Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-239). / Manufacturing buildings are found in most towns and cities in Massachusetts. Standing in dominant isolation, or as part of an urban district, their presence is the built testimony to the role manufacturing played in so many lives. Machinists working in the mills produced technical innovations that were exported throughout the world. It is a tribute to the builders of those mills that today people in some of the same buildings are still manufacturing with "high" technology. Yet manufacturing is becoming work that fewer of us are employed to do in our economy. Some compare this to the decline of the farm as a source of livelihood a century ago. The results show up in an unfortunate parallel between unemployed workers and manufacturing space. This thesis started from the proposal that these buildings are a resource that can be modernized for further manufacturing use as part of a community effort to create more jobs. Evaluating the proposal entailed an investigation into the existing market for this type of building, how efforts to expand that market have worked, how existing firms locate their production space, and the changes in design criteria for manufacturing buildings. The proposal contains some implicit values that have been traditional ones in Massachusetts: that older things built well are worth using; and that as a commonwealth if we lose the pride of skilled production, or fail to share it among ourselves, we have lost a legacy that has been ours, and our future will become less certain. / by Callie Traynor. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [118]-[120]). / This thesis attempts to address the perceived failure of the manufactured housing industry to adequately speak to issues of universality and specificity. The universal is investigated and redefined according to two specific circumstances: two communities, two Lots and two houses, in two very different places. Hillside sites were selected in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and in Los Angeles, California. A set of principles (the universal) was derived through the analysis of conditions on the two sites (the specific), and a new prefabricated construction system was developed in response. The universal acts as a platform for the individual; the prefabricated components are combined with sitebuilt elements, both systems having their role to play in the evolution of life on a hillside. / by Meredith Atkinson. / M.Arch.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2005. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-88). / The formal unification of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, and the later addition of the Roman capital in 1870, sparked criticism from Papal authorities and fostered a growing secularist sentiment among royal political leaders. Yet the Kingdom of Italy also sought to mediate those differences, having formed a liberal constitutional monarchy under the former King of Savoy, Carlo Alberto (and later, his son, Vittorio Emanuele II). This thesis will address the urban manifestation of the conflicted relationship between the Papacy and the new royal government of the Kingdom of Italy in Rome, with a particular regard for the manner in which the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II portrays the Risorgimento king. The Corso Vittorio Emanuele II also serves as the means by which French and British models operative in Italy can be evaluated, with the consequences of this urban intervention analyzed in relation to the particular practice of conservation employed in Italy at the conclusion of the nineteenth-century. The history of this urban intervention will first be indexed against three successive periods in the royal Italian government (the Destra, Sinistra, and Giolittian parliaments), all of which proposed differing visions for the new capital. The history of Roman urban planning will then be considered with regard to the pre-Risorgimento initiatives of Pope Pius IX and Cardinal Merode, the municipal :Development Plan of 1873, and the later royal Development Plan of 1883 (the plan that generally defined the avenue's construction). / (cont.) The Corso Vittorio Emanuele II will then be investigated in greater depth, paying particular attention to the Development Plans of 1873 and 1883, the official Variant of 1886 (which was actually built), and a selection of other unofficial counterproposals. The intention is to demonstrate that the Italian admiration for British political and conservation models- which do have a common philosophical basis-were somewhat contradictory in application, resulting in a uniquely modern approach to urbanism in Rome and a surprisingly respectful treatment of ecclesiastical structures (even despite the ongoing conflict between Papal and royal authorities). / by Thomas Michael Dietz. / S.M.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 97). / An exploratory design project is used as a vehicle to understand and identify approaches towards the notion of "place" and more precisely "visiting a place". The inquiry begins from the design challenge of an architectural competition for the design of a visitors' center in Sydney Australia. The international design competition set by AlA, ASCA and DuPont Glass Industry, is asking for a building, addressed to visitors of Sydney, that represents the "Australian culture" and can provide general information on ways to explore the continent. The design exploration navigates through several descriptions and approaches, on the city and the continent, conducted by a variety of intellectuals, writers, reporters, and Architects. The hints collected, enrich the design diary, and formulate the design process. "Transparency" is therefore used both as a means of looking through design as a tool of communication, research and representation, as well as a structural demand set by the competition. The design artifact navigates the design process towards the formulation of a specific proposal answering the primary demands; nevertheless in the research the focus is given on the experience of processing the design problem. Structured in a series of episodes, the design diary that follows, incorporates the research into a series of manifested notes on the issue of architectural conception. Diagrams and drawings representing several stages of the design evolution, are combined with the manifested theoretical points, and arguments in the form of parallel stories. / by Vassilios Kourvaras. / M.S.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-79). / In the present urban space, where an individual is exposed to the conditions of heterogeneity and anonymity, a conventional Bodybuilding Gym opens up certain issues of emplacement of un/nder-spoken men's body and its close(t)ed placement in the society. While the rituals of entering and exiting the gym and 'building' the muscularity raise questions of men's reflected societal states in North America, the changing social appreciation of the 'new' body images, and emerging holistic approach of wellness of body-mind have become the thresholds to rethink the previously hyper-masculine gym space and to reinvent a way to accommodate these new conditions. I have explored the design of a contemporary gym as a subterranean-heterotopic- site rooted in the current urban context to reflect its various and changing socio-spatial identities of each user. The design focus is to recognize the updated characteristics of the user spaces when the gym is introduced with the new programs of Totality of Body-Mind, or, a further embodied Mind Zone coming into the body activity program concepts, to create new physical and psychological inter-relationships, or Proximity of Heterotopic Stages, to the individual users. / by Hyung Suk Lee. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1985. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-47). / This thesis is about lively urban spaces and their distinctive characteristics. Its objective is to look at the various aspects responsible for the dynamic atmosphere of such environments, identifying the role played by their physical configuration within this context. It recommends the inclusion of a historical approach in the analysis of urban spaces. since the studies so far conducted have primarily focused on their physical aspects without providing very successful results. The possible contributions of the historical approach are examined in the investigation of three squares well-known for their liveliness and attractive power: Piazza Navona (Rome. Italy), Harvard Square (Cambridge, U.S.A.) and Piccadilly Circus (London. England). Based on a historical review, the main aspects influencing the character of the squares are grouped into three categories: form, use and relation to the city. These categories, nevertheless. are not relevant when considered independently, because they assume a meaningful role only through their participation in a set of tight relationships. The study also explores the situations of change experienced by the squares. since the historical perspective has unveiled the fact that changes have always affected their formal. functional and contextual characteristics. while being intended to preserve their lively atmosphere. / by Elizabeth Gus Camargo. / M.S.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1972. M.Arch. / MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN ROTCH LIBRARY. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.Arch.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1964. B.Arch. / Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / B.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-315). / "A controversial new development has recently been put up for debate within the discipline of Geology: Do current levels of human interaction in Earth's geology and atmosphere justify the proclamation of a new geological age or era: The Anthropocene? Entering a realm of scientific uncertainty and discourse, this thesis argues that the conceptualization of the Anthropocene (as a product of human ubiquity) yields the premise to summarize and critique a whole number of recent influential paradigm shifts and theoretical frameworks in architecture, which, in essence, address the relationship between the "man-made"and the "natural" The main hypothesis of this thesis is based on the assumption that principles of dirt and contamination (states of disorder) will replace principles of natural preservation and mythical naturality (seemingly ordered states) as the new primary vessel of meaning for the production of Anthropocene environment, architecture, ecology, society and culture. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will serve as a case study for investigating the Anthropocene condition." / by Sasa Zivkovic. / M.Arch.

Thesis: S.M. in Building Technology, 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 79-86). / Simulation models play an important role in the design, analysis, and optimization of modern energy and environmental systems at building or urban scale. However, due to the extreme complexity of built environments and the sheer number of interacting parameters, it is difficult to obtain an accurate representation of real-world systems. Thus, model calibration and uncertainty analysis hold a particular interest, and it is necessary to evaluate to what degree simulation models are imperfect before implementing them during the decision-making process. In contrast to the extensive literature on the calibration of building performance models, little has been reported on how to automatically calibrate physics-based urban microclimate models. This thesis illustrates a general methodology for automatic model calibration and, for the first time, applies it to an urban microclimate system. The study builds upon the previously reported and updated Urban Weather Generator (UWG) to present a deep look into an existing urban district area in downtown Abu Dhabi (UAE) during 2017. Based on 30 candidate inputs covering the meteorological factors, urban characteristics, vegetation variables, and building systems, we performed global sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo filtering, and optimization-aided calibration on the UWG model. In particular, an online hyper-heuristic evolutionary algorithm (EA) is proposed and developed to accelerate the calibration process. The UWG is a fairly robust simulator to approximate the urban thermal behavior for dierent seasons. The validation results show that, in single-objective optimization, the online hyper-heuristics can robustly help EA produce quality solutions with smaller uncertainties at much less computational cost. Finally, the resulting calibrated solutions are able to capture weekly-average and hourly diurnal profiles of the urban outdoor air temperature similar to the measurements for certain periods of the year. / by Jiachen Mao. / S.M. in Building Technology