Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: p. 108-113. / Architecture is not just flashy design, nor is its sole aim to determine what dispositions of form are appropriate for all people for all time. Sometimes the architect must take a more humble, less visible role. Participation of the people who inhabit a place is key to maintaining the environment. For such participation to occur, an architect must enable inhabitants to exercise a wide play of choice in the use of a built environment and of change in the adaptation of its physical structure. Such characteristics of a place contribute to its tractability. The objective of this thesis is to outline design characteristics which contribute to the tractability of housing, using the rowhouse type as a spring point. This study is grounded in a behavioral perspective. Dimensional criteria are generated using behavior patterns, in an attempt to avoid stereotypes inherent in defining household activities by rooms. Activity settings and use scenarios are vehicles for examining two instructive examples of housing. Relevant characteristics are summarized and employed in the design of rowhouses for a Cambridge site, to simulate future conditions as scarcity of natural resources brings about concern for intensification of urban land use. / by Charles Allen Craig. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / Adaptability in this Thesis refers to the inherent capacity of a dwelling, to accommodate changing spatial and economic requirements over time. The adaptable dwelling is intended to respond to change as a fundamental condition of the human life-cycle, and offers choices to its inhabitants when changes occur. The adaptable dwelling is intended to provide an alternative to either moving as a result of change or to tolerating a space/need mis-match. Adaptability inevitably requires some overprovision of space and/or services within the dwelling which, in turn, requires increased expenditures. Thus, a major obstacle to providing adaptable housing - quite aside from strictly architectural concerns - is an economic one. A major contention of this Thesis is that adaptability will be realized only when it is built within an economic framework that will support/justify the necessary overprovision of space and/or services. The proposed economic framework in this Thesis is based on the notion of income-generation. The dwelling is conceived as a collection of areas that the inhabitants can combine - and continuously recombine - in a variety of ways such that the inhabitants can rent to others those areas which they do not need for themselves at any given time. In this way, overprovided space and/or services can generate operating income for the inhabitant which can offset the additional expenditures required for adaptability. The architectural intent of this Thesis is to design prototypical adaptable dwellings based on these social and economic notions. The adaptable dwelling is designed to function usefully as a residence for one, two or three families - at the option of the controlling inhabitant. A dwelling conceived and designed in this manner has a significant potential for adaptability within a supportive economic framework. / by John A. Winslow. / M.Arch.

Master of Architecture

This thesis presents a place for the individual within the contemporary city: Eight houses in a row that restore the solid perimeter blocks of the city while preserving the individual’s interior freedom and inalienable solitude. / Master of Architecture

Master of Architecture

Master of Architecture

Thesis. 1976. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Rotch. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Kevin Cavanaugh. / M.Arch.