The paper aims to examine the nature of the relationship between beauty and the city. I examined this relationship by first providing a summary of relevant philosophers and their thoughts concerning aesthetics. Second, I compared their thoughts to my own creating my own abstract framework. Third, I implemented my abstract framework through the lens of architecture. This art form is the most organic to study the relationship of beauty within the city because it merges elements characteristic of one’s being like political discourse with the longing for some type of excitement or stimulation which might transfigure one’s self to a higher understanding, something that can only be achieved by experiencing beauty. In other words, buildings and the spaces around them drive the way in which humans interact with each other and their surroundings. I found that the beautiful is desirable and at a point becomes essential to a person’s happiness. To achieve a sense of beauty within the city, the ruling class must possess practical wisdom. A type of knowledge that allows them to pursue the appropriate and promote a kind of creativity that not only respects tradition but also aims to unveil some new form of experience.

MOTIVATION Two main groups in American society today are floundering: adolescent children of low income families and the elderly. Between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00 p.m., one in five children are unsupervised. Left to their own devices, many become involved in negative behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse, sexual activity or in the worse cases, delinquency (Afterschool Alliance, 2016). It is proven that when children are alone after school, they not only miss out on valuable learning opportunities, but also their parents are affected as well by having to lose as many as eight work days annually to resolve behavioral issues. In this negative cycle, businesses experience losses of up to $300 billion a year (Afterschool Alliance, 2018). The other demographic group that is struggling is the elderly. Due to advanced medical care and better education, people are living longer (Singh, A., & Misra, N. 2009). After they retire from the work force, many find themselves with an unstructured routine. Friendships often fade. Connection with family may become less frequent, and it is difficult to form new relationships. These changes in their lives often result in feelings of isolation, loneliness, depression and even death (Singh, A., & Misra, N. (2009). A solution to these two problems is creating an intergenerational program. Intergenerational programs bring different age groups together to participate in activities and cultural exchanges. Bringing adolescents and the elderly together enriches the quality of life for each. The elderly can bond with youths through tutoring, mentoring, and sharing their life experiences, while gaining social interaction they would otherwise lack. The children can receive individual attention academically and emotionally, broaden their social skills, and benefit from their elders’ life knowledge and experience (Bethesda Health, 2014). PROBLEM For every dollar spent, three dollars are saved by increasing kids’ learning potential, improving kids’ performance at school and reducing crime and juvenile delinquency (Afterschool Alliance, 2017). However, under the current administration, funding is going to be cut nationwide by 100% in the 2019 fiscal year. (Afterschool Alliance, 2018). Therefore, it is essential to design a space that is conducive to relationship building, low maintenance and sustainable to reduce overhead and maximize funds for the participants. METHODS Methods of research will include peer reviewed literature and case studies. For example, I will study a program founded in Columbia, MD that helps disadvantaged children with at least one incarcerated parent achieve their dreams. I will also study local and regional afterschool programs. I also intend to create a survey for both adolescents and elderly to collect data on attitudes and expectations of intergenerational programming. PRELIMINARY RESULTS Intergenerational programs are beneficial to everyone in a community. By participating in such programs, both populations can help each other by understanding and accepting each other’s similarities and differences and learning from one another (Bethesda Health, 2015). They create a safer and more productive society and encourages upward mobility in economically depressed neighborhoods. For a relatively low investment, the return is tremendous. The major challenge of intergenerational programs is funding. CONCLUSION The research methods described above will support the design of an intergenerational clubhouse for the immediate community. The space will provide academic, social and values enrichment through supportive mentoring and the use of technology. And equally important, a safe place, security, comfort, trust, respect, and pride.

As medicines continue to evolve, as well as our tendency to misuse and abuse them, viruses become more and more resilient. While the flu is largely an inconvenience which at its worst may result in a missed day of work, it bears the risk of returning to the days of old when it was a terminal disease. With the imminent risk of resistant super viruses emerging,New York Cityhas taken precautions to prepare for the worst case scenario. If deemed necessaryNew Yorkhas plans to completely quarantine and isolate the city from the world. This provides us with the perfect opportunity to ask the questionHollywoodhas become fascinated with…How would a city likeNew Yorkfunction and survive in the Apocalypse? The answer is not as simple as waiting out the storm; with limited resources, no access to the outside world and a crippled infrastructure. What this thesis also aims to experiment with is the notion of not only barely surviving, but the creation of a new way of life; a truly self – sufficient city, perhaps even creating a Utopian society. This can be analyzed with a systems based approach regarding the different scales of life; from the survival of the individual, the function of the physical shells remaining, and finally the development of a Dynamic City composed new communities

Today there are more cities localized on our coastlines than ever before. Unfortunately, this fact poses an immediate danger due to the rising tides of our oceans. Together with the increase in global population and coastal erosion, the world will increasingly become a more difficult place to live. With our overcrowding cities, mercurial changes in weather and over three quarters of the earth's surface being uninhabited oceans; we need cities that are mobile, seaworthy and capable of avoiding natural disasters. Thus, by creating these types of cities, architects will lead the way to ensure the safety of the public and ultimately civilization itself. I believe the most feasible solution to these problems is for us to advance our civilizations onto the oceans. Moreover, the concept of designing static cities and buildings must evolve with the changing world or we as architects will be at fault for failing to design a survivable future. Within the last decade we have seen cities become the tombs of the innocent. From September 11th, New Orleans, tsunami's and earthquakes, we have witnessed destruction on a scale never before seen in modern history. Therefore, the aim of this research is the creation of a self contained, independent and divergent architectural system capable of being entirely self-sustained within a mobile seafaring environment. Moreover, through the creation of a closed-loop mobile civilization, both our dependence on land and the impending crisis awaiting static structures will be significantly diminished. Ultimately, the aim of Divergence is fourfold: 1. Development of a mobile civilization. 2. Development of Closed-Loop technologies. 3. Enable long term survivability and independence. 4. Bring architectural sensibilities to the creation of an ocean city.

The thesis project proposes to explore into the design possibilities for the Civic Center for Municipal Corporation of Delhi and extract the richness of the site conditions into architecture through means of computational design. The computational design approach will provide a degree of variance which will be an interesting thing to explore in terms of defining spaces, program and systems.. The design would hinge on to one of the major centers of Delhi and aim to enhance social permeability through means of forms and articulation of spaces. It would cater to all classes of people and help in promoting small local businesses thereby weaving into the social and cultural fabric of India.

The lives of graduate students are often insular and focused, with high workloads and resultant stresses. Beyond the unifying demands of academia, graduate students have a diverse set of individual challenges. Some students have families, some are visiting the US and learning to live in a new culture, and some are fresh out of undergraduate studies and living on their own for the first time. In addition to these challenges the graduate student body is a diverse and disparate group, representing varied cultures, experiences and generations. Due to these demands and circumstances the students have little time and energy to build a community with fellow graduate students, and therefore don't have a strong and supportive community when they need it most. The idea of creating and supporting intentional communities through the design of housing has been architecturally explored for many years. From the mass housing of the early modernist movement through contemporary cohousing, there have been varying degrees of success.The intent of this thesis project is to design a place of dwelling for graduate students within the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. By analyzing examples of intentional communities and the actual needs of the graduate community at UMass Amherst, I intend to design a place of dwelling for graduate students that supports the development of community, and therefore the individual residents.

In February of 2012, alternative rock band OK Go released a music video for their song “Needing/Getting”. The video explores a creative way of playing music, by driving a car through a constructed, choreographed environment. A driving track was set up as a large musical instrument which was “played” by a car. Architects, musicians, and artist are looking for innovative ways to develop active relationships between people, music, and architecture. The traditional passive relationship of these three is static, a design that does not promote interaction or participation. If we consider, behind a performance, there is a great deal of emotion, movement, and energy. The experience of the performance is static; the audience is stationary. My intention with this thesis is to explore strategies of utilizing music in the design to encourage active participation in the sound performing arts.

Decaying urban spaces are common in post-industrial New England. When manufacturing activities withdrew from New England they left holes in the urban fabric. Physical absence of these former economic drivers is easy to note in empty mill buildings, warehouses, and storefronts. Farther reaching impacts of this exodus are less apparent. Jobs went with manufacturing. Raw materials needed to be harvested and made available to manufacturers; the finished products needed to be distributed, sold, and moved; supporting businesses provided for these needs. Many other groups supported manufacturing; some through the management of the companies, some catered to workers’ needs, or the needs of workers’ children and families. This network of groups and individuals connected to industry made up vibrant communities in the heyday of manufacturing in New England. When manufacturing left many of the groups providing support functions collapsed. Many people moved away, or if they stayed they were left unemployed or underemployed. Whole communities were damaged when manufacturing left New England. Many have not yet fully recovered. The goal of this thesis is to propose a path toward the revitalization and repair of the urban fabric of depressed post-industrial communities in New England. Many post-industrial New England communities have lost their identity. These places have empty buildings, empty lots, and their main streets, former “downtowns,” are quiet. There is little to recommend these areas as a place to be. These depressed and decaying places need revitalization. They are no longer centers of manufacturing or industry; they need a new identity, one that reflects what they are now and what they would like to become in the future. Revitalization should be grounded in a study of the unique place it addresses. There are communities and inhabitants present in even the most depressed places. These groups need to be recognized and their needs identified before revitalization can be undertaken. Revitalization should be inclusive. Residents should feel encouraged to stay in, and be proud of, their community. Revitalization should be sustainable; socially, ecologically and economically. If revitalization of a depressed area calls for attracting more residents and businesses, those targeted to inhabit the revitalized space should fit into the existing community, not displace it. This thesis proposes a revitalization of a depressed post-industrial area of Millers Falls, Massachusetts in the vicinity of East Main and Bridge Streets. This revitalization proposal will be carried out within a framework of study of place, inclusivity, and holistic sustainability.

Off-grid houses in the United States are often connoted with mostly non-professional, home-made structures and isolated, hippie living in remote rural areas. These off-grid homeowners may also complete their consumer-independent commitment with a minimal-waste, land-dependent lifestyle that includes methodical harnessing and recycling of resources and materials, raising livestock, and productive gardening on the property. This research paper explores the background, methods and kinds of typical off-grid living structures, their ability to harness natural resources for function and performance, and the ability of its occupants to remain resilient in the face of depleting fuel resources, extreme weather patterns, and rising costs of living. The goal of this research is to propose modern and resilient off-grid housing design to exist as normalized, micro-communities within typical suburban communities in the United States. The housing prototype, sited in Dudley, Massachusetts, optimizes passive resources for heating and cooling thermal comfort, prefabricated materials for construction, and modern technology for inhabitation. Its hyper-local design incorporates building science that integrates researched techniques and philosophies from current movements of sustainable design in the United States and Canada, such as Passive House, Net Zero, LEED, and the Living Building Challenge.

This design thesis is an assessment of the tectonic capabilities and applications of large format 3D printing, given the current available and practiced technologies. This review consists of an analysis of the technical specifications and limitations of the various forms and methods of 3D printing at all scales, followed by an in-depth analysis of technologies that have been adopted and employed at an architectural scale. A number of case studies are assessed to create a typology of tectonic types created by employing 3D printing technologies. These tectonic types: Holistic/Homogenous, Complementary/Integrative, Structural, and Sculptural are then tested to see how they can be incorporated into the design process. This study culminates in a design project that utilizes these technologies and tectonic types in a higher educational facility focused on fabrication and continued research into 3D printed construction. The design acts as a prototypical model for the implementation of 3D printed technologies into the design and construction process, specifically focused on educational institutions on existing campuses. Advancements in this technology and strategies of application have yielded enough capabilities for this design assessment to be formed.