Disappearing Architecture Media facades dominate the skylines of many of our cities. A quick stroll through today’s urban areas involves a one-sided conversation directed at pedestrians. Advertisements aggressively compete for attention, creating a visually chaotic battlefield of logos, brand names, and flashing lights. Structures themselves recede into the background behind this visual confusion, withdrawing completely under giant billboards that are plastered with images and LED lights. In the visual order, architecture comes second, if at all, behind graphics and media messages. Building facades are now covered with flat images and advertisements which use savvy marketing schemes. The vast and overtly stimulating messages, however, have gradually desensitized viewers as they become increasingly accustomed to this visual noise. More explicit images, brighter lights, and larger movements are now required to make an impact. As media facades are such a large part of the competitive communications industry, these facades have come to influence architectural practices which are in danger of succumbing to the demands of the ad industry. It is thus important to create a balance between media and architecture, which is mutually beneficial to both. Architecture can be preserved while advertisements can also flourish. This thesis examines the use of digital media to enhance the public’s connection to the built form within public spaces. Chapter one explores the various spaces in which people gather and their relationships to the city. Specifically, this chapter looks at the progress and decline of public realms in North America. Case studies of Times Square in New York City, Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, and the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada illustrate how each city negotiates media saturation. Chapter two presents eight design principles for the successful integration of digital media in public spaces. These principles were established through the use of historical references, case studies, and precedents showcasing each principle’s potential. Chapter three looks at Galt City Centre in Cambridge, Ontario where the principles outlined in chapter two are demonstrated through a video application that was part of a public Christmas event in Cambridge. The project in Galt addresses the existing features of the city which engage its public spaces, encouraging a symbiotic relationship between the architecture and video facade. The integration of digital media and architecture can be enriched in the choice of strategic locations highlighting local character. Installations can be cultural, create local identity, become reactive for community engagement, and encourage the public to inhabit the city by transforming existing spaces into communal areas. Installations connect with users in their use of the characters inherent to outdoor spaces; texture, sounds, emotions, and the experiences of different seasons and times of day. With a more responsive approach to content design and implementation, the outcomes of the use of digital media on facades can be positive.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Alpa Nawre / Race tension has increased in America as contemporary issues occur. Riots and protests are becoming common once again. The research presented shows how park space can help foster diversity and in turn improve race relations in the Kansas City area. The study shows how communities in Kansas City became segregated based on historical laws, regulations, and common day practices that reinforced racial boundaries between communities. Many still feel racial tension stemming from historical events today. A focus on integration within communities can be the first step in creating harmony and healing people who have felt these negative impacts on their lives. A literature review, including historical documents from Kansas City and similarly structured racially divided cities, such as St. Louis, Missouri, Detroit, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois, were analyzed. Research lead to focusing in on Swope Park and the surrounding community. Swope Park has a complex history of segregation and is located near Troost Avenue, which is one of the greatest racial divide lines in the United States. To the west of Troost Avenue the race is predominantly white while to the east is composed mostly of African Americans. On site observational surveys and short interviews with users of Swope Park were conducted to determine current use, users, and park qualities. Qualtrics Surveys were released to community organization to survey a larger group of people, some of whom might not currently use the park. The analyzed information gathered helped shape an innovative design suggestion and strategy to promote diversity and integration at Swope Park. This research can help shape a diverse future of racially integrated communities in the Kansas City area to promote economic stimuli, break down racial stigmas, and increase education, understanding, and celebration of diverse racial backgrounds.

For some countries, terror has been an inherent concept in the formation and transformation of their urban condition. 1959 marked a turning point in the history of the Cuban territory. With the coup of the Cuban Revolution and the beginning of the Castro dominance, a control over the territory and the urban fabric became in effect alongside the exercise of political power. The display of control on the built environment was the tool used to impose the new political system across the island at a faster rate. In response to the frugality consequential of the new political system, a survival phenomenon spontaneously arose as Cuban families struggled with the economic models of the island. Many have had to develop a second means of income by either growing and selling produce or livestock. Urban and rural conditions present a different set of challenges that can potentially be addressed and engaged through architecture, urbanism, and the public realm. Holguin, the capital city of the Province of Holguin, is further known as “the city of parks/ plazas”. The inhabitation of these public spaces have experienced a fast paced transformation within the last 3-4 years, much due to recent public accessibility to the internet. Parks have become places of interaction, of connection and reconnection, not only at a personal, but a virtual scale. This phenomenon have made people take a stand and reclaim their city. Although, Holguin’s parks/plazas are being refurbished, planning deficiencies evidence a lack of engagement to the changes that society is experimenting by the porosity of the blockade. Public spaces that respond to their actual flux of information, and the interaction of the different spontaneous phenomena coexisting in Cuban territory is required in order to provide healthy communities that aid its people to achieve a better quality of life as the country keeps transitioning. In a metaphysical way, architecture is the bonding element that facilitates the regeneration of healthy environments through community engagement . / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

The investigations in this dissertation oscillate between objective and subjective notions in order to engage with reflective questioning. Mental projections are superimposed onto reality when the act of architecture takes place. It is my belief that space is the synthesis of subject and object. It is the middle ground we search for. The marginal context of the Pretoria West inhabits the middle ground through a paradoxical survival. A very strong experience of timelessness in the context is played off onto images and structures of time. The perception of meaning and triviality enhances this timeless nature.It is within this enigma that architecture can nurture idiosyncrasy and collectivity. Treadmill is a haptic machine superimposed as a mental projection onto the existing silos of the Pretoria West Milling Complex along Mitchell Street. Public swimming pools become a medium through which the self is explored and create a platform for objective or unprejudiced collective interaction. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2012. / A video accompanying this dissertation is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzSCy7y7Oqs&feature=youtu.be / A video accompanying this dissertation is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzSCy7y7Oqs&feature=youtu.be / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

KTH Campus is open to the city but when we walk around we feel it is very isolated. Most people gather in the south square or in the triangle park in the middle. These two gathering points are separated from each other. Drottning Kristinas Väg acts as a quick path for cars. Along this road there are many empty outdoor spaces but most of them are not used by people. It is such a waste. Then how to make better use of the existing parks or squares and how to use parks or squares as linkage of public spaces are what I want to explore.

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The spaces of the of the future are ones that take the fourth plane of space making(digital) into account. This is built with a symbiotic relationship with the other three. Throughout history, the public spaces have been a medium to open utilities and tools that were meant only for the affluent. The newspaper democratized the access to information and thus giving rise to the spatial typology of café. The fountains of Europe were a great platform for public to gather and for young artist. These were spaces of public discourse. With the wide spread of internet, the online space became a platform for public discourse. People could share their thoughts and ideas across boundaries and build a global public sphere. This change was accelerated by pandemic, by people showing support and solidarity everyone. The whole world came together on the digital spaces as a single public space as a place. They gathered to show support and to also arrange to social events. The pandemic extended limits of the public space. The project looks at incorporating this evolution of public space and expanding the discourse of public space into the physical world. The project looks at developing a public sphere for the city of Washington DC. The strategy is to leverage the attributes of physical and digital spaces to build a better public sphere. The physical spaces bring people together in spaces to confront and exchange value with civility and the digital spaces reach out to the public beyond physical and social boundaries. They physical strategy is set of Urban furniture that forms a network of spaces throughout the city. This urban furniture can be designed and made locally or can be sourced. The furniture offers a set of various experiences as chosen by the host. The host will be an individual person or a community entity. The digital strategy is an application that works as a platform for social events. But these events can be conducted by anyone, and they can control that who can get notified about it. The notification is based on your distance from the event. This will cater to hyper local and city-wide events. The platform can also be used by citizens to exhibit their talents and open it up to the public. The public and private institutions can volunteer their space for these purposes. The application and the public space do not concentrate the use and access the use of information and physical events to a singe person or entity. It distributes the power and responsibility in between all stakeholders of the public sphere. Thus, creating a robust public sphere for the fully functioning Democracy. The Research aims at expanding the discourse on public sphere and public space design. It also introduces the data for public design. The application helps citizens to review their experience of the physical experience of the public space. This data becomes the bedrock for urban designers to design and develop public space for the city. / Master of Science / The project looks at developing a public sphere for the city of Washington DC. The strategy is to leverage the attributes of physical and digital spaces to build a better public sphere. The physical spaces bring people together in spaces to confront and exchange value with civility and the digital spaces reach out to the public beyond physical and social boundaries. They physical strategy is set of Urban furniture that forms a network of spaces throughout the city. This urban furniture can be designed and made locally or can be sourced. The furniture offers a set of various experiences as chosen by the host. The host will be an individual person or a community entity. The digital strategy is an application that works as a platform for social events. But these events can be conducted by anyone, and they can control that who can get notified about it. The notification is based on your distance from the event. This will cater to hyper local and city-wide events. The platform can also be used by citizens to exhibit their talents and open it up to the public. The public and private institutions can volunteer their space for these purposes.

The study aims to explore different aspects of urban public space. It does so through the case study of the medial debate concerning the planned redevelopment of Heden, an open central publicly owned area in Gothenburg, Sweden. The case study revealed the highly contested meanings of Heden, as well as different understandings of public space. The study also points to the dilemma of making urban public space readable and convivial, while maintaining it inclusive and open for everyone. The medial debate circles around the newly publicized redevelopment plan for Heden. In the plan the local government proposes the addition of more activities and functions to Heden. Thereby, they wish to attract new target groups to Heden. This proposal has met with some approval in the medial debate, but also with harsh critique. Some critics voice the concern of to whom public space is redeveloped. Other critics want to see more extensive redevelopment of Heden, to cover it with “inner city”. Others yet wish a future Heden to have a more explicit focus on sports. The study examines these differing opinions and their possible consequences for the “publicness” of urban public space.

This study analyzes the life histories and present day experiences of female students from a college located east of Los Angeles with regards to their relationships with nature and outdoor recreation. I use data collected from in-depth interviews with eight women. These interviews illuminated the impacts that their fathers had on their early socialization with nature as well as their perspectives on being women in the outdoors. Furthermore, an analysis of an on-campus club reveals the ways in which outdoor recreation is not accessible for all individuals. These findings add to the existing bodies of literature on public space as well as the formation of early adulthood experiences with the outdoors among women resulting from childhood socialization.

This thesis attempted to reconstruct and subsequently analyze transformation of the public space of Košice between 1918 and 1945. Main focus of the work was put on the overlapping of Slovak respectively Czechoslovak official state narrative with Hungarian, respectively Austro-Hungarian story in the field of the public space of the city. Text has focused primarily on the way how names of the streets and squares had been changed and how the construction resp. destruction of statues and monuments took place in public space. Particular cases of changes has been examined and criticized for their symbolic significance for a given state ideology.