"Regardless of the differences among their citizens, cities always define their community as against the outside world; a settlement with internal defense walls cannot be called a true community." Community Design and Culture of Cities, by Eduardo Lozano pg 5 Throughout the history of human civilization, no manmade structure has been used to defend territory more than the Wall. Walls have been used to delineate the edges of empires, separate communities, limit migration and provide protection from enemies. As a result, the Wall has become synonymous with imperialism, segregation, racism and isolationism. But what about instances when security outweighs all other concerns? Is there a way to use the wall to maintain defensible space without negatively impacting the greater community? In the case of a military installation located in an urban environment, this is a real issue. Walls which protect the sensitive content within, also serve to divide the community. These necessary physical barriers have the incidental consequence of segregating the servicemembers and government civilians within from the community which they serve. I contend that the thoughtful treatment of these barriers can create a "third place" ripe for interaction between the installation and the surrounding community. By designing retail, educational and cultural spaces along the border, the security of the installation can remain intact while also fostering an active relationship with its surroundings. After all, as Eduardo Lozano states, "a settlement with internal defense walls cannot be called a true community." / Master of Science / “Regardless of the differences among their citizens, cities always define their community as against the outside world; a settlement with internal defense walls cannot be called a true community.” Community Design & Culture of Cities, by Eduardo Lozano pg 5 Throughout the history of human civilization, no manmade structure has been used to defend territory more than the Wall. Walls have been used to delineate the edges of empires, separate communities, limit migration and provide protection from enemies. As a result, the Wall has become synonymous with imperialism, segregation, racism and isolationism. But what about instances when security outweighs all other concerns? Is there a way to use the wall to maintain security without negatively impacting the greater community? In the case of a military installation located in an urban environment, this is a real issue. Walls which protect the sensitive content within, also serve to divide the community. These necessary physical barriers have the incidental consequence of segregating the servicemembers and government civilians within from the community which they serve. I contend that the thoughtful treatment of these barriers can create a “third place” ripe for interaction between the installation and the surrounding community. By designing retail, educational and cultural spaces along the border, the security of the installation can remain intact while also fostering an active relationship with its surroundings. After all, as Eduardo Lozano states, “a settlement with internal defense walls cannot be called a true community.”

Winston Churchill said "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." And this holds true for our cities as well. The intent of this thesis is to develop an understanding of the origins of the city, historic theories of planning, Utopian proposals, the current state of the city, and what the future the city may hold. The City of Aetheria is a world created via poetic imagination, the sublime product of mental activity; as a study intent is to discover the fundamental principles of the city, making explicit the nature and significance of fundamental concepts of urban design theories and utopian ideals while demonstrating the elements of urban form and the effects of urban process through history. Incorporating historical archetypes and typologies of architectural form; the design of the City of Aetheria was an investigational tool to study the Image, Form and Elements of the city. / Master of Architecture

Urban designers do not typically include research or evidence in practice, though the need for an evidence-based approach is becoming increasingly apparent. The way our built environment is constructed affects our health, well-being, and sense of place, as prior research has uncovered. Historically, urban design practice has negatively affected the well-being of urban residents by reinforcing inequitable social and power structures through the design of public space. Some theorists and designers have proposed evidence-based approaches as a response to these concerns. However, the emerging approaches can be disjointed. Tensions arise when deciding between the many types of evidence urban designers can use, and the different ethics they represent. In this thesis, I analyze three existing approaches to evidence-based urban design, including their benefits and their concerns, and ultimately argue that a convergent method is necessary. The conceptual framework I develop is one that responds to concerns of equity and accountability in the built environment, while also maintaining the significance of good design and acknowledging the inevitable integration of technology into society today. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning / Urban design is typically an artistic profession, and conducting or referencing research is not necessarily part of an urban designer's day-to-day. However, the need for a research-backed, or evidence-based, approach to public space design is becoming increasingly apparent. Prior researchers have suggested that the way our cities, neighborhoods, parks, roadways and other public spaces are constructed has an effect on our mental and physical health. Historically, these spaces have been designed to reinforce patterns of social inequity, which has negatively affected the well-being of urban residents. Some theorists and designers have proposed evidence-based approaches as a response to these concerns. However, the emerging approaches towards evidence-based urban design sometimes have conflicting physical and social goals. In this thesis, I analyze three existing approaches to evidence-based urban design, including their benefits and their concerns. I ultimately argue that a new method, which converges the existing methods, is necessary. The conceptual framework I develop is one that responds to concerns of equity and accountability in urban space, maintains the significance of artistry and good design, and acknowledges the inevitable integration of technology into society today.

The map is vitally important for space design. Maps allow designers to record and filter impossibly complex information about an environment. Designers try to capture a variety of aspects of a site through the use of graphic tools like maps and drawings. While there is a long-established conventional graphic language for recording characteristics of a site, this language is often inadequate when one attempts to explore and capture subtler perceptual qualities of urban environments. Many of these perceptual qualities can greatly inform a design and some designers have invented creative mapping strategies to record and analyze difficult aspects of a site. This position paper follows the work of innovative designers who creatively map perceptual qualities of urban landscapes. The theories and practices of these designers have informed my development of new creative tools for mapping my perception of space. The design portion of this thesis takes place in the Mexican War Streets Neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and results in a plaza for the local Mattress Factory Art Museum. The design phase uses and evaluates traditional perception and representational tools of urban design. New creative maps are used to express what the traditional tools cannot. These creative maps are used to derive the concept for the site design as well as the design of the major site elements and materials. / 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.