As city dwellers, we are students of our environment, continuously learning how to interact with and contribute to the urban realm and to the world at large. This thesis explores how a school can expand the culture of a neighborhood, how a neigborhood can shape the identity of a city, and how a city can cultivate the growth of a person. The project consists of a master plan for a community college, mixed-use neighborhood, traffic circle, and streetcar station. Within the larger plan sits a Library and Student Center, which emerges as the iconic piece of architecture for the school and the neighborhood. / Master of Architecture

In today's society urban liveliness has moved from the center of city to its periphery in a diluted manner. There exists the continuation of monotonous cityscape as by-product and leftover of architecture and urbanism. Herein lies the question: how to build a meaningful 'place' in a site where the sense of place is lost. This book is a record of the challenge in my belief that architecture is generous spatial entity which has both elaborated condition and quality orchestrated by the relationship to its site, structure, and material to enhance the quality of life through the human senses. / Master of Architecture

This paper identifies a range of elements and principles useful for the development of an urban theoretical architecture. Acceptance of nature as a design element and in particular the use of nature to bound nodes of high density development are explored. The use of fractal geometry to distribute the urban footprint upon the landscape is introduced along with a tacit development of methodology making the application of fractal geometry useful. Building height restrictions are suggested as usefull to create urban walls and maintain views for tall buildings. It is proposed that the basic unit of urban design and development is a high intensity urban cell. Elements crucial to the life of urban cells are identified. The importance of architectural character in developing the identity of urban space is reinforced and explored. / Master of Architecture

As long as the population keeps growing and lands are desired, the research on how the city could be developed is needed. Higher density development, considered as the alternative for urban sprawl, is a new trend for future development. The barrier between advocacy of higher density environment and misconception of density asks for a descriptive and systematic interpretation for human perception of density. In response to this demand, this research aims to provide a description of the factors that influence people's perception of higher density environments. Also, it aims to identify people's important concerns while using outdoor environments. This study is based on data obtained from an online survey questionnaire that polled public attitudes toward density. The findings from the data indicate that the more important characteristics that people are concerned about the higher density environment are presence of nature, interaction opportunities, building identity and perceived safety. This study also points out that people's attitudes toward density vary based on certain factors. Those factors are age, occupation, place of residents and type of residents. This research could be used as a reference for future planning and design. Results of this study reflect participants' attitudes towards density. It initiates a discussion of future research and generates a frame work for future study for a larger population. / Master of Landscape Architecture

When we think of the everyday, we tend to think of such words as familiar, ordinary, mundane, habitual, banal, and commonplace. Yet beyond these dictionary definitions lies a much deeper meaning and appreciation when understood as something that is experienced. When it comes to informing and interpreting the everyday through design, early contemporary theorists Michael De Certeau, Henri Lefebvre and Georges Perec to contemporary advocates of landscape architecture, such as Walter Hood and Laurie Olin, have provided a design oriented approach to the understanding on a subject of study that has long been neglected. There lies a relationship between the quotidian dimension and design that is attuned to experience of place and individual expression. This thesis presents an approach to discovering interpretations of the everyday and how landscape architects can express such influences in the design of urban public places. My methodology involves the use of case studies to provide design guidelines that are translated from universal to site specific values. By adapting the common vocabulary landscape architecture with the realm of the routine practices, the city as a deep rooted, ephemeral, and evolving entity will transform the public realm into spaces that can occupy the desire to grow, change, and adapt. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The city functions as an Urban Ecosystem. As buildings are primary components of this system, each structure must appropriate its environment for the Urban Ecosystem to thrive. Additionally, each building acts as an individual ecosystem. Each building consumes energy, produces waste, and serves as an environment for life to flourish. This project investigates the study of architecture based on principles of ecology. The building holds a market, culinary school, and restaurants; receiving,transforming, and distributing sustenance to the city's inhabitants while supporting the greater metropolitan area farmers. The building exhibits the ubiquity of nature in the city and helps to revitalize an unhealthy part of Washington, DC's Urban Ecosystem. / Master of Architecture

Towns contain spaces defined by human interaction with their surroundings. In any town, certain places seem inviting while others seem cold and unfriendly. This is the result of subtle design decisions that directly effect the character of a place. This investigation focuses on the interaction of architecture in our daily lives and how it affects us in ways that we often overlook. The life of a town is in its relationship between the architecture and the people which inhabit that architecture. / Master of Architecture

No description available.

Oh, the good old metro stations! No matter how much we change, how much our society changes, they all look pretty much the same. We walk down the stairs, grab a coffee on the way, pass the gates, get to our platform and then we wait. But what if? What if it wasn’t like that? What if we could decide not to rush down to the platform, but instead enjoy the few minutes we have, before being drawn back to our daily life, in a nice, entertaining environment? A place for everyone to enjoy, not just those who own a metro card. After all, a station is still a public space, isn’t it?

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture, Regional and Community Planning / Blake Belanger / Landscape architects are challenged with finding appropriate solutions to adequately address the dynamic nature of urban environments. In the 1970's C.S. Holling began to develop resilience theory, which is intended to provide a holistic understanding of the way socio-ecological systems change and interact across scales. Resilience theory addresses the challenges and complexities of contemporary urban environments and can serve as a theoretical basis for engaging urban design practice. To test the validity of resilience theory as a theoretical basis for urban design, this thesis is an exploration of the addition of resilience theory to current landscape architecture literature and theory through a three-part methodology: a literature review that spans a breadth of research, case study analyses, and an application of resilience theory through a design framework in two projective design experiments. The resilience framework bridges between complex theory and design goals/strategies in a holistic approach. Through the identification of key connections in the reviewed literature that situate the relevance of resilience theory to landscape architecture and the subsequent case study analysis, specific methods for applying resilience theory to urban design practice are defined within the proposed framework. These methods fit within five main categories: identify and respond to thresholds, promote diversity, develop redundancies, create multi-scale networks and connectivity, and implement adaptive planning/management/design practices. The framework is validated by the success of the projective design application in the winning 2013 ULI/Hines Urban Design Competition entry, The Armory. Resilience theory and the proposed design framework have the potential to continue to advance the prominence of landscape architecture as the primary leader in urban design practice.