Master of Science

The subject of this project is the development of a computer program that assists in the preliminary selection of wooden beams for residential scale buildings. It is a useful project because the program is intended to assist the architectural designer; it does not provide comprehensive engineering. With this purpose in mind, the intention is to simplify the process of sizing wooden members, to generate graphic visualization, and to make clear the analytic and decision making process incorporated in the program's construction. The user is presumed to be a designer or architectural student. Efforts towards the design of the program have been aimed at making the software effective for designers and students. This project deals with such issues as logical sequence or flow, decision points, and conceptual organization of display screens for the purpose of focusing the users attention on vital information. / Master of Architecture

My efforts to discover a means of making a more effective sculpture led me to pursue architecture. The problem with sculpture as I saw it was that it had been deformed over time from that which marked a place into a placeless isolate. Just as I worked against that placeless isolate in sculpture, so am I now working against the placeless isolate in architecture. The aspects of architecture, the site, the plan, elements and materials, although acting phenomenally in conjunction with other coexisting elements, are often conceived as isolates. In order to elucidate the interrelation between these aspects at different scales, I turned to the work of the Poststructuralists such as Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, et al. They outline a deconstructive critical approach to linguistic/literary meaning, which I have used as a model for understanding the language of architecture. Architecture comes into being at the convergence of orders, when ordered and coherent human actions (institutions) take place in a locus or place which has been made architectonic. I am for an interrelational and interactive architecture, one which maintains a critical stance vis a vis its locus, its purposes, and its elements and materials. This is not a disassociated and detached abstract "ideal," but a self-conscious choice, made in conviction and commitment to a coherent and dignified order to human existence. The design project is an effort to make some of these thoughts operational. The proposal is for a University Museum at the parking lot at the northwest edge of the VPI Campus. The project begins with an analysis and critique of the current placeless condition of the site. The site is restructured with respect to the latent campus structure, which is itself clarified. The Museum building becomes the focal point of a new axis relating the site and the Campus. The site becomes a boundary for the Campus and promotes the growth of a coherent campus plan. / Master of Architecture

Master of Architecture

On the most simple level the projects presented here are intended to fulfill the requirements of a kindergarten. At the next level they represent an investigation into the roles of order in design. In these projects I have chosen to deal with four orders inherent to architecture. The most basic is the order of material, fundamental and inescapable. Linked to this is the order of geometry, which must be sympathetic to the order of material, but goes further in establishing an overall pattern. Giving additional meaning to the overall pattern is the hierarchical order of the spaces. Finally, the social order animates the hierarchy with the abstract notions of the individual and collective. The core of this thesis lies in the integration of these orders into a coherent system, a deep structure adaptable to a variety of conditions. This deep structure gathers the orders, allowing for the necessary freedom while giving the equally indispensable restraint. The system provides a vehicle, an operational method from which one may approach each new circumstance. The following pages present the physical manifestations of this deep structure at several scales. From the realm of the site to the geometry of small objects the single overriding structure gives order, bringing together disparate elements into comprehensible wholes, intensifying the experience and ultimately infusing the whole with a spirit, architecture. / Master of Architecture

Define a courtyard. Buildings form the Walls of the Room of the courtyard. Define its center, a pool of water. Define the axis, controlled by the center, leading to it, flowing from… the entry, the Door to the courtyard, the microcosm of the whole, the source of the water. / Master of Architecture

A small factory / Master of Architecture

In designing an Audubon Society Building, I sought to explore procession and its properties in relation to architecture. A structure of hint, pause, and reveal is set up as a shared condition to control movement. This anticipation, movement through, and discovery of space contributes spatial drama to the procession. In addition to the drama created, a continuous dialogue with man is opened up by giving meaning and depth to each space. Their focus on the context of the natural surroundings, as a critical element in the procession, reinforces the educational purpose of the building by bringing man closer to nature. Together, the establishment of these complex moments and the architectural choreography comprise the dual components of architectural procession. / Master of Architecture

no abstract provided by author / Master of Architecture

This thesis is an exploration of objects and their ability to create a between. Objects are the principal focus of this thesis. Objects arise from a desire to express the richness of three dimensions. Betweens evolve from the relationship between objects. The between is a thing, just as clearly as the object is a thing. It is a hallway, a door or a room. Knowing that a between needs to accommodate a particular function can help shape the relationship of the objects, but does not shape the objects themselves. This thesis is studied in a proposal for the area surrounding Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture, Cowgill Hall. The proposal consists of four primary objects; a series of three classrooms, a new entrance into Cowgill, a gallery above and below Cowgill Plaza, and a stair which extends the Plaza down to the level of Cowgill’s first floor. / Master of Architecture