Civic spaces are designed in the absence of the people they most greatly impact. Conventional engagement efforts consist of formalities such as community meetings that deny participants the agency of hand-making and are built upon relationships of obligation. This runs contrary to a body of research that positions hand-making and solidarity as elemental to human nature: Matthew Crawford equates explorations of “manual engagement” to existential questioning, 1 and Karl Marx saw collaboration as integral to our “species character.” 2 The potential outcomes of this disconnect are undignified spaces that fail to accommodate the most basic human needs. 3 This thesis offers a model of praxis to challenge this disconnect. Nadia Anderson writes that praxis is focused on “process and action” 4 as opposed to products, while Marx characterized praxis as the union of thinking and social practice. 5 Accordingly, this model of praxis is composed of two parts. First, an engagement toolkit implemented in a real community; and second, an architectural proposal developed alongside a partner organization. In New Orleans, the disconnect between users and the creation of civic space is manifested in public transit. The RTA (Regional Transit Authority) bus system converges at a few critical intersections in the city’s Central Business District. Each day, thousands of riders must transfer at these stops, despite a lack of adequate seating, shade, and other basic amenities. 6 Currently, the RTA is conducting a feasibility study for a downtown transit hub. In partnership with Ride New Orleans, a local advocacy group, this thesis will deploy a community engagement toolkit that will enable transit riders to shape the design a dignified transit hub. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

We are on the brink of a major transportation revolution. Once a country devoted to the car, America has begun to push private car ownership away. Public transportation has reached new ridership highs since the 50s, and a new social paradigm of sharing has buoyed ride sharing and car sharing to some of the most profitable businesses in the world. This fact, coupled with breakthroughs in advanced transportation technology, signal a new area in transportation. The introduction of these new transportation typologies poses to have a major impact on the future of the city. The quest for efficiency and convenience drive these advances and it will begin to push current parking infrastructure further toward irrelevance. This will increase the already overabundant, but underused, parking spaces and parking structures while illustrating the superfluous size of many urban streets. The once overcrowded parking structures are now empty and lifeless, creating a void in the hearts of many cities. Anticipating this change creates an unique opportunity to upcycle these once banal symbols of urban infrastructure into lively and beneficial environments. Growing up surrounded by nature and fresh, family grown food, I have learned to appreciate the benefits of rural living. Experts, and I, believe that living in or even viewing nature has many physiological and physiological benefits. Introducing this way of life into a dense urban setting to replace unused space with a sustainable alternative will shift city life toward a healthier and more sustainable future. The introduction of nature will humanize these once tepid concrete expanses. Although advances in technology are the catalyst for the availability of these structures, it is the return to the simplicity and pureness of natural life that will create a healthy and sustainable city. Small scale traditional farming incorporated with multi-family living fulfills the need for more housing but also provides the residents of the neighborhood with the ingredients to create a sustainable community. This program utilizes the parking structure's inherent characteristics to provide needed housing while encouraging a sustainable way of life. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Kevin McGrath Abstract This thesis looks to assess the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in building critical energy infrastructure, and its implications for energy and national security. The clear majority of academic literature in energy security focuses exclusively on energy supply, and demand, but there is little written on the security issues facing countries when financing critical energy infrastructure projects. Through assessing the (1) recent history of privatization, (2) the development of the domestic PPP model, and (3) current relationships with PPPs in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France this thesis will look to identify the underlying domestic cultural normative debate which is driving policy making decisions. By understanding the general historical trends of privatization, and economic ideologies in governments over the past 40+ years, we can see the current and future trends in building critical energy infrastructure. By understanding the constantly evolving factors, and interdependencies at play, this thesis highlights the role of public-private partnerships in critical energy infrastructure, and energy security in general.

Disturbances in the services provided by the infrastructuresystems—e.g. electric power supplies and communications—can have serious implications for everyday life,economic prosperity and national security. The disturbances canbe initiated by natural disasters, adverse weather, technicalfailures, human errors, sabotage, terrorism or acts of war. Theaim of this thesis is to study methods for proactivevulnerability analysis of electric power delivery networks(i.e. to analyze their sensitivity to threats and hazards), andto formalize vulnerability as a theoretical concept. The thesis consists of three papers. In the first paper, wediscuss concepts and perspectives for developing a methodologyfor vulnerability studies with the help of the followingthemes: The properties of the infrastructure systems, threatsand hazards, vulnerability and consequence analysis, andmeasures for creating robust and resilient systems. In the second paper we discuss how to assess vulnerabilityof power delivery systems with the help of standard powersystem performance indices. In two case studies, Swedish powerdelivery disturbance data is analyzed with statistical methods.We demonstrate that the disturbance size of large disturbancesfollows a power law distribution, and that the time betweendisturbances is exponentially distributed. In third paper, we model electrical power networks asgraphs, and conduct empirical studies of two power transmissiongrids. We calculate values of topological characteristics ofthe networks and compare their error and attack tolerance, i.e.their performance when vertices are disabled, with twofrequently used model networks. Further, we perform a graphinfluenced vulnerability analysis of a fictitious powernetwork, and evaluate di.erent strategies to decrease thevulnerability of the system.

The purpose of this study was to conduct an economic assessment of the construction industry. More specifically, this study addresses ambiguities within the literature that are associated with the construction-economics nexus. The researcher 1) investigated the relationships between economic indicators and stock prices of U.S. construction equipment manufacturers, 2) investigated the relationships between energy production, consumption, and corruption, and 3) determined the economic effect electricity generation and electricity consumption has on economies of scale. The researcher used descriptive and inferential statistics in this study and determined that economists, researchers, policy-makers, and others should have predicted the 2007-08 world economic collapse 5-6 years prior to realization of the event given that construction indices and GDP grossly regressed from statistically acceptable trends as early as 2002 and perhaps 2000. Substantiating this claim, the effect of the cost of construction materials and labor, i.e. construction index, on GDP was significant for years leading up to the collapse (1970-2007). Additionally, it was determined that energy production and consumption are predictors of governmental corruption in some countries. In the Republic of Botswana, for example, the researcher determined that energy production and consumption statistically jointly effected governmental corruption. In addition to determining statistical effect, a model for predicting governmental corruption was developed based on energy production and consumption volumes. Also, the researcher found that electricity generation in the 25 largest world economies had a statistically significant effect on GDP. Electricity consumption also had an effect on GDP, as well, but not on other economic indicators. More importantly than the quantitative findings, the researcher concluded that the construction-economics nexus is far more complex than most policy-makers realize. As such, infrastructure spending may, or may not, be an answer to the current world economic collapse, as much more research remains to be completed by researchers to address known ambiguities within various associated findings. Until a collective agreement can be reached among researchers as to the effect that construction spending has on economic output under known, specific parameters, policy-makers should exercise extreme caution when leveraging infrastructure spending as a solution for overcoming the world economic collapse.

Sustainability means providing for the necessities of today without endangering the necessities of tomorrow within the technical, environmental, economic, social/cultural, and individual contexts. The assessment tools available to study the sustainability of the built environment are limited in their approach and lacking in their content due to several reasons: (1) differences amongst the actors within the industry; (2) fragmentation as represented by lack of communication and understanding between the industry and those whom it serves; and (3) regionalism as represented by the disconnection between the construction projects and their host community systems. The narrow focus of the currently available assessment methods does not collectively address the technical, environmental, economic, social/cultural, and individual sustainability indicators as well various aspects of sustainability. To this end, this research develops three innovative system-based concepts to assess sustainability of civil infrastructure projects: (1) work, (2) nature, and (3) flow. The “work benchmark” defines the socio-behavioral relationships amongst the products and the actors of the built environment. It also attempts to delineate how the end-product is affected by how well the producers are connected to the product. The “nature benchmark” focuses on the effects of the built process on the environment through studying the interaction between the construction actors, their associated processes, and the end-products within their host systems. The “flow benchmark” identifies the overall system changes within the host systems and the effects of these changes on the natural environment and the socio-economic setting. For testing and evaluation of “nature” and “work” on five different types of civil infrastructure projects, the author utilized a three-step methodology comprising: (1) structured survey; (2) data collection; and (3) analysis. In order to avoid being unrepresentative of the industry, the author chose projects with different scopes representing a wide spectrum of construction projects. This process provided an improved understanding of the environmental, social, and economic effects of these projects from a systems perspective. For future work, the concept of “flow” will be further explored using macro-level system dynamics modeling, micro-level agent-based simulation, and multi-objective optimization to measure the overall system change.

No description available.

No description available.

Sverige har tillsammans med samtliga medlemsstater i FN ingått i vad som benämns Agenda 2030. Målet med Agenda 2030 är att leda världen mot en mer rättvis och hållbar framtid genom 17 globala delmål. Ett av dessa delmål beaktar klimatförändringar och de åtgärder som krävs för att minska dess utveckling. Byggbranschen producerar idag 21% av Sveriges totala utsläpp av växthusgaser och tillverkningen av cement producerar cirka 2–3 % av byggbranschens totala utsläpp. I dagens läge genomför Cementa, Sveriges enda producent av cement, forskning som ämnar att minska uppkomsten av växthusgaser vid cementtillverkningen. Med målet att erhålla en helt koldioxidneutral cementproduktion. Bara i Sverige genereras 12 miljoner ton rivningsavfall per år som kan härledas till byggbranschen. Genom att utveckla möjligheterna för återbruk av betongkonstruktioner förväntas återbruksprocessen minska mängden rivningsavfall och dessutom minska behovet av nyproducerad betong. Initialt kan implementering av återbrukbara betongkonstruktioner generera ett större klimatavtryck i förhållande till konventionellt producerade konstruktioner. Men att ett sådant, utökat klimatavtryck, kan försummas vid genomfört återbruk. Det är främst i byggnader där upprepande planlösning och vanligt förekommande konstruktioner använts som återbruksmöjligheterna bör beaktas. Avvikande och unika byggnader förväntas varken projekteras med hänsyn till återbruk eller erhålla ett utbud av byggnadselement som motsvarar efterfrågan. I dag dimensioneras bärverk av betong med en betydligt kortare livslängd än vad betongens tekniska livslängd förväntas vara. Därav rivs byggnader utan att dess tekniska livslängd överskridits. Exempelvis var 25% av alla rivna byggnader i Sverige år 1980 30 år eller yngre. Demonteringsprocessen för en byggnad förknippas starkt med uppförandet, både genom projektering och produktion. Genom att hämta inspiration från andra branscher som bil- och teknikindustrin, där produkter produceras med komponenter som kan demonteras och bytas ut, kan även hela byggnader producerats för att möjliggöra demontering och underhåll. Då fallstudien genomförs beaktas sex olika betongpelare som genom Eurokod 2 och EKS 11 testas för återbruk som balkar. Beroende av pelarnas längd bestäms antalet fack som beaktas efter återbruket. Pelarna kontrolleras i både brott- och bruksgränstillstånd med varierande upplagsvillkor i brottgränstillståndet. Det upplagsvillkor som i brottgränstillståndet tillåter störst belastning beaktas vidare i bruksgränstillståndet. Vidare kontrolleras även pelarnas faktiska lastupptagningsförmåga, då elementet brukas med avsett syfte. Då pelarna kontrolleras som balkar genomförs detta i linje med befintliga dimensioneringsnormer för betongbalkar. Därav ges en helhetsbild över de brister men även möjligheter som präglar återbruk av liknande konstruktioner. Samtliga pelare erhåller goda lastupptagande egenskaper, där indata för fyra av pelarna korrigeras för att klara ställda krav på tvärkraftsarmering. Differerade krav på tvärkraftsarmering mellan pelare och balkar genererar problem då minimiarmering använts för pelarens byglar. Vidare åskådliggörs vikten av att i projekteringsfasen beakta återbruksmöjligheterna samt att då generera goda förutsättningar för genomförandet. Detta genom implementering av mekaniska infästningar som underlättar demonteringsskedet, permanenta uppmärkningar som möjliggör identifiering och orientering av elementens innehåll samt tjockare täckskikt som möjliggör utökade livslängder.