In the United State today, many people do not have access to adequate dental treatment, while tooth decay is the single most common chronic childhood disease-five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever. At the same time, studies show that 80% of dental illness takes place in 25% of the population, which is comprised mostly of lower socioeconomic groups. A study undertaken by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2000, concludes that poor children suffer five times as much tooth decay as their more affluent peers. Furthermore, in poor children with tooth decay, almost 80% remain untreated. Poor dental health there-fore is a major health concern for under privileged families.The goal of this project is to enhance and facilitate the delivery of better dental treatment by designing a new prototype for a portable dental office that will be more flexible and more usable in a variety of situations and locations. For the purpose of this study, this prototype will be considered or tested within the context of three different types of spaces: the single closed room; a large open public space; and within mobile and nonpermanent structures such as tents. Several aspects of working conditions specific to the dental office will be taken into account when developing this design including transportability, degree of flexibility, storability, hygiene, and the creation of a relaxing atmosphere all of which greatly impact both the dentists and patients experience and are essential to the creation of a successful portable dental office.

During the first decades of the twentieth century, Americans grappled with the idea of what it meant to be a modern society. As in other periods and places, arts, architecture and design played a significant role in expressing and exploring the issues and concerns of the day. In the period 1930 to 1965, and emerging practice called "interior design," in particular, became a potent medium for this purpose.Like modern art and modern architecture, the key to the practice of interior design was its basis in ideas. As curator Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., pointed out in his 1950 explanatory booklet "What is Modern Interior Design?" published by the Museum of Modern Art, interior design's foundation, in contrast to interior decorating, was in "principles rather than effects." To use the word "design" instead of "decoration," in relation to the creation of interiors implied the use of systematic and rational approach based in ideas not personal preferences. By the late 1930s both the discourse and practice of interior design as an alternative to interior decoration had begun to emerge in the United States.This study will explore how the emerging practice of interior design between 1930 and 1965, developed through the efforts of designers from various fields who all embraced this systematic and rational approach to creating interiors based in "principles and not effects." It will discuss how designers such as Ray and Charles Eames, George Nelson, Richard Neutra, Florence Knoll, and Russel and Mary Wright, whose work is highlighted in this study, used interior design as a way to explore and express theoretical considerations that could be learned, understood and disseminated by the designed interior. By doing so it exposes the ideas at work behind the interior designs of this period, which for the most part have not been fully considered by current histories, and presents a richer, more complete and more accurate account of this moment in design history and interior design's contribution to it.

Research on the current housing status in the United States, and the features of middle-class and high-end houses, revealed that home space consists of five spaces: living, work and study, resting, service and circulation. A meticulous look at the four-century American housing history disclosed that transformations in the five spaces were profoundly impacted by technology. To predict home space in the near future, research on future technology and lifestyle was performed. There will still be five home spaces, with new and improved components. Technology will bring greater comfort and flexibility to the home interior. Two design solutions for middle-class and high-end levels were projected for the 2020s.

I am interested in the idea that schools should be designed to offer individualized learning."A Science & Mathematics Magnet School at Maymont" explores a type of school that is becoming more familiar and accessible. By allowing students who have an interest in excelling in school and preparing for their future careers to come together and meet one another and experience aneducation that might not otherwise be available can be beneficial in many ways. In most cases, because of the funding required for such specialized schools, class sizes are reduced to meet budgets and the schools are opened to the community to gain funding. Smaller class sizes increase student interaction and aid in forming connections among students and between studentsand teachers. The use of the school as a venue for the community adds needed revenue. Both occurences may be advantageous and positively effect community at the school and surrounding populous levels.

The idea of rhythm as applied to interior space is the basis for this thesis. The site is an old warehouse with a structure that contains a repetitive rhythm in the form of a columnar grid and a corresponding fenestration pattern, yet the building also has an atypical wedge shape. The program is a design business incubator, a place where design business startups, recent graduates of Virginia design programs, can begin their design careers and find their rhythm in a cooperative and supportive environment, a collage of design businesses, if you will. Rhythm is essential in our lives, from the beating of our hearts to the rising and setting of the sun. Rhythm is also essential to spatial design. Our built environments require some form of pattern in order to help create a sense of stability and familiarity with our surroundings. Whether in music or painting, poetry or design, rhythm starts with simple repetition. But rhythm moves beyond mere repetition to include a diverse assortment of elements. The more complex a rhythm, the more we can become involved with that rhythm and consequently with the object that provides the rhythm. How does rhythm translate into space and time? How is it possible to develop a more complex and expressive rhythm in a particular space? What might be considered more expressive? How can this old warehouse function as a design business incubator while new rhythms are introduced into the mix of old rhythms through the fulfillment of this program and thereby create a collage of space?

The main goal of this thesis is to explore how interior spaces in hotel designs can provide a less stressful environment and promote health and harmony by using Feng Shui Principles. It will first discuss the principles of Feng Shui and general hotel design, and then move on to demonstrate how the application of Feng Shui principles can be used to create a hotel environment that encourages health and harmony in its occupants. This project will demonstrate principles that not only can be applied to hotel space, but also can be practiced in any other interior space. This thesis, therefore, demonstrates new possibilities for how "care of the self" is delivered and received through design.

This mixed-use space was designed to celebrate Richmond, Virginia’s arts and design communities. By creating a contemporary Richmond experience in a historic trolley shed, it is a space to create, relax, and inspire. This dynamic platform will showcase Richmond’s talented new creatives, from painters and sculptors to fashion designers and graphic artists. A central retail space featuring the wares of local designers is adjoined by an exclusive art gallery with exhibitions and live performances that change on a regular basis. The space also includes a sit-down restaurant and a smaller, more casual café, where patrons can dine with friends or chat over coffee. This project explores the idea of flexibility as it pertains to architecture and interior design. Strategies such as overlap versus separation, public versus private access, and the use of materiality to delineate hierarchy were all employed in this journey to create a space that remains flexible in both the organization of and interactions amongst its internal occupants and purposes to also serve as a venue for external events.

Thesis book documents process of creating design schematics for a proposed public library located in Scott's Addition at 1700 Summit Avenue. The final design uses a series of meandering ramps punctuated by bookshelf stacks in order to create a narrative experience. Specificity and simplicity were two main goals for the project.

Drawing from ongoing revitalization initiatives in Richmond, Virginia, this adaptive reuse project creates a structured dialogue between public and private expression to create a more immersive gallery experience for viewer and practitioner. The gallery experience is twofold; traditional object-based display and nontraditional process-based display. Preservation of the historic fabric of the existing Handcraft building at 1501 Roseneath is integrated with the transformative potential of introducing voyeuristic opportunities in creating a community arts center. Notions of voyeurism will center around ideas of visual connection and physical separation. This project questions if tactics of voyeurism, which inherently create physical barriers, can facilitate interaction and encourage co-creation in a creative setting. Structured moments of intimacy and control are accomplished through presented and found views of movement, object, and process. These moments of intimacy and control create a conceptual reciprocity which guides the design of this project. Ultimately, the redesign creates a dialogue between the process of making and the final product/object by facilitating interaction between the viewer and practitioner through different points of the creative process. The project moves away from exploiting the site’s formal, historical, and contextual components and encourages the audience member to engage with the maker through a corporeal, experiential encounter. The environment becomes a catalyst for cross-disciplinary creativity on an individual, group, and community level. The development of spaces that engage the creative mind and foster collaborative growth will serve the Richmond arts community and can act as an icon for successful urban transformation.

Reason for writing. The space of confusion and possibility where the practices of art and design collide seems to be in a constant amoebic state. This place of shared influence and growth seems to pervade not only the intersection of these two disciplines, but within interior design, the intersection of people and space. How can the boundaries between an interior space and it’s inhabitants be as richly embedded with tension and opportunity as the edges where art and design meet? Like art and design, how can a space and it’s visitors interact to affect one another? Problem + Methodology: This project explores these questions in a context mindful of their origin: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The design proposal of inserting a fashion wing into the VMFA’s existing context evolves from research and process work across art, design, and architecture, from the scale of the building to the scale of a seat. Results + Implications: The challenge of creating public space that can be just as responsive to and influential over it’s inhabitants as private space seems resolved through the navigation of movement and moment. Finding value in an unscripted discovery of a space and the ownership of private experiences, offers a way to feel engaged with and connected to a space that doesn’t rely on object ownership or territorial comfort. This solution does rely, however, on inhabitants capable of being present and responsive to their environment, allowing other visitor’s interactions with the space and their individual path through the exhibits to affect their perceptions of and connectedness with the design.