architecture

When people settle in one place they often express a desire to clarify their place in the world through the creation of small, self-contained worlds. These small worlds help orient people within the greater world by creating centers and boundaries around and within which the events of life take place. “One's identity is contingent on the sense of belonging to a place. The creation of place and entry is a fundamental human activity, enacted by all humans, beginning with the archetypal children's game of creating “houses” for themselves under tables, in boxes, or out of found materials.”² Small worlds take form in many shapes on many scales, from individual rooms and buildings to complete communities and cultures, each imaginable as a whole though connected through thresholds to larger realities. "The act of settling in a place was often mythologized as the creation of the world, and...the creation of a sacred place has principally provided the existential means for people to establish a center and thus define their place in the world."³ / Master of Architecture

From the beginning of architectural history, climate has been a major controlling force in building design. A building’s envelope must keep out the elements and minimize great temperature changes as well as admit light. Massive masonry walls were employed as thermal storage to alleviate excessive temperature swings. The thickness of these thermal barriers affected lighting conditions within the structure. Sunshine was prevented from reaching the interior. Instead, the daylight was softened and diffused as it reflected and bounced along the fenestration’s thick walls. Not only was the skin used for thermal control, it also provided illumination for the interior. Daylight was the primary method of illumination which was supplemented with candles and oil lamps. Because the skin of a building was the only mediator between the interior and exterior climates, all perforations had to be carefully considered. Buildings were designed to make use of the daylight. Activities which needed illumination were limited to daytime hours. Rooms were placed along the exterior walls of buildings to make the most of the daylight illumination. Building depth was restricted by how deeply daylight could penetrate into a room. Interior courtyards were implemented to illuminate interior spaces that could not be accommodated by exterior windows. People who wanted to remain within the confines of their building but needed large quantities of light to complete their various tasks would gather here. The courtyards lent a sense of community to its inhabitants. People were able to communicate with one another both verbally and visually. Daylight did more than illuminate interiors. It provided a constantly changing visual atmosphere. The light which passed through the fenestrations reflected the ever-changing movements of the sun and clouds. Without looking out a window, one could sense the moods of the day as well as the passage of time, the atmosphere within was always changing. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, building design was changed. Climate could be ignored in building design. Inventions such as electric lighting and forced air circulation replaced windows. Rooms no longer depended on their proximity to the exterior face for illumination. Large workspaces could be partitioned into small individual offices. With smaller space and individual offices, employees no longer had direct access to one another. The uniform electric lighting produced a static atmosphere. The visual atmosphere and the sense of community that came from courtyard design was lost. Was it really necessary to lose the subtle qualities produced by ancient building methods just to have modern amenities? Was there not some way to use technology to enhance those ancient qualities? At a time when most architects shunned the old ways to embrace the new technology, three architects stood out because they chose to incorporate the new building methods with the old. The three architects were Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn and Alvar Aalto. These men were able to design buildings based on the climatic conditions of a site and integrate those designs with twentieth century technology. / Master of Architecture

“Every motion of the hand in every one of its works carries itself through the element of thinking, every bearing of the hand bears itself in that element. All the work of the hand is rooted in thinking.” A drawn section about light entering a building defining a chapel space and an exterior congregational space is the idea behind this thesis. Both places are interlocked in one form as a way of delineating importance to the life outside the chapel by way of an urban setting without an urban fabric. The vehicle of presenting this idea is made through drawing. The making of a drawing and the making of a bowl, which are represented throughout the book, can be related on several levels. The sense and feel of both the drawings and the bowls can be due to the direct response of the hand in their making. The acute movements of the fingers are directly related to the nature of the finish. The mastery of materials and technique also ties the two together. Whether the medium is wood or graphite, the most precise manipulation of the material will allow for the greatest understanding. Conditions and features that make themselves apparent through the nature of the wood and through the knowledge of wood movements can also be seen in parts of the drawings. The last tie to both worlds is through the origin of design. How I think about the design of a building and the design of a bowl both begin with an idea about the life of the section. Transferring the qualities of the bowls to architecture can be made by way of having the same mastery of materials and technique with the multitude of building products available today. Whether its wood, steel, glass, or plastic, not only knowing the product but understanding its constructive properties will allow for the most significant architecture to develop. The other unique quality of having the fingers labor over every square inch of the bowls cannot readily and realistically be achieved in today’s architecture, but its essence can be achieved in the design process. One can only imagine designing and redesigning an architectural element as many times as the chisel is placed against and refines a spinning block of wood. / Master of Architecture

The tangible occurrence filters into the life and path of the observers. Each view and place which one experiences should be seen and understood and pushed into the making of the built thing. / Master of Architecture