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Heritage education is an effective strategy for teaching students about the importance of local history and its relation to state and national themes. The proposed Indiana heritage curriculum unit was designed to incorporate the local built environment into the upper middle and high school classroom. Six lessons have been designed within the unit to help teachers implement heritage education, while fulfilling existing Indiana Academic Standards. Supplemental information, including Power Point presentations, informational handouts, and suggested activities, have been designed to successfully guide lay teachers through the objectives stated in each lesson presented. Through a weeklong session with Mr. Charles Bennett and his eighth grade students, the proposed unit was piloted at Speedway Junior High School in Indianapolis during a weeklong session. The successful implementation and methodology used to create the heritage unit has been documented in the following text of the creative project. In addition, background research and conclusion chapters have been included to establish the need and validate the successful implementation of the heritage education curriculum unit proposed. / Department of Architecture

The involvement of nature happens at the edge of architecture, influencing the space of man from the outside and the inside. This design is intended to open man's space to his surroundings, and for establishing a new relationship between man and nature.Peter Noever writes in Architecture in Transition: "In order to become an autonomous subject, man distances himself from nature. This process of distance helps men to learn increasingly to control himself and nature. However, this origin of subjectivity becomes hybrid and turns against man himself: he falls prey to his natural need to dominate, and the dominator of nature becomes the prey of nature."The idea of dominating nature is strongly reflected in the American rural dwellings. Like an "icon of individualism," "operating objectively in their relationship to the landscape,"2 the houses appear isolated from the surroundings. Man might control himself by building this isolated relationship with his surroundings, but it does not have to be like this. Because man not only needs to control himself but also needs to live healthily. The energy of the natural world is an essential part of a healthy human life. Especially in the living environment, natural elements-(defined as "a creative and controlling force in the universe")--are indispensable. For a healthy life, in balance with nature, man should be receptive to his surroundings.The Involvement of Nature is a study of dwelling space, using the language of architecture to improve and cultivate a harmonious relationship between man and nature. This project will focus on the connection between the dwelling space and its natural surroundings. It will create a contextual connection by the interactions between human perceptions of space inside the dwelling and the natural or cultural landscapes which is the outdoor environmental phenomena and features; the sun, the wind and the changing landscape. / Department of Architecture

Flexibility in housing has been studied and implemented both in Europe and North America. However, there is a need for more research on which spaces in the home and which elements in those spaces require flexibility to accommodate all phases of the family life cycle. The particular spaces in a single-family home requiring this flexibility were determined in five case studies covering a minimum span of 15 years of the family life cycle. The spaces that underwent changes most frequently were dens, studies and recreation rooms. Bedrooms changed frequently only when there were crowded conditions or when residents were unhappy with the status quo. Through a review of the physical limitations of the elderly, it was determined that a sensitive application of accessibility standards in all homes would extend the usefulness of the homes as the occupants enter the final stage of the life cycle.

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This thesis examines aspects of the work of American writer and social critic, Lewis Mumford, and the domestic buildings of architect William Wurster. It reveals parallels in their careers, particularly evident in an Arts and Crafts influence and the regional emphasis both men combined with an otherwise overtly Modernist outlook. Several chapters are devoted to the background of, and influences on, Mumford???s regionalism and Wurster???s architecture. Mumford, a spiritual descendent of John Ruskin, admired Wurster???s work for its reflection of his own regionalist ideas, which are traced to Arts and Crafts figures Patrick Geddes, William Morris, William Lethaby and Ruskin. These figures are important to this study, firstly because the influence of their philosophical perspective allowed Mumford, almost uniquely, to position himself as a spokesman for both Romanticism and Modernism with equal validity, and secondly because of their influence upon early Californian architects such as Bernard Maybeck, and subsequently upon Wurster and his colleagues. Throughout the thesis, an important architectural distinction is highlighted between regional Modernism and the International Style. This distinction polarised the American architectural community after Mumford published an article in 1947 suggesting that the ???Bay Region Style??? represented a regionally appropriate alternative to the abstract formulas of International Style architecture and nominated Wurster as its most significant representative. Wurster???s regional Modernism was distinct from the bulk of American Modernism because of its regional influences and its indebtedness to vernacular forms, apparent in buildings such as his Gregory Farmhouse. In 1948, Henry-Russel Hitchcock organised a symposium at New York???s Museum of Modern Art to refute Mumford???s article. Its participants acrimoniously rejected a regionalist alternative to the International Style, and architectural historians have suggested that authentic regional development in the Bay Region largely ceased because of such adverse theoretical and academic scrutiny. After examining the influences on Mumford and Wurster, the thesis concludes that twentieth century regional architectural development in the San Francisco Bay Region has influenced subsequent Western domestic architecture. Wurster suggested that architects should employ the regional and vernacular rather than emulate historical styles or follow theoretical models in their buildings and Mumford, upon whose work Critical Regionalism was later founded, is central to any understanding of the importance of the vernacular, regional and historical in modern architecture.