No longer are suburban towns filled with households made up of large middle-class white families. In recent years, America’s diverse, elderly, and singles have joined this demographic in increasing numbers. The large square footages of homes and properties do not serve smaller households and are not environmentally sustainable. They demand significant heating and cooling and reliance on automobiles for everyday transportation due to the lack of walkability and transit connectivity. These two issues result in a high carbon footprint compared to living in a dense urban environment. Urban design interventions can help these suburbs facing population growth, demographic change, and unsustainable lifestyles. Solutions include a shift towards mixed-use development, densification, greening, and walkability. Implementing these design strategies in a strategic balanced way can help improve sustainability efforts, the health and wellness of the residents, and community engagement.

0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Inom stadsplaneringen har man förstått vikten av en blandad och varierad stad. Istället för att tänka skola här, bostäder här och jobb där, försöker man nu integrera allt till en helhet. Jag har i detta projekt undersökt vad händer om tänker byggnaden som en stad, som används av olika människor under dygnet, veckan och året. Det är en studie i hur olika verksamheter kan samverka inom en byggnad. Och på så sätt skapa en byggnad som utnyttjas effektiv, används dygnet runt och av olika människor och verksamheter. Projektet tar utgångspunkt i en existerande miljö. Nämligen kvarteret Domherren där den nuvarande arkitekturskolan står. Med en ny arkitekturskola under uppbyggnad kommer den nuvarande byggnaden snart förlora sin funktion. Vad ska hända med strukturen då? Och hur ska man förhålla sig till den när de kommer nya verksamheter. Vad är viktigast. De kulturella värdena, miljöaspekten eller vad de nya verksamheterna behöver? Dessa frågor ligger till grund för det här kandidatprojektet.

The spatial legacy in South Africa has resulted in fragmented urban environments and development in peri-urban areas, such as Mamelodi, is often implemented with a top-down approach. The focus of development tends to be on connecting these hinterlands to the cities with affordable transportation and trying to satisfy needs for basic services and amenities as quickly as possible. This has resulted in the implementation of solutions that are not place specific but instead tend to be generic models implemented on a large scale. The danger therein lies that projects implemented might not be appropriate to communities and could become dysfunctional and underutilised. Part of the process of developing a solution should be the acknowledgement of the everyday in a specific community; the way in which space is produced, appropriated and the everyday rituals. The intention of this dissertation is to re-conceptualise what an art centre could be in the context of Mamelodi West, the historic centre of Mamelodi. Through an understanding of the everyday, what is generally considered a mono-functional program is re-imagined as a diverse intervention integrated into everyday life and ritual. The dissertation proposes one possible means of connecting isolated communities using the commonality of the need for both individual and collective expression of identity to cultivate gemeinschaft; address misconceptions of the value of the Arts and propose a way in which the spatial legacy can be redressed. / Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

Recent decades have seen many localities revisiting traditional town center-style development as a response to problems caused by sprawl. In some cases, these more compact developments occur in areas that are otherwise primarily suburban in character. Of the many facets of these developments, parking has one of the largest impacts on the compactness, walkability, and accessibility of those developments, but little information, academic or otherwise, exists to inform the planning of parking for mixed-use projects in an otherwise suburban environment. Many localities rely on zoning-based parking minimums, but a lack of situational parking strategies may limit the benefits of these suburban mixed-use projects. In an effort to ascertain trends or best practices in a suburban context, information on eleven mixed-use developments was collected from planners and developers. In addition, quantitative data related to the mix of uses and amount of parking in similar developments was obtained from Urban Land Institute case studies. The analysis revealed that in general, suburban municipalities do not capitalize on potential parking reductions created by mixing uses, do not truly share parking between uses, and do not implement parking regulation in the form of time limits or pricing. In a few cases, there were exceptions to these general trends, with some developments implementing detailed shared parking plans that have thus far been successful in balancing demand and supply. The related quantitative analysis suggests that the most important strategy as it relates to parking is to have a varied mix of uses in the development, with attention to those that have opposite peak times. Based on the case studies and shared parking analyses, recommendations for effective parking strategies for suburban, mixed-use development include: development of a shared parking plan, the use of ULI\'s Shared Parking as a starting point but not a final determinant in those shared parking plans, the use of proffers to require periodic checks on the shared parking supply, and ongoing local parking studies to better understand local need. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Mixed-use house at Křížová Street The project of mixed-use house located in the district of Old Brno is based on its location and its specific plot, situated between two street corners, at the end of the future pedestrian-only street, in direct contact with busy Mendel square. The house as a whole is enclosing eastern side of the street and with two breaks of the façade reacts to the gentle curve of the street on the other side. At the same time, these breaks of the façade acts as dividing elements, which help to create more subtle feeling of the otherwise long building. One of these breaks continues all the way through the house to the back and creates a cut, which allows a view to the inner courtyard, where a historical brick chimney is situated. This visual connection is at the same time also a metaphorical connection to the history of the location. The cut also serves as a main access for the residential areas in the upper floors and gives the inhabitants the opportunity to enter their homes through a dignified and representative space. Functionally, the house is divided into commercial spaces on the ground level, residential upper floors and parking in the basement.

The estimated lifespan of a building today is only 50 years. They are often designed down to the minimum for a specific target group or one specific use. In many cases constructed with load-bearing walls that divide function-specified rooms, making conversion into any other form of function impossible. Locking buildings to a specific function is not very clever, as buildings are subject to a wide range of trends and changes.  The goal of this project has been to investigate how the built environment can be resilient to changing societal trends to avoid becoming obsolete and in the worst case having to be demolished. This leads to the question of how a building can be designed to enable change and how to build and plan a building when its future use and users are unknown.

Abstract Proposal This thesis research proposition is to design a LEED platinum urban mixed-use special needs housing community. The analysis and subsequent design of this facility will take into account the many specific social and physical needs of the residents. The proposed outcome of this research is to suppose through intimate knowledge and understanding of the special needs community and the use of thoughtful design while paying special attention to subtle spatial relationships, it can be proven that architectural design can foster a positive environment for special needs residents and the community at large.The special needs community has largely been a marginalized shadow populace within the greater suburban context. In the United States, special needs children often grow up receiving some life skills training from their elementary though high school educations however, they tend to live at length with their aging parents long into adulthood. As these young adults mature, it frequently becomes increasingly difficult for parents to secure safe and affordable permanent housing solutions. Although there are a number of special needs communities nation-wide offering long term housing solutions, there is a much greater demand than that which is available. Coupled with financial growth potential limitations and bureaucratic red tape, many of these young adults struggle to find affordable group housing alternatives, especially those that can accommodate a myriad of physical, mental and emotional requirements unique to each individual. In low-income communities, the problem is only exacerbated. The goal of this thesis is to propose a mixed-use high density urban commercial housing complex which allocates self-operated retail spaces offering entrepreneurial opportunities for the residents. This proposition will foster independence and promote health with the ultimate goal of alleviating some of the usual stresses experienced by community caretakers. Thoughtful integration of green technologies will reduce the long-term running costs, thus mitigating the overall fiscal encumbrance. LEED certification will be paramount as it delivers guidance in sustainable design practices while simultaneously creating awareness to this critical need.

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As the cities grow, our lives get busier and we live further away from our families than we ever have before, have we thought about what life is like for our parents and grandparents at home? Can architecture help improve the mental and physical health of the occupiers? Design like a problem solver does not only mean solving pre-existed problems, but also thinking preemptively. Although technology can solve part of the problem, if we explore the role of design in our society and know how to apply good architecture to promote connection between generations, we can help elders feel active. We can even help prevent depression amongst seniors. In the near future, the population 65 or older will continue being the majority of the entire demography. And inclusive living will be an inseparable part of every future design project. Biophilic design would contribute to part of the solution as well. The elderly have lots to offer that the younger generations would need: experience, education, wisdom and most importantly, freetime; we can't leave all these resources aside. By encouraging interactions between different age groups, our children could benefit from all of this in one way or another that is going to be useful for their learning, and elders would feel they can also create value in the society. This thesis originates from a simple desire to make a safe and fun environment for my grandparents to spend their time in. And to make people be aware of their surrounding physical and also the psychological world. This design is site-specific, where the nearby park/trails and existing neighboring buildings become an integral part of the work. The beauty of the natural world always strikes me, thereby I try to work in response to that beauty. Protect the wetland park nearby and use it as an educational resource for people who come across my project. But whether socially or aesthetically based, in this work I seek to create a strong bond with the residents and visitors, to allow a place of lively interactions. I think architecture is not just physical walls and roofs enclosing a space, but a passage, a journey, a reflection of time. / Master of Architecture / As the cities grow, our lives get busier and we live further away from our families than we ever have before, have we thought about what life is like for our parents and grandparents at home? Although technology can solve part of the problem, if we explore the role of design in our society and know how to apply good architecture to promote connection between generations, we can help seniors feel active. We can even help prevent depression amongst them. The seniors have lots to offer that the younger generations would need: experience, education, wisdom and most importantly, freetime; we can't leave all these aside. By encouraging interactions between the two age groups, our children could benefit from all of this in one way or another that is going to be useful for their learning, and elders would feel they can also create value in the society. This thesis originates from a simple desire to make a safe and fun environment for my grandparents to spend their time in. And to make people be aware of their surrounding physical and also the psychological world. This design is site-specific, where the nearby park and existing neighboring buildings becomes an integral part of the work. The beauty of the natural world always strikes me, thereby I try to work in response to that beauty. Protect the wetland park nearby and use it as an educational resource for people who come across my project. But whether socially or aesthetically based, in this work I seek to create a strong bond with the residents and visitors, to allow a place of lively interactions. I think architecture is not just physical walls and roofs enclosing a space, but a passage, a journey, a reflection of time.