Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-73). / This thesis explores the processes of building evolution and the methods in which old buildings are recycled for continued use. Reuse is the process in which a building's life is extended through a preservation or alteration of its existing morphology. It is a process in which memories are both extended and interpreted; designers try to renovate outdated structures into rich and diverse environments in which people can once again live and work. This thesis is a case study in reuse, in which I study the process of recycling several old industrial buildings. The Walter Baker Chocolate Factory sits on the boundary line between the Massachusetts towns of Milton and Dorchester, straddling the Neponset River. I discuss the morphology of the existing buildings, and I explore their conversion into an artists' colony. Reuse makes sense economically and environmentally, and also helps us preserve a connection to our ancestry, our cultural heritage, and our collective memory. In Working Places: the Adaptive Use of Industrial Buildings, Walter C. Kidney says: "America, at least in its attitude toward material wealth, may be undergoing a major psychological change. In the recent past, anything made the day before yesterday, whether it was a building, a car or a saucepan, was liable to be scrapped." Today, this trend is beginning to reverse, and architects are looking to explore the potential for reuse of outdated buildings. As a guide for my exploration, I have selected the program that the architectural team of Gelardin, Bruner, and Cutt used to create the "Piano Craft Guild", an artists' colony in the South End of Boston. I have, however, taken the freedom to tailor the program to fit the specific conditions extant at the east complex of the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory. / by Fernando D. Castro. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 71). / The mill buildings of New England add a unique dimension to the heritage and identity of the region. Today some of these buildings continue to function as the site of industry, others have been converted to commercial or residential uses, and quite a few have been left to decompose. This thesis proposes some alternatives for converting 19th century mill buildings to residential use. It examines mills of brick bearing-wall construction with respect to their organization and materials, and looks critically at several contemporary mill conversions. It then concentrates specifically on showing how the exterior brick wall can be transformed in order to make decent places to live out of buildings designed for a very different purpose - industrial production. / Paul Pressman. / M.Arch.

Urban landscape offers an effective means to improve local capability for regional and global competitions. Along with the growing power of cultural economy, urban landscape with unique identity is increasingly repackaged as venue for cultural, particularly visual, consumption. At the same time, globally oriented cities compete with one another by promoting arts districts. In this context, arts districts have become a global urban phenomenon, contributing significantly to agglomerate cultural consumption activities. For the past two decades, arts districts in Beijing have gained rapid increase in terms of locations and spatial patterns. However ,they were called ‘artist villages’ which represent their undergrounded statues in the early 1990s.It was not until 2000s that some of them were soon commercialized with international galleries, trendy restaurants, caf?s and night clubs appearing on the scene. These underground settlements were eventually recognized as “creative clusters” by the government. Speculative developers have seized the opportunity to investigate arts districts along with the growing importance of cultural economy. Compared with western cases, Beijing’s arts districts merely took less than 20 years to shift from its isolated state to a tremendously popular one among local citizens and foreign visitors. Under this specific circumstance, the mechanism that contributes to such transformation has yet to be explored. Knowledge in this field in China is still on the stage of adopting the western model with a strong passion for explaining their economic capability. Whereas, in order to explore the relation between production landscape and consumption landscape, there is need to conduct a critical investigation for arts districts as a cultural spatial product in a social process. In light of the scenario given above, the study aims to examine the role of place identity in producing Beijing’s arts districts with special focus placed on their branding strategy. The first step of the study is to review the overall development process of Beijing’s arts districts to identify specific background conditions and analyze their development characteristics. In the given urban context, two case studies of Factory 798 and Jiuchang are carried out, which are designed to achieve the research objectives. The two cases display different patterns of development mode. However, according to the study findings, similarities between them can be explored. Based on the distinctive image that the cases create, the study arrives at a conclusion that the role of place identity is evident in forming the characteristic of the consumption pattern. The significance of place identity is recognized for lending its value to Beijing’s arts districts. Further, from production landscape to consumption landscape, the commodification process of arts districts is ineffective without the interplay of social actors. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

"It has neither name nor place. I shall repeat the reason why I was describing it to you: from the number of imaginable cities we must exclude those whose elements are assembled without a connecting thread, an inner rule, a perspective, a discourse. With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams are made of desires and fears, even the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else." "Cities also believe they are the work of the mind or of chance, but neither the one nor the other suffices to hold up their walls. You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours." / Master of Architecture

This research and documentation project of surviving Indianapolis automobile factories examines the importance of Indianapolis, Indiana, as a center of automobile manufacturing in its early days. Automobile factories appeared in the city as early as 1895, and were often an outgrowth of bicycle or carriage-building companies. This followed a national trend. As the industry grew, Indianapolis firms continued to produce low-volume, high-quality cars instead of the more popular, low-cost cars being produced by Ford and other Michigan-based manufacturers. The recession of 1921 and the Great Depression of 1929 decimated the market for expensive cars and by 1937 all Indianapolis-based firms were out of the automobile business. A number of their production facilities remain and are employed in a variety of uses. This project documents these buildings and recommends a range of adaptive re-uses based on successful conversions. / Department of Architecture