Regardless of its size and scale, space remains space. The project explores the potential of small and intricate spaces to trigger stories and memories. These spaces become places for the mind to evade. As smallness resonates with preciousness, the dimensions of these spaces invite you  to come closer, enter with the eye and the mind and let different scenarios unfold.

This thesis describes a new approach to office layout problems. Group technology methods are used in grouping office employees into cells followed by cell placement along a pre-established network of aisles. Differences between office and manufacturing layout approaches are discussed. Sample problems are presented and the program description is included.

The purpose of my thesis is to discover a logical way to connect the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, developer of the Waldorf Education Method, and current theories of education and psychology with the architectural design of an educational facility while maintaining Massachusetts Department of Education standards. With this purpose in mind, I studied a school, built in 1973 in Amherst: the Fort River Elementary School. The current school structure is in architectural conflict with many of the ideas extolled by the Waldorf Method. Among the questions, I wish to address in my thesis are: “What is the role of architecture in enhancing the quality of education?”, “What are the design elements which inspire learning?” “Can a Waldorf Method based design be compliant with Massachusetts Standards?”

With the financial growth and international acclaim brought about by Guggenheim Museum for Bilbao, the media started to talk about the so-called “Bilbao Effect”. For the next two decades, the general public has been more and more convinced and accustomed to the positive results landmark architecture might brought for their cities. Thus it is worthwhile to explore the root of the Bilbao Effect and to dig into the effects of Guggenheim Museum so that similar industrial cities may select and apply strategies basing on their own conditions.

Countless centuries has sailed by since humanity first discovered the method of travelling across the far stretched oceans that divided undiscovered continents. As noted by Le Corbusier, these liners were deemed being an engineering feat of the twentieth century, as their design resembled an epitome of indulgence and hospitality. As the average lifespan of a commercial liner is 25 years, the shipping industry is reaching a pinnacle point in time where countless ships will be decommissioned. As these vessels were originally built to be both functional and appealing in nature, why have them reduced to hazardous scrap metal, when they can be repurposed on land? In order to physically implement such an interior endeavor, both a decommissioned ship ideal in typology and status, along with a suited location for docking was to be advocated. The selection of Robinson Dry Dock as host and the SS Nomadic as habitant allowed for the spatial intervention of a retail-orientated and recreational facility to be envisioned. As opposed to the mere institution of a heritage approach, the appendage of a new layer is proposed that will allow for past recollection and future addition thereon - thus a palimpsest of design in terms of programmatic response and actual materiality. As the spatial and structural formation of vessels primarily rely on steel and the construction of a dock on concrete, these materials will be probed comprehensively in standings of their vulnerability to degradation. Proposed avenues of material investigation permits corrosion protection, historic decay preservation and intentional oxidation techniques that can conceivably ground potential design implementations. The decisive spatial outcome aims to endorse the idea that corrosion can act as a tool of architectural beautification, rather than a mere entity of intimidation. This idea is heightened by the insertion of a microbrewery that factually exemplifies the splendor of aging. Rather than promoting slavish alternative shipbreaking approaches and mere demolition practices, layered architectural alteration, as outlined by Fred Scott in his book, On Altering Architecture, will allow for the creation of a spatial intervention that is honest, nonintrusive and profound. / Ontelbare eeue het verby geseil sedert die mensdom 'n reismetode ontwikkel het wat hul in staat sou stel om uitgestrekte oseane, wat onontdekte kontinente verdeel, te verken. Soos opgeteken deur Le Corbusier, was hierdie lynbote beskou as 'n kordaatstuk vir ingenieurswese in die 20ste eeu, aangesien die ontwerp daarvan getuig van toegeeflikheid en gasvryheid. Omdat die gemiddelde leeftyd van 'n kommersi?le boot 25 jaar is, het die skeepindustrie 'n punt bereik waar heelwat skepe onaktief verklaar is. As hierdie werktuie oorspronklik bedoel was om funksioneel sowel as aantreklik van aard te wees, waarom dit dan reduseer tot 'n hoop skrootmetaal as dit vir 'n ander doel op land aangewend kan word? Ten einde so 'n poging te implementeer, moes 'n onaktiewe boot, tesame met 'n gepaste ligging vir die dok daarvan, voorgestel word. Die keuse van Robinson Droogdok as gasheer en die SS Nomadic as inwoner, laat ruimte vir 'n omgewings-vriendelike produk waarin die moontlikheid van kleinhandel en fasiliteite vir vermaak, voorkeur geniet. Teenoor die blote ingesteldheid van 'n erfenis-aanslag, is die byvoeging van 'n nuwe laag voorgestel, wat ruimte laat vir dit wat in die verlede gevestig is, sowel as toekomstige byvoeging ? dus 'n palimpses van ontwerp in terme van 'n programmatiese oplossing en materialiteit. Soos wat die ruimtelike en struktuele formasie van werktuie hoofsaaklik afhanklik is van staal en die konstruksie van 'n dok uit beton, sal hierdie materiale deeglik en omvattend ondersoek word in terme van hul kwesbaarheid wat degradering betref. Voorgestelde maniere om hierdie materiale te ondersoek en te toets, sal beskerming teen roes, asook historiese verval en doelbewuste oksidasie-tegnieke insluit, wat moontlik die grondslag kan l? vir potensi?le ontwerp implementering. Die uitkoms kan die idee bevorder dat verval en agteruitgang kan bydra tot argitektuele verfraaiing, eerder as om 'n blote entiteit vir intimidasie te wees. Hierdie idee word verder bevorder deur die 'n mikro-brouery by te voeg, wat die glorie van oudword beklemtoon. Eerder as om skeepsloping en blote vernietiging voor te staan, sal argitektuele verandering, soos uiteen gesit deur Fred Scott in sy boek, On Altering Architecture, die skep van 'n ruimtelike ingryping toelaat wat eerlik, nie-opdringerig en grondig sal wees. / Mini Dissertation (MInt (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Architecture / MInt (Prof) / Unrestricted

This thesis raises discussion about the importance of repairing, new urban meeting places and the use of artificial intelligence. Using AI as a tool, I have re-visioned rituals around taking care of ourselves and our objects. When we give a lot of value to the repeated habits of repairing ourselves and our objects, they become like rituals to us, containing a deeper meaning in our lives. The physical context of my project is in the Örnsberg industrial area in Stockholm, at the address Instrumentvägen 21. This area was established in 1938 and still now a lot of carpenters and other kind of industries are located there. For this reason it serves as a natural place to build an urban community dedicated for repairing and sharing knowledge.  During my process I have tested new visual artificial intelligence tools that emerged during the past year. I have aimed to find out how we as designers could use AI as a tool to help us in our work and to also find the parts in the process where human intelligence is irreplaceable. Since AI in the current extent is new and there are a lot of questions hanging around it, it is important that us designers try to understand it already now already in its early stages. This thesis is my starting point on that path.

ABSTRACT: P.A.C.E. Theater is a non-profit performing arts group in the town of Easthampton, Massachusetts. The group’s desire to find and create a new working standard for artistic non-profits’ survival led them to purchase a 125,000 s.f. 19th century mill complex in town. Their goal is to convert the building into a community arts center with theaters, event spaces, dance studios and rehearsal studios while offering tenant space for additional local businesses such as cafes, restaurants, and offices. Some of the tenant space is also intended for multiple local non-profits in order that they can share their resources and cut their expenses even further. The bigger picture is to create a working model of self sustaining art non-profits which can more easily survive during difficult economic times. In order to bring this vision to fruition, I needed to form a workable plan for a very complicated building complex. The building (or I should say buildings) where built over the course of 150 years being added onto and subtracted from as the mill owners saw fit. This created a complex interior space filled with transition spaces via floor level changes, wall type changes, fenestration adaptations, and structural adaptations throughout the decades. The buildings are a collection of historical layers, or stratifications which have the potential to be uncovered in an “excavation” of the building. My thesis explores the process of understanding a building with these types of complexities and then addresses programming the space to create a logical, clear building plan for the end users. And lastly, I explore the stratification levels, or the archeology of the building and attempt to address its history in my design process.

Today’s society tends to value productivity and long working hours, where taking breaks and needing rest when at work can be perceived as signs of weakness or sickness rather than a necessity for wellbeing. According to The Swedish Work Environment Authority you must provide a resting room in workplaces with more than 50 employees. Job-related stress and burnout are growing problems, so I see the resting room as an important space with great potential to work preventively with this problem. Sensory Space focuses on resting rooms and explores ways to deal with stress and exhaustion through interior architecture and design and how it can promote rest and recovery. The aim is to integrate rest as a more natural part of the workplace by making resting rooms more attractive, inviting and restorative. I have been visiting and analyzing existing resting rooms, making field studies to other spaces for rest and contemplation, reading studies and research on the subject of restorative environments and interviewing a designer who works with creating health promoting environments based on neuro science. The project explores how atmosphere, material associations and a variety of sensory impressions can create a feeling of connection to nature. The result is an inviting resting room with objects that can be placed freely throughout the room for you to interact with materials which can enhance the experience of resting and make it more pleasant.

Natural light phenomena are a wide array of captivating occurrences. From the gentle diffusion of sunlight through clouds to the dramatic interplay of shadows during sunrise and sunset. Different phenomena of light appear daily, and through light and its meeting with materiality, situations and spaces appear, triggering different feelings and bodily experiences. Material and light are two fundamental parts of interior architecture and our bodily experience in a space. This project investigates how the qualities Shadowplay, Sunshine, Fog and a Cloudy sky, can be put into a spatial context, through light and materiality, to create a similar bodily experience of that in nature. This to remind us of genuine daylight in the absence thereof. The project aims to create an abstract recreation of the visual identity of the four different phenomena, together with a recreation of our experiences of it. This has been conducted in a garage space lacking all natural light to bring more emphasis to the created lightscape. This project and subject as a whole is important to bring more knowledge about the weight that light has in a space. Today light is often planned late in the process, even though it affect spaces significantly. Light together with surfaces and materials affects the space in different ways. Weather or Not takes the setting of a restaurant interior. A space where the visitor expects an interesting experience, not only from food, but also by the full environment surrounding it. The restaurant is set in a car garage at Åsögatan at Södermalm in Stockholm. A big underground space belonging to an apartment block, today filled with cars that slowly are pushed out from the city center. In a few years these big spaces will be left empty not serving their original purpose. In a time when discussions of living standards are on the agenda, I want to highlight these big spaces, with exterior qualities and foremost, its evident darkness. To have them serve another purpose. This project is looking into the possibility of working with light in this completely dark environment to remind us of natural light experiences in nature in the midst of the city. Through collecting keywords and descriptive texts, the project has been able to base the work on several people’s experiences of the different phenomena, giving them their own identities to work with onwards. The project has aimed to create an abstract recreation based on people’s experiences of the four phenomena with some visual resemblance. The design of the space was made in parallel with light installations resembling the phenomena. Within the project several different ways of working with space and objects has been tested. Light brings another dimension to the process. One that sometimes is difficult to translate into the different processes with obstacles of wanted light spread etc. Instead, working in full scale gave new realisations and opened up to new problems both with scale and measurements, but also with placement of one’s eye and body in the space. This was not visibly, felt or fully understood in models, sketches or digital visualisations, as well as in the real-life experience. The body is a tool with different measurements in our senses.

The Richmond Maker Museum is a working museum design, offering an inside look at past achievements, juxtaposed with the unlimited future possibilities of an evolving, active maker culture. It is a dynamic place designed to allow makers to showcase skills, take risks, engage the public, and grow their craft in real time. The museum displays finished pieces, introduces makers, demonstrates the processes they employ in their work, and invites the community to meet the artisans who, through skill, ingenuity, and hard work, make the artifacts on display. This type of educational museum experience does not currently exist on this scale in Richmond. While other local museums invite visiting artists and offer lectures, the Richmond Maker Museum takes interaction to a new level, introducing visitors to the routines and procedures of each artisan’s daily practice. Maker culture is a tightly woven network of craftsmen—woodworkers, metalworkers, glassblowers, etc. It celebrates traditional fabrication techniques, while also introducing modern technologies such as laser cutting and three-dimensional printing. The social and educational aspects of the maker movement have created a revolution, revitalizing public appreciation for the role of the maker and the importance of craftsmanship.