Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1969. B.Arch. / Two unnumbered leaves inserted. / Includes bibliographical notes. / by Joseph H. Lancor and Young Hoon Kwak. / B.Arch.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 56). / My thesis is a Japanese traditional Inn, called Ryokan. The is open to anyone seeking refuge from the rapid pace of urban life, including local residents and tourists, yet is limited to adults in order to keep quietness within. It is similar to a Bed & Breakfast in terms of person-to-person service, yet its emphasis is on the idea of reactivating human senses by offering an intimate experience with the surrounding nature through materials. The intention of my thesis is to explore an experience in Ryokan architect~re. The thesis introduces Ryokan architecture as a typology. Incorporating ritualistic Japanese inn traditions, the architecture is designed with a sense of order, which encourages guests to settle their state of mind. The inn investigates the notion of 'continuity of moments (in time)' through a manipulation of light and water as well as through materiality, which is to lure forgotten human senses. Communal bathing experience within the inn enhances stimulation to human sanity. Beacon Hill in Boston is selected as the site for the Ryokan. The site's existing condition is a 6000sq ft-vacant-lot. Although it is just one block-in from the very active and busy intersection of Charles and Beacon Street, the site offers quietness and tranquility. Given that I sensed the stark contrast between the very busy streets and the solitude of this site, I felt that there was an intriguing quality. / by Keiko Sugeta. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-85). / This thesis aims to rethink the notion of public space and civic duty in the city. By using interstitial, underused spaces, without disputing present urban and legal status, the thesis wants to accomodate services for the people who might otherwise be ignored in the city, while using the potential of the site itself to offset the cost of these services. Looking at a site in New York City, between Pennsylvania Station and the Hudson River, the thesis introduces diverse and temporary programs in a sequence of interstitial spaces as a tool to integrate the homeless issue in the dynamic of the city. The aim is to encourage public intervention that soften the threshold between disparate urban classes, while fulfilling several civic functions, the most important of which is to explore new, safe, and dignified designs for homeless shelters. In the process, the thesis attempts to recognize the specificity of individual dealing with time and space, which are becoming more and more homogenized in the capitalist society. / by Mio Uchida. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.C.P.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture, 1951. / Bibliography: leaf 54. / by Owen W. Burnham and Morris E. Johnson. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-45). / This paper is a discourse into the relationship between the process, computational tools and the role which symbolic structure can play in both. I argue the relationship of the process and tools is dialectic, whereby the tools we utilize in design develop new heuristics, the methodologies in tum, if reflectively understood, can be more aptly facilitated through the development of novel tools. The tools and the process then evolve together. A theory is laid out exploring the human visual information processing systems pertinence to the limitations in mental three-dimensional imaging and transformation operations relevant to the operations of drawing and mental visualization within the architectural design processes, substantiating the designers "necessity" to d raw (by traditional means, but more importantly here, through the inclusive integration of CAD within the process). The "necessity" to draw is explored as a re-presentational process to the visual system predicated upon the existence of a structured internal "library" of diagram-like representations. I argue that the ways we utilize such idiosyncratic libraries is predicated upon the ways in which we go about structuring the perceived "experienced" world around us into "symbol systems". And finally, the ways we utilize our reflective understanding of the heuristic transformations of these "symbols" within the design process in the context of a CAD environment are explored as a means to an enhanced understanding of that which is being designed and consequently as a vehicle for the development of future CAD systems to better facilitate such methodologies of designing. A personal design process of several kinetic structures is carried out in order to arrive at a localized process analysis within computer-aided design environment. Through an interactive, reflective process analysis, conclusions are drawn as to the affordances and limitations of such tools as suggestive of the operations a CAD environment might perform so as to better foster future methodologies of designing. The design "experiments" are utilized as a vehicle to understand the process. Specifically three kinetic projects are exploited for the prototypical "operations" they display. When difficulties or mental limitations are encountered with the operations, specific "tools" are developed to facilitate the limitation or to overcome the problem. / by Michael A. Fox. / M.S.

Thesis: Ph. D. in Architecture: History and Theory of Art, 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 student-submitted from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-362). / In the mid-1960s, the artists who would come to occupy the center of minimal art's canon were engaged with the city as a site and source of work. These artists drew on the social, material, and spatial conditions of the surrounding environment, producing sculpture that addressed the problem of the city as a problem of the body. At the same time, minimal art was deployed by civic leaders, including New York City's mayor John V. Lindsay, as an instrument to organize a public and project a new urban image in the midst of sweeping social and economic change. The work of Carl Andre, Tony Smith, Dennis Oppenheim and many of their peers, informed by Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, promised to heighten one's consciousness of self, others, and environment. The Lindsay administration and its allies positioned sculpture as an aesthetic rupture that could ameliorate the sensorial burden and alienation of urban life. The phenomenological and spatial claims of minimal art were adopted and mobilized by the city's power brokers as they sought to assert authority over New York. This dissertation assesses the intertwined agency of artists, political leaders, corporate stakeholders, and private developers as they made proprietary claims for urban space. In the canonical formation of minimal art, the city has been marginalized as a field of meaning. The phenomenological reading has become naturalized in historiography. Rather than perpetuate this historiographical opposition, this dissertation pursues an urban history of minimal art and a social history of its phenomenology. It focuses on artists and organizers whose work constitutes a sustained engagement with the social, material, and spatial realities of New York City in the 1960s. Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology resonated with artists in 1960s New York, in part, because it overlapped with a politics of the urban body that was developing simultaneously. The city's use of minimal art was closely related to the problematic visibility of politicized bodies. As Lindsay was confronted with issues of race, gender, and class that emerged in the wake of massive social and economic transition, his administration turned to minimal art to serve as a tangible sign of order. Sculpture was deployed as a tool to orient the body and the public within the city's new spatial realities. / by Christopher M. Ketcham. / Ph. D. in Architecture: History and Theory of Art

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-114). / This study attempts to explore a number of questions about the use of an architectural language in Timurid and Safavid miniature paintings of 15th and 16th century Central Asia. Of these the most important are the following: Is there a language of architectural characteristics that can be identified in the miniature? What is this language? Is it possible to find comparative expressions and representations between the painting and the architecture? Due to the lack of other . records stating otherwise, architecture of this period is often described only as a craft; is it possible to identify a discourse between artists, writers and architects that indicates common ideals and intentions for such things as beauty in form and space? In answering these questions five different methods of analysis were used. The first method was an analysis of the visual space and the formal organization of the miniature. The second method was an analysis of the content and the culture that the miniature visualizes. The third method was an analysis of the experiential space and perception of contemporary architectural forms still in existence. These were then studied in a comparative juxtaposition with the images of the architecture. This comparative analysis was organized in a fourth method as a matrix of diverse concepts and ideas in a search for possible interrelationships between several sources including literature, poetry, Arabic inscriptions and Ko'ranic verses. A final comparative method took the form of three dimensional constructs of the miniatures in order to attempt a parallel analysis of the spatial perception of the architecture and the miniature. The question of whether an architectural language could be identified in the miniature paintings was answered positively. Starting from a basic level, there were consistent similarities between architecture and miniature in building elements and typologies. The search that was made at the conceptual level revealed many possible common expressions such as those of passage, of entrance and its use, of focal paints and of nodes in the architectural and the miniature space. Building and form also appeared to be contemplated at the philosophic and spiritual level. In addition, an expressive vocabulary of design was revealed in the treatment of such architectural forms as iwans, pistaqs and their perception as rhythmic and urban structures. The shallow compressed space that emerged in the constructed interpretation of the miniature appeared to be reflected in the compact spaces created by accretions of cells of varying depths in the Ulugh Beg Madrasa in Samarkand. A potential for further significant interpretive exploration appears to have been revealed in these records of a remarkable time and culture. / by Hatice Yazar. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 85-86. / The thesis attempts to study the urban structure of a traditional quarter in Cairo through a sociological point of view. In order to pursue this study it is necessary to understand the relationship between the built form and its users. From this understanding stems the approach of how to discern the social study in a way that could be useful and apprehendable to the architect. Before undertaking the case study, examples of other sociological studies are extracted to demonstrate the connection between behavioral patterns of the users and t heir built environment. These preliminary examples show how the built form, together with the disposion of its elements, could be understood through social studies. The problem facing the architect that will be revealed through the research is that the social scientist mainly deals with different layers of interactions between the members of the community, without showing how this interaction resonates with the built form. Consequently the architect may find a great difficulty in trying to incorporate social studies into design criteria. And from there, the sense of incompatibility emerges. In this regard, the research attempts to bridge the gap created by the lack of communication between the two disciplines: social science and urban design. / by Khaled S. Asfour. / M.S.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 109). / This thesis studies the creation of a series of forms to provoke physical sensations and emotional responses from the user. Designs were made that strengthened the meaning of the forms, and the emotional responses they illicit in relation to a sequence of physical experiences of form and space. This sequence was abstracted from the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche. To do this the thesis uses a family of forms, a directional form for movement, their material and structural qualities, and the inter-relationships established between each of these and with the site. The site is a set of three adjoining warehouse buildings on the East Boston waterfront. The major body of the text describes what I produced. This includes the introduction, which describes the formal considerations that are present in the final model. Next, a photographic essay describes the final model. The photographs lead the reader through the built sequence of events. The two parts that the thesis built on are then described: the myth, which is retold as reference for the previous experience and to help explain the genesis of the creation, and the site which is described. With the site description, the intervention is described in plan and the parts are exhibited.The last section of the thesis describes the process by which I moved from the myth and the site, into drawings, and through to the final model. / by James A. Bill. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 287-299). / Hospitals are most useful material for architectural research for they exhibit all the problems encountered in other building types in an acute and easily measurable form. Health Care Facilities house the greatest range of functions within their operations and are subject to continuous changes through their life spans, requiring specific design strategies aimed at flexibility. These functions include offices, training schools, factories, warehouses, residential buildings, restaurants, etc. as well as many specifically clinical departments like operating theatres and pathology laboratories. The range of functions demand first, a wide variety and highly sophisticated services, which amounts to more than 40% of the building volume; and second, a high degree of interdependence and uncertainty in future uses. In this context, there are three overriding requirements in hospitals: fast design, provision for change & growth, and lifecycle economy. Interstitial Space is considered as a solution to these demands and found to be an appropriate design response. The Systems Approach is used as the methodology to analyze and organize the design and construction process within the general frame of systems thinking. Sources of information include all major reports and studies on the concept of Interstitial Space published in US, Canada, and UK; and inputs from professionals of health care planning firms in New York and the Boston area on the general issue of flexibility, and on the Interstitial Space concept in particular. This thesis is organized in three parts, each with three sections. Part one provides a reference to the General Systems Theory, a description of the Systems Approach and the performance concept in buildings. Part two addresses the problem of hospital design: first, it presents the general process of hospital planning; second, it discusses the problem of changes occurring in Health Care Facilities during their life spans; and third, a summary of design strategies for flexibility follows. Within this frame of analysis, part three discusses the Interstitial Space concept. First, the basic arguments leadings to its application; second, the design considerations in light of the different subsystems building up the system; and third, life-cycle cost implications. / by Angel Garcia Alvarez. / M.S.