Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-124). / This thesis initially focuses on the development of the U.S. stick-built house. The material and construction methods of the structure remain simple and unchanged, whereas the non-structural elements offer an enormous variety of choices in materials and components as a result of the improvements in technology . In Chapter 2, a case study of the U.S. system suggests that the stick-built house has a great potential for self-help construction, with least subcontracting, rental of some special tools and equipment and the use of prefabricated materials. A comparison of the U.S. and Japanese systems shows that the Japanese system offers lesser potential for self-help . On the average, higher skills would be required in on-site assembly. Difficulties would occur in using members of different sizes and joining methods. Also, there would be less flexibility in future change of housing design. The author recommends greater simplification of structural members for production and construction methods in Japan. / by Yutaka Takase. / M.S.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Bibliography: leaves 216-220. / by Barbara S. Parker. / M.C.P.

This thesis argues that early nineteenth-century domestic architecture along Indiana's eastern National Road (Wayne, Henry and Hancock Counties) was a product of the available local materials, not a product of cultural influences traveling along the Road. While the first chapter drives in this point, the second and third chapters describe the local materials (builders and carpenters, wood, saw-mills, clay, brickmaking and limestone), and explain construction techniques in a series of case study buildings. The thesis concludes by not only confirming the proposition, but also by making a few conclusions regarding early nineteenth-century construction methods. / Department of Architecture