The work seeks to understand the nature of architecture where House and Institution coexist. Specific architectural constructs support the archetype of house in order to provide an instant notion of Home. The constructs range from the visual to the experiential; where reality and imagination find common ground. Even though the House in this context is meant to be inhabited for a short period of time only, the architecture seeks to provide an immediate sense of home in the moment of transition for a mother and child, who are coming out of a domestic violence scenario. In this context, the relationship between House and Institution is regarded as symbiotic. The Institution suggests a public identity, providing places for therapy, consultation, and other types of assistance to the adults. For the children, the architecture includes places for the presence of books with an invitation to read. The architecture of House is based on individuality, a kind of receptacle for idea of Home. For the mothers, the space between this duality will offer places for gathering, sharing and learning; for the children, the architecture aims to be magical. / Master of Architecture

A house composed of two bedrooms and two bathrooms sits in a landscape of towering pine trees, lush orange groves, and tall grasses. Approaching from the west, a stepped lava tock garden wall protects the terraces of gravel and grass that bound and hold the concrete walls of the house. Within these wall an architectural game of turning, pushing, pulling, and shifting begging to play out; found in the shadows of a corner, in the depths of a break, in the repetition of a joint. / Master of Architecture

The architecture is a multi-venue performing arts complex consisting of a full-scale opera house, a mid-size open-air theater, a small recital salon, and an outdoor arena-style street-stage. The building is sited at Buzzard Point in Washington, DC at the terminus of South Capitol Street along the Anacostia River. The thesis is an exploration into the concept of organic architecture and a formal study of its application to the order, structure, and construction of a building. / Master of Architecture

This thesis is an architectural investigation of a house as a rational object imbued by memory. The place is a wooded hill on the border between a hundred acre farm and the marshy ravine of the Totopotomoy "Totomoy" Creek in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The farm dates back to the Civil War when the Totomoy was no man's land between Union and Confederate earth works. It has been farmed by my grandfather since the late 1940s. The house is a pair of rectangles separated by a stair. The concrete block walls are punctured by large windows, aligned to define interior passage and establishing clarity of spatial and formal relationships. The tower house is the reduction and rational manifestation of familial memory. / Master of Architecture

The object of this thesis is a modestly scaled house at Smith Mountain Lake. The objective of this thesis is to please the senses through material composition. We gain knowledge and sensible understanding of our world through physical interaction and direct sensory experience. Through touching, smelling, listening, and observing we form and guide our choices. These experiences enrich the designer's knowledge of material properties and thus the proper use of materials. The primary focus of this study seeks to understand the physical properties of materials in relation to a site and to each other. Following, it attempts to transform these materials into elements of architecture, as the functional components of a building. Forms derive their unique qualities from these materials; qualities that enrich our consciousness, evoke sensible memories, and fulfill expectations. Chosen for their qualities as well as their perceptions, brick and wood, present a dynamic dialogue about mass in volume.The story of this house is told in relation to how the brick responds to the primary structure and how it orchestrates architectural elements within the whole. The dichotomy between these two materials lends this study to a larger exploration of joinery. The internal joining of wood to wood, or tectonic joining, produces a different expression than the joining of different materials. Wood to brick, for instance produces the legible differentiation of the architectural elements within the house. The arrangement of these materials articulates structure as well as spatial distinctions within the whole. Where volumes detach, glass bridges these materials as its attributes blend the differentiation between an interior and exterior condition. Articulating how these materials meet addresses essential architectural questions of knowledge, thought, and order as well as ephemeral pleasures. To enjoy the physical experience, as it is embraced by all of the senses, is the final goal and desire of this thesis. / Master of Architecture / This quest began by trying to treat one side of a constructed line independently from the other side. Formal distinctions were made, and then later material distinctions in order to treat a building's interior and exterior independently. This thesis study treats the structure independently from the envelope, while creating spatial distinctions within the house through material decisions. Brick and wood were chosen for their contrasting properties, both physically and perceptually. The Brick, with its telluric, of the earth presence, has an obligation to the site, weather, and time. The wood on the other hand, with its tectonic nature, has an obligation to the human touch. The structure, which serves as protection from the elements, its pulled inside to live with the humans as heavy timber posts. The brick is then left to the essential elements of the house, to one day stand as ruins. Namely, the entrance, the hearth, the base, and parts of the envelope, The architectural questions are then asked through material composition and elemental joints.

a small house... in which the details can be explored thoroughly with an understanding of construction through experience, detail, and context. / Master of Architecture

This project is a proposal for the design of a house situated on a plot of land within the town limits of Blacksburg. It incorporates ideas drawn from many sources, particularly from this region of Appalachia -- its geology, architectural heritage, building materials, history, Blacksburg's Comprehensive Plan, housing, agriculture and energy resources. An introduction discusses some ideas on architecture followed by chapters which provide the basis upon which the design was developed, then a description of the house design and drawings followed by an analysis of the environmental responsiveness of the design using a computer program called "Energy Scheming." / Master of Architecture

This dissertation addresses the issues of climate change and depletion of non-renewable resources of energy and water, and aims at eliminating the use of non-renewable resources of energy and water for the building operation in single-family detached residences in the U.S. With this aim, this study investigated the feasibility of the off-grid, off-pipe design approach in six climate locations across the U.S. to achieve self-sufficiency in a house for building energy, indoor water use, and household wastewater and sewage disposal using only on-site available renewable resources. For the analysis, a 2,500 ft2, 2000/2001 International Energy Conservation Code standard reference house with typical building and usage characteristics was selected as the base case. The six U.S. climate locations included: Minneapolis, MN, Boulder, CO, Atlanta, GA, Houston, TX, Phoenix, AZ, and Los Angeles, CA. The renewable resources considered for this study included: solar radiation, wind, biomass for building energy needs; rainwater for indoor water use. In addition, the building site was considered for the disposal of household wastewater and sewage. The selected climate locations provided different scenarios in terms of base-case building energy needs and availability of renewable resources. Depending on these, energy and water efficiency measures were selected for reducing the building needs. For the reduced building needs, the sizing of systems for self-sufficiency was performed, including: solar thermal system for building’s space heating and water heating needs, photovoltaic and wind power systems for building’s electricity needs; rainwater harvesting system for indoor water needs; and septic system for the on-site disposal of household wastewater and sewage. In this manner, an integrated analysis procedure was developed for the analysis and design of off-grid, off-pipe homes, and was demonstrated for six U.S. climate locations. The results of the analysis indicated that achieving self-sufficiency for energy, water and sewage disposal was possible is all climates provided the systems for the collection and storage of renewable resources were large. On the other hand, the utilization of these systems was small for locations, where the year-to-year and seasonal variations in the weather conditions and availability of climate resources was large. For increased system utilization, minimization of the peak building needs, utilization of harvested energy for secondary purposes, and considering alternative systems for such applications are preferred.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1959. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 469-476).

I detta arbete studeras vilka möjligheter det finns för en av 3D hus kunders hus att klara kraven för passiv- eller minienergihus. Baserat på ett projekterat hus studeras hur olika konstruktioner och produktval påverkar husets möjlighet att uppfylla kraven. Trots att samtliga konstruktionsalternativ påstods vara anpassade för energisnåla hus visar vår undersökning att transmissionsförlusterna varierade mycket mellan de olika lösningarna. Även vilka garantier de olika företagen kunde ge gällande lufttäta konstruktioner varierade stort.De områdena som särskilt studeras i detta arbete är energiförluster genom en bostads klimatskal beroende av olika konstruktioner av väggarna, samt vilka fönster och dörrar som är lämpliga.Vår studie visar att utformningen av huset som studerats kommer kräva mycket höga krav på konstruktionen för att huset ska kunna nå kraven för ett passiv- eller minienergihus. Utformningen gör däremot att förlusterna varierar stort mellan de olika valen och det kan därför vara en god idé att se över vilka produkter som ska väljas inom de olika områdena. / This report considers the possibilities to build a passive house or mini-energy house within reasonable demands on manufacturers and construction firms for one of 3D House’s customers. The client has already been in contact with different manufacturers and construction firms with different demands, but with the same warranty of energy efficient materials. In this study there’s a comparison of these demands and warrants show that, even with the same stated terms of low efficient material, the transmission loss vary considerably. Especially the warrants for airtight constructions vary much.Because of the buildings shape it becomes clear that it would need very high requirement on the products and the work to meet the requirements for passive house. The shape of the house does on the other hand make sure that it's a big difference between the different products which would make it a good idea to look over the different chose.The areas there this report is in first hand how the different companies for walls because of that is an area there it's a big different between different choice and it's a big part of the climate shield. It will also have a look over what kind of windows and doors that exist that meet both the requirements for passive house and the costumer.