Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1916. / Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [11]). / by Charles F. Cellarius. / B.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Bibliography: p. 57. / Mayeedur Rahman. / M.S.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-260). / In theory as much as in practice, "history" and "design" have been traditionally regarded as distinct and even opposite spheres of investigation; however, the space of the city, itself a product of both, manifests the overlapping between the two fields. Contrary to modernism's evolutionary model, in which the past is there only to be surpassed, and to postmodernism's revisionist agenda, in which history simplistically becomes material for the future, this thesis proposes that both history and design are dynamic "projects," synchronically and in equal parts shaping urban space. The case study is Thessaloniki, a port-city of major significance but also complex identity, which has developed through centuries as a common ground for parallel cultural and ethnic histories, located as it is at a multinational crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Balkan Peninsula. The capacity of urban space to historically integrate multiple imprints of external influences and at the same time emerge as unique and integral formal entity, conditions any attempt to design in it as well as the writing of urban history itself. The objective is to explore and highlight the continuous shifts in meaning of the city's tangible space, its fabric and artifacts, through the intertwined operation of design intention and historical inevitability. / by Garyfallia Katsavounidou. / S.M.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 78). / As the internet is becoming the primary point of access to information, we are confronted with new issues related to information retrieval. These include who has access to information, credibility of sources, and most importantly, how to sift through the massive quantities of available information. Traditionally the library has been the point of public access to information, but in light of the effects of new technologies the typology of the library needs to be rethought. Where historically the dissemination of information has been fairly low and access has been primarily in a public realm, in recent years this relationship has reversed. This results in a situation where the issue is no longer access but one of critical engagement. The built environment should not only respond, but it should play an active role in guiding the way that communities adopt and employ new technologies. There is an opportunity to provide a context which promotes personal interaction and civic engagement. The library has the potential to become the center of a new civic space; a space that encourages active engagement with information and civic agency. / by Michelle Petersen. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-115). / Privatization lS a concern, in the world transition to market economies and management of real property portfolios (RPP) --- t.he building and land stock of a government. For political and technical reasons the Government of El Salvador's (GOES) process of privatization is unlikely to occur in the near future, in ways that could recognize either the real asset value or the highest and best use of the real property held by public institutions/State Owned Enterprises (SOE's). Literature on privatization of SOEs considers real property in only an incidental manner. No references were found regarding changes of use in real property held by State Owned Enterprises (SOE's). However, changes in real property uses , such as leaseholds , that have not been labeled as "privatization" have occurred for years in the public sector. A proposed privatization with a real asset management perspective includes: consideration of the opportunity cost of holding real property; distortions such as free - space subsidies; exchange- value and use-value tradeoff; and complementarity among properties. The GOES privatization initiatives include: a) the elimination of fiscal drain functions; b) the divestment of real assets to generate revenues for the budget; and c) the provision of land to squatters. The case studies show that, the current GOES privatization process does not account for the opportunity cost of holding SOEs whose space has the following characteristics: a) underutilized subsidized, and/or surplus to the GOES's needs; b) non- intensive- uses in prime development areas; c) potential for a highest and best use other than t he current use and/or d) characteristics that enhance other candidates real asset value . The GOES privatization program decision-making process responds to political pressures rather than technical arguments. The three different initiatives of the program lack overall vision and coordination. The GOES privatization takes place in a context of widespread mismanagement of the public sector' s RPP. This document proposes: a) to complement the current privatization evaluation with a real property asset management perspective; b ) to centralize the decision-making process of the different privatization initiatives; and c) the improvement of the current inventory efforts. / by Fernando Adolfo Chamberlain. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 75). / My interest is in spatial and social patterns of architecture, specifically, the relationship between the urban pattern and the architectural form. The discourse of the relationship between urban design and architecture employs a vehicle to discuss the interdependency of forms in the built realm There must be an investigation of the existence of these forms, their patterns, and their roles as a means of interaction between the architecture and urban realm. This concept generates the continuity of spatial experience which is essential in respect of aesthetics and social behaviors. The mediating space between these two realms is critical to one's understanding of their relationship. Therefore, we will look at the facade and the arcade in this transition from public to private. These architectural components play a positive role in mediating between the ambiguity of an architectural object and an existing urban fabric. We will then apply this understanding to a specific case study, Piazza della Santissima Annunziata in Florence. In this study, we will analyze the relation of individual monuments to the city as well as between themselves. We will carefully investigate the formal composition and the behavioral sequence. This search will define the interdependency of forms in architecture. / by Andrzej Zarzycki. / M.S.

Thesis: S.M. in Art, Culture and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 74-75). / The author's methodological framework is used to position his art practice in relation to an ecology of thinkers, artists, and activists engaged with defending democratically governed un-privatized public space. Historically, there is a legacy of artists working with techniques of dispersion, sequestering, and the visualization of otherwise imperceptible components of air to create meaning. Starting in the mid- 1960s, a number of artists and engineers worked together to create pneumatic projects such as airborne inflatables released in the urban environment and mist machines capable of enveloping an entire building in a cloud of fog. However, as this thesis argues, the early 1970s marks the moment when a radical rupture happened in the artistic use of air as a medium. Air became a space to fill with toxicity as a sign of public protest. It was also the time of a motivational shift in how artists began working with air. This era also marked the beginning of a political activation of air space as an environmentalist tactic of critique. Forty years later, thanks to nano technology and capitalist regimes, society's relationship to air space is changing drastically. Innovation in air quality sensors is allowing for the most precise readings of one's immediate air space ever. This comes from breakthroughs in carbon nanotube air composition sensing, a technology finding a wide range of applications in various military and health related industries simultaneously. What is at stake socially in the widespread proliferation of such technology? The author will unfold his interest in this emerging site of inquiry by recounting the principle objectives in his art practice and his use of air as a medium. / by Ronald Javier Martin. / S.M. in Art, Culture and Technology

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-133). / by Xun Chen. / M.S. / In today's China, rapid modernization is taking place at the expense of the traditional Chinese culture. One witnesses changes in many aspects of the society. Western ideology like individualism and profit-oriented consciousness are shaping in the social environment. Left behind are the moral concepts that the traditional culture once held in esteem, such as collective consciousness, mutual respect and love among people, and family values. Regarding the physical environment, western models are copied mechanically, and traditional cityscapes are fading away. The country is losing its identity. The goal of this investigation is to generate a new model for Chinese cities. The model provides culturally and socially appropriate form, which are of distinct Chinese characteristics. Assuming that the design of the physical environment exerts influence on people's behavior, though not expecting it to dramatically change the world, the author believes that this model will facilitate the carrying-on of culture through the reembodiment of the spirit of the traditional Chinese society. The first half of the thesis focuses on the re-examination of Chinese philosophy and traces its imprints in traditional cities. While an attitude of humanism brought up cities for man, the unique notion of "virtue" nurtured an environment emphasizing both family life and social participation. The indigenous idea of YinYang embodied itself in the sense of balance and unity between the whole and parts, between regularity and flexibility, and between the built environment and nature. The following chapter presents a series of snapshots captured during the author's trip back to China. Although the information gathered is not complete, due to the brevity of the stay, what has been observed and recorded does sketch out a picture which allows one to have a general understanding of the current situation of the urban environment in China. Chapter IV includes demonstrations of the new model through the redesign of the Guangzhou New City Center, a counter-proposal to the original master plan of 1993. While the existing scheme is characterized by the dominance of throughways and super-sized blocks, the new proposal aims at creating a "City for People" of which the emphasis is placed on the re-establishment of the importance of the street as well as a better definition of open spaces. Based on the findings of the author's original study of block sizes and street pattern, it proves in design the feasibility of a compromise among making more streets, buildings addressing streets and fulfilling the low coverage ratio and high FAR that the program requires. Finally, Chapter V records for reference the process of the mathematical deduction and analyses from which the appropriate range of block sizes derive and then apply to the new model.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Thesis. 1967. B.Arch. / MIT copy bound with: An experiment in system building for moderate income urban houseing / by John R. Coburn [1967] -- A theatre for the Charles Playhouse of Boston / by Robet Philip Dowds [1967] -- The new Harvard Graduate School of Design / Firouz Esfandiari [1967] -- Saint Andrew's Methodist Church and Community Center at Santa Maria, California / Neil S. Golden [1967] -- A terminal for the Tri-City Airport, Tennessee / by Vaughn Darryl Kays [1967] -- Tsing Yi Island resettlement housing, Hong Kong / submitted by Arthur C.S. Kwok [1967] Accompanying drawings held by MIT Museum. / Bibliography: leaf 19. / B.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 164-166). / The purpose of this thesis is the delineation and investigation of a general pattern or mechanism which I have termed 'automorphic,' a word derived from the Latin roots, 'autos' meaning self, and 'morphe' referring to form. The thesis further characterizes the mechanism as 'recursive,' 'self-similar,' 'scaling' -- adjectives referring to form (and) phenomenon in or from which the same configuration is repeated many times at many different scales. The attempt is to maintain the generality of the term in order to establish it as a fundamental attribute of form or persistent structure, (or as a necessary component to a conception of form, as inherent to "order" as "modular coordination" or symmetry). I will explore briefly several disciplinary fragments of contemporary physical theory where this mechanism can be said to be operational including an analogy to basic life processes -- the most elegant of the physical automorphisms. Its analytic and thus generative power in fields as diverse as astrophysics, geomorphology, biology and particle physics, carry important implications for the understanding our own human physical and cognitive processes and subsequently important bearings on the artifacts we generate. The study will then focus on those topics specific to built form particularly that of this type of pattern's inherent structural and energetic stability. Central to this section is a note on spatial perception ( and therefore 'space' itself) as a function of automorphism, or inherent recursive perceptual thresholds. A graphic presentation of two built projects is meant as an attempt at unified synthesis and application. / by David E. Nelson. / M.Arch.