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The thesis investigates private versus public space and the natural tendency for an individual to seek out its own place within a group. More specifically, the project studies whether private and public could not only occupy the same geographic space independently, but also activate one another. A library was chosen as the program for its opportunity to serve as a "third place" in the community. A "third place" is a neutral ground that is neither a home nor workplace. The benefit of such a place is to stimulate conversation and interaction, to provide a way to either hide or be seen, and to encourage social cohesion as people meet that may not have through normal daily life. The site is on the corner of 12th and H Streets NE in Washington, DC. Its location in a rebounding streetscape demands that the library give the surrounding context a large role in its design. Public space is a priority, and the building is porous to extend the exterior into the interior and vice versa. The library's ever-changing role in a city inspires flexibility in the design and a life beyond normal library hours. / Master of Architecture

This thesis describes one individual's contribution to a larger effort, an exploration that involved some thirty-two other students from the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Our shared task was to study a bucolic agrarian region of Northern Italy and propose a strategy for its development. All projects ultimately included in the Atelier's vision were to have a significant strategic value to the territory, resonating with and magnifying the landscape's existing qualities. They were to intensify its complex identity without further complicating it. Included in this document are the author's initial impressions of the region as recorded over a series of visits to the place as well as a reaction to these impressions, an architectural response in the form of a cinema multiplex over the Pavese and its fields. / Master of Architecture

The global decline of pollinators, insects and animals that assist in pollination and fertilizing plants, poses a great risk to global food supply. This study investigates if people have preferences for a program to abate decline in a region along the East Coast of the United States. A survey is used to investigate these preferences and connections to the region to understand if individual connections can explain preferences. The majority of people were found to not have preferences to help increase pollinator abundance. Additionally, measures of connection to the region were found to be insignificant in explain individual preferences. / Master of Science / The global decline of pollinators, insects and animals that assist in pollination and fertilizing plants, poses a great risk to global food supply. This study investigates if people have preferences for a program to abate decline in a region along the East Coast of the United States. A survey is used to investigate these preferences and connections to the region to understand if individual connections can explain preferences. The majority of people were found to not have preferences to help increase pollinator abundance. Additionally, measures of connection to the region were found to be insignificant in explain individual preferences.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att se hur tidigare bruksorter arbetar för en fortsatt utveckling efter en tid av avindustrialisering. För att undersöka detta gjordes en fallstudie med Åtvidaberg kommun som studieobjekt. Tanken var att finna vilka utmaningar och möjligheter som en sådan ort har i att få en fortsatt utveckling samt vilka metoder som kan användas. Det teoretiska ramverket för studien består av fyra begrepp: platsmarknadsföring, platsidentitet, platsvarumärke och platsbild. Dessa begrepp används för att förstå de metoder som användes i utvecklingen. Studien genomfördes huvudsakligen genom 6 intervjuer samt analys av kommunala plandokument. Det huvudsakliga resultatet från studien är att Åtvidaberg kommun förlitar sig mycket på den större grannkommunen för bland annat arbetstillfällen medan deras egna fokus läggs på att utveckla bostadsmöjligheter. Åtvidaberg kommun spelar an på deras goda läge genom att försöka skapa en platsbild som god pendlingsort. Vidare använder Åtvidaberg kommun sitt industriella kulturarv för att behålla sin egen platsidentitet genom att lyfta upp det i olika sammanhang däribland skolan och kulturverksamhet. / The purpose of this study is to see how former company towns work for continued development after a period of deindustrialization. To study this, a case study was conducted with Åtvidaberg municipality as the study object. The idea was to find what challenges and opportunities such a place has in achieving continued development and what methods can be used. The theoretical framework for the study consists of four concepts: place marketing, place identity, place brand and place image. These concepts are used to understand the methods used in development. The study was mainly carried out through 6 interviews and analysis of municipal planning documents. The main result from the study is that Åtvidaberg municipality relies heavily on the larger neighbouring municipality for, among other things, job opportunities, while their own focus is on developing housing opportunities. Åtvidaberg municipality plays on their good location by trying to create an image of the place as a good commuting location. Furthermore, Åtvidaberg municipality uses its industrial cultural heritage to maintain its own place identity by highlighting it in various contexts including the school and cultural activities.

This thesis studies the experiences of queer adults in Hamilton, Ontario with sense of place and migration. Fourteen (n=14) individuals who self-identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ were interviewed over Zoom between 2022 and 2023, all of whom had moved to Hamilton but lived in Canada immediately prior to moving to Hamilton. This study applies an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA), informed by the geographic and phenomenological literature, which is appropriate to a small number of cases and attends to context and intersubjectivity. Each interview was analytically coded for dominant themes in an individual’s migration timeline, with special attention paid to their gender and sexual identity and how they relate to other people and places. Collective analysis of the interviews yielded three different perspectives on these participants’ experiences: embodiment as it relates to spatiality, sense of place, and migration decision making and barriers. The results of this thesis contribute to existing literature on lived experiences of gender, romantic, and sexual minorities (GRSM) and sense of place research. Together, they challenge dominant understandings of sense of place with a holistic perspective on how space is lived phenomenally. They also challenge discursive narratives of queer friendly or unfriendly spaces, highlighting the nuance in individual perceptions of various spaces and the importance of past experiences and social connections in these perceptions. Among the material circumstances that precondition queer migration decisions are housing affordability, safety, and community. I conclude by emphasizing how important these considerations are in the current and immanent political climate in which queer individuals are increasingly precariously visible, making further research on this subject crucial. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis studies the experiences of queer adults who have moved to Hamilton, Ontario. Fourteen (n=14) individuals who are queer (2SLGBTQIA+) were interviewed over Zoom and asked questions regarding their experiences with gender and sexuality, the places they had lived in before Hamilton, and how their moving process to Hamilton went. They were also asked about their overall feelings and connections they held toward various places in Hamilton, which together are referred to as ‘sense of place’. The interviews were recorded and examined both individually and together for important themes related to sense of place and migration. Most participants felt positively about their experiences moving to and living in Hamilton, were optimistic about their future in the city, but also didn’t expect to remain in Hamilton for the long term. This thesis ultimately contributes to the existing research on queer people, migration, and sense of place by offering a careful in-depth treatment of a small number of cases, as well as finding interesting data about how queer individuals move through their worlds and navigate barriers to their mobility.

This thesis presents the development and evaluation of an enhanced turn-key indoor positioning system (IPS) for tracking the mobility patterns of older adults in residential settings. The design of the IPS hardware and software focused on usability in the context of aging-in-place, while maintaining high data quality, reduced incidences of missing data, and elevated room detection accuracy, with the highest accuracy reaching 99.47%. By integrating positional data with IMU sensors, this system not only captures precise locations but also identifies activity states and contextual information, establishing a detailed profile of mobility patterns. A 'floor filter' in the data processing models was developed to address vertical alignment challenges commonly encountered in multi-story dwellings. This adjustment improved prediction accuracies, with an average accuracy increase of 3.33% to 6.28% across various models. Among these, the Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP NN) and Shallow Neural Network (SNN) exhibited the highest accuracies for user room location predictions. Furthermore, we demonstrated the practical application of these technologies in a real-world setting through pilot clinical studies involving older adults. This study not only validated the integration of IPS and IMU data but also facilitated the establishment of behavioral trends that are crucial for context-aware analysis. The system's ability to adapt to different indoor environments without extensive setup, alongside its proven accuracy and reliability in capturing detailed mobility and activity information, underscores its potential to enhance elderly care and support aging in place. By leveraging advanced machine learning models and innovative data processing techniques, this work contributes to the field by offering a robust, scalable solution for monitoring the mobility patterns of the elderly, thus paving the way for future healthcare applications designed to accommodate the complexities of aging populations. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / This project develops a system that helps track the location and movement of older adults in their homes to support their independence and reduce stress on healthcare services. It improves on current technology by providing more accurate tracking inside the home. The system uses sensors to monitor how active someone is and understands the context of their movements—like whether they are resting or moving around—which helps in assessing both their physical and mental well-being. The results show that this technology is effective in tracking daily activities and can help in providing better care for older adults.

L’impact écologique de la construction des infrastructures est l’une des préoccupations qui occupent le plus les recherches dans le domaine. Des recherches récentes ont montré l’importance des pertes engendrées par le rebond en béton projeté et ont remis cette thématique à l’avant de la scène. C’est dans cette dynamique que le Laboratoire de béton projeté du CRIB de l’Université Laval s’est inscrit en menant de plus en plus de projets afin de mieux comprendre et diminuer ces pertes. Le présent projet s’intéresse particulièrement à la compréhension du phénomène du rebond à l’échelle du jet afin de faciliter et promouvoir les développements sur l’effet de l’équipement et des matériaux choisis sur le rebond. Ce projet est composé de deux parties distinctes, l’une se concentrant sur la mise en place d’un modèle du rebond à l’échelle du jet et l’autre développant un programme d’automatisation de l’acquisition de la distribution des vitesses dans le jet. D’abord, afin de faciliter l’obtention des données expérimentales nécessaires à l’étude à l’échelle du jet, un programme informatique a été développé. Ce programme est basé sur une méthode de calcul du flux optique développé par Blanck & Anadam (1996). À partir de deux images successives, la vitesse des particules est déterminée. En améliorant la qualité des images recueillies et en traitant un grand nombre d’image, une estimation de la distribution des vitesses peut être faite. Les résultats les plus encourageants ont été obtenus lors de projections où la qualité des images capturées a été optimisée. Par ailleurs, un modèle du rebond à l’échelle du jet a été développé en se basant sur des travaux antérieurs en béton projeté. Armelin (1998) a développé un modèle du rebond pour une seule particule basée sur un modèle élastoplastique du substrat et à partir de l’énergie cinétique de la particule incidente. Ensuite, Ginouse (2014) a développé des essais permettant de caractériser cette énergie à l’échelle du jet. En combinant les résultats de ces deux études, nous sommes parvenus initialement à créer un nouveau modèle du rebond à l’échelle du jet dont les résultats sont corrélés avec les résultats expérimentaux, mais dans lequel les valeurs de rebond sont fortement surestimées. Cependant, en introduisant un nouveau concept lié aux variations des propriétés rhéologiques du substrat suite à la vibration amenée par les particules incidentes qui le frappent, une meilleure prédiction du rebond a été atteinte. En conclusion, ce projet a rempli sa mission d’explorer et d’ouvrir la voie à l’automatisation de la mesure de la distribution de vitesses dans le jet, ainsi que de poser les bases et développer un modèle du rebond à l’échelle du jet en tenant compte des variations de propriétés rhéologiques dans les différentes zones du substrat. / The environmental impact of civil engineering construction is one of the main concerns found in most research efforts in the field. Recent research has shown the importance of the amount of waste generated by rebound in the shotcrete process and has emphasized this aspect in this field. The project was undertook at Laval University’s Shotcrete Laboratory and is part of an effort to better understand rebound mechanisms that generate this waste. It investigates the rebound at the spray-scale to help understand how equipment and material choises affect this phenomenon. This project is divided in two distinct portions: a rebound model at the spray scale and the implementation of a program to automate the calculation of the particle velocity distributions in the spray. First, in order to help generate the experimental data required to study rebound at the sprayscale, a computer program has been developed. This program is based on an optical flow method developed by Black & Anadam (1996). From two successive images, particle velocities are calculated. Working with a large number of images and enhancing their quality allowed to approximate the velocity distribution in the spray. The most promising results were obtained during analysis when the image quality was best optimized. A rebound model at the spray-scale was then developed by combining the results of previous research projects in shotcrete. Armelin (1998) was the first to develope a particle-scale rebound model based on an elastoplastic representation of the substrate and on the incident kinetic energy of the particle. Ginouze in 2014 then developed different testing methods that allowed a complete characterization of the shotcrete spray. By combining the results of these studies, a new spray-scale rebound model was created and the results were correlated the experimental results. Rebound values however were strongly overestimated. By introducing an innovative new concept representing the variations of rheological properties of the substrate due to the vibration caused by the incident particles, a better estimation of rebound was achieved. In conclusion, the project fulfilled its exploring mission and opened the way to automated velocity distribution measurement in the spray. Moreover, solid bases of a rebound spray-scale model were established by taking into account the rheological properties variations in the different substrate areas.