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Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-213). / The focus of this design investigation is the warehouse fabric of the Fort Point Channel and its potentials as a model for further development This extensive configuration of warehouses and access roads is the product of an integrated process of planning. design and building. As such, it forms a useful model for creating a cohesive urban fabric. The warehouses reflect the rules of a concise architectural language. Thus, while each building was designed separately for different clients over the span of fifty years. all work together to form an urban environment which is intense. coherent and humane. Functionally, this fabric has undergone continuous change. Some of the warehouses now accommodate small printing houses and workshops; professional offices. shops, museums, studios and loft apartments. Thus. this tightly ordered 'family' of buildings has proven to be inherently inhabitable. The model represented by the warehouse fabric embodies my own goals and strategies for redeveloping and expanding the Fort Point Channel District as a living and working neighbourhood. My thesis proposes strategies for infrastructure and building typologies which will support high density, lowrise development as an extension to the existing fabric. The new development should be flexible, yet · harmonious: specific enough to suggest a distinct, overall character but open-ended enough to allow innovation in individual buildings and changing uses over time. The method tested through this investigation is therefore a process of layering. Rather than develop highly particularized solutions for each property, strategies are applied to the site as a whole. Once such overall strategies are agreed upon, specific solutions can be developed incrementally, but 'thematically', adjusting to changing circumstances as the need arises but contributing to a coherent whole. / by John Randall Dale. / M.S.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-159). / Daylighting is a powerful design element which can have a dramatic impact on people's perception of space, physical and psychological well-being as well as a building's annual and daily energy requirements. Understanding of the way daylight can penetrate a space , dramatize materials, create shadows and patterns, and is reflected and diffused gives an appreciation for light energy as a natural force. Historic precedents, and the response of contemporary architecture to the problems and possibilities of daylighting demonstrate the changes in values, and attitudes about the role of natural light and ventilation as they have been constructed in the landscape over a period of centuries. Three areas are investigated in considering the role of natural daylighting in the context of adaptive reuse. One is the historical evolution of atriums, their use as climate conditioners, as building form generators and as receptors of daylight. The second area is a qualitative and quantitative study of daylight. Topics explored are glazing location, diffusion and reflection elements, and psychological effects, impact on annual energy consumption and physical modeling. The third area of study is the development of a generic atrium piece which is the principal form and organizational generator of a design proposal for the reuse of a typical early 20th century warehouse building. / by John Stephen Crowley. / M.Arch.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

The Freight Warehouse Architecture Studio is adjacent to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Although designed as an adaptive reuse, it is a direct result of two things: a reading of Eisenman's Koizumi Project and working in the office for a few weeks immediately proceeding commencement on the studio. The reading was the onset of the theory necessary for the study, and the experience in the office offered the opportunity to establish the direction for the project. The question of culture, understanding, and reading yields the question of the reconciliation of personal history and community history, how an architect intervenes in a location fraught with tradition. As a result, there is "a condition of a space evolving from within, not an insertion, from without.... So what is interesting about this space is we set up the mechanism of interplay, but we did not know what was going to happen. In other words, I am not saying it is a beautiful design.... In a sense it is mediated because the hand of design is taken away..." / Master of Architecture