This thesis focuses on the revitalization of a once thriving manufacturing city, Gardner, Massachusetts. In the past the city of Gardner was rich with furniture manufacturers. Over the years the manufacture of furniture has left Gardner. The goal of this thesis is to reinvigorate the furniture making and craft back into Gardner. The proposed revitalization of the town was furthered through teaching and the design and production of a new product line. The renovation and retrofit of an existing now abandoned, building. Designing to meet the strategies, methods, and processes of furniture production; merged with an architecture meant to signal both respect for the history of Gardner and a new revitalization; designing from the inside – out. Thoughts about sustainability and environmental design are incorporated into the design. There are a multitude of new building practices and strategies that are explored and will be used to try and form a design that could unite usability, function, aesthetics, and comfort as well as meeting current code and ADA requirements, through retrofitting an existing building. Teaching the former craft of furniture making will ignite revitalization in the downtown area. A new form of universally designed furniture making will be taught and practiced in the facility.

Religious architecture has historically played a primary role in both the study and the development of architectural practices and theories. Undoubtedly, this influence is tied to the position which religious institutions have historically held in shaping cultural values. However, American culture has transitioned into a position where religious organizations are often no longer the primary authority for determining cultural, social, and interpersonal values for many Americans. Additionally many individuals have, for one reason or another, become uncomfortable or feel unwelcome in traditional church structures due to the historical hierarchies associated with them, the innate formality of the spaces, the perceptions of expected behaviors, or discomfort with language and interpretations of spirituality or religion. These changes have had a major impact on the economic and functional dynamics to which religious institutions must now adhere. While churches remain a venue for architectural expression, they no longer hold the position as the primary source for considering architectural culture; which has, for the most part, transitioned to museums, cultural, commercial, or office buildings. It is clear that the manner in which religious organizations operate and conduct themselves must therefore evolve in order to respond to these new forces, and so must the architecture which houses them. Only by adapting to these new pressures can these religious organizations hope to remain relevant and active in the changing cultural climate where religious institutions and religious individuals are often greeted with skepticism and suspicion. Many religious institutions have already recognized this need for change. The manner in which they hold their services and reach out to the community has changed in response to new cultural mores and trends. Architecture, as the structure which houses these changing religious organizations, must adapt to these new situations as well. The architecture houses, and therefore must adapt to, the new processes and practices which must function within these institutions. Architecture however, must also take into account other facets of the organization beyond just these functions. It has the ability to achieve many other objectives which can support the ongoing goals of these contemporary religious institutions. Since architecture acts as one of the fundamental outward faces of these organizations, it has a major and fundamental influence upon how the public perceive a religious institution. It is the intent of this thesis to investigate how church architecture may facilitate community oriented goals. These goals include, but are not limited to: creating an environment where individual exploration of spirituality becomes an accepted part of community activities, promoting localized economic development, instilling within the community a sense of value and ownership to generate community pride and stakeholdership, increasing community outreach, and the development of other programs which activate and benefit the local area. With regards to the architectural exploration, the intention is to approach this by addressing questions concerning perception, style, outward appearance, proximity, and operation. This includes consideration of programmatic functions which, while they may not be inherent to churches, may be useful in generating community interaction and intersection. Additionally, architecture has certain psychological capabilities which may be utilized to address personal reservations regarding churches. By considering what architectural elements are symbolic of religious organizations and strategically employing or eliminating them, one can build upon or counter the impressions which may exist about what a church is or should be. The examination of these issues within the context of an abandoned local mill building expands the richness and potential for this type of investigation by exploring its fundamental contributions to the historic development of the community. By introducing a spiritual component to this historically secular building one alters associations and defuses potential misgivings, as well as highlights a more welcoming avenue for promoting spiritual exploration within the community. By promoting adjacency and proximity of everyday activities and beneficial programs to hospitable spiritual activities, the architecture has the potential to meld different uses together. Additionally, the community aspect of this project may have the capacity to expand, specifically when considering how architecture may have the potential to promote a spiritually open community. Furthermore, by considering these goals in the context of an abandoned mill building, it is hoped that parallels can be made between the historical significance of the structure, and that of religion; and that by studying the two in tandem one can elevate the status of both. The focus here is not upon elevating religion or history for their own sake but rather in lifting them up as symbols of the communities which they serve and using them to lead development and revitalization in their locations.

No description available.

This master thesis deals with the current issue of reuse of "brownfields" in relation to the issue of sustainable development. The primary goal of the thesis is a detailed analysis and creation of a proposal for the best possible use of a particular brownfield in Brno. It is the former area of ABB EJF, which is located in the cadastral area of Ponava. For the proposal, it was necessary to first carry out a detailed analysis of the site with regard to the land-use plan of the city of Brno. The draft of the solution itself is processed in four possible variants due to their use. Subsequently, an economic evaluation of individual proposals is carried out, which are then compared with each other.

The master thesis deals with a proposal to revitalize the former lignite mine in Kyjov, Czech Republic, which belongs to a brownfield sites. The goal is to propose possible use of the area, which is currently largely without effective utilization. I have divided the monitored area to four locations, due to the size of area. Every location has got different proposed use. In each location will be evaluated the new usage due to their surroundings and its possibilities. At the end, evaluation of the entire project is done.

The topic of the submitted thesis is to carry out revitalization of a selected section of a watercourse. At first, the actual conditions of the riverbed and its surroundings are described. In the following part of the thesis the description of the newly designed watercourse section is focused. The main goal of the new design is to improve the life conditions both in and around the watercourse as well as to support its self-cleaning process.

The master thesis deals about actual issue of sustainable devolvement of land with connection to brownfields sites. First aim of thesis is analyse concrete brownfiled in Brno city. Second aim is economically evaluate different variant and options of using buildings. For correct design was necessary make analysis of real estate market, architecture as well as local needs Housing and commercial area, also park and parking area are included to each variant of design, according to land use plan. Risks and way of distribution (sale/rent) are included to economical evaluation. Results show most rentable variant is use building as 40 % for commercial area and 60 % for housing for each building. However, this option is unfavourable at the beginning, in the future brings most amount of gain for shareholder.

Framed by problems and dialogues established in anthropology of religion, ritual studies, and Yi studies, this dissertation explores the processes of religious revitalization and knowledge transformation in contemporary southwestern China among the ethnic Yi people, one of China’s officially designated 55 minority groups. Utilizing ethnographic and visual methods during a 16-month long fieldwork (2016-2017) conducted in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southern Sichuan, this dissertation examines the politics of religion and knowledge in the mapping of both the Chinese state’s modernist transformations of the 20th century and the ways that local Yi ritual specialists (mainly focused on the bimo priest-shamans) and lay participants wrestle with the emerging circumstances of social change. It draws on local discourses of mixin (“superstition”) as a site for untangling China’s historical problematization of “religion” and the concurrent public ambivalence towards the legitimacy and conceptualization of Yi ritual practices. It also tackles the theoretical debate on magico-religious practices and suggests an analytic approach to Yi bimoist ritual knowledge, practice, and power by undertaking a comparative framework of shamanic studies in South America and Inner Asia. In addition, this dissertation develops an ethnographic understanding of the assemblages and trajectories of objects, animal sacrifice, and the materio-socio-sensorial environment in Yi everyday and ceremonial lives. With this, it illustrates how a morally legitimate relatedness in light of a socio-cosmo-genealogical flow of power is casted in a history-in-the-making of an ethnic group.

While past research has indicated that migration tends to lead to the death of ethnic marker use such as language, my research defies this traditional understanding of how migration impacts identity performance by showing that migration experiences often lead to support for the home language. The traditional understanding of migration's impacts on the use of ethnic markers also means an inadequate understanding of how migration impacts returned migrants’ relationship to indigenous social movements that also support the use of ethnic markers. This research is located in the Kaqchikel-speaking region of highland Guatemala, a place with high rates of returned migrants and an indigenous social movement known as the pan-Maya Movement struggling to reach grassroots populations to which most returned migrants belong. This work shows the complex relationships and connections between migration and indigenous social movements through migrations' impact on the use key markers in the Kaqchikel region, including language and clothing. My research first revealed high rates of internal migration and defines common migration paths for the Kaqchikel Maya, which are gendered. I show that certain experiences in migration do not lead to language death for Kaqchikel but instead create support for it through a polylinguistic stance. This work also found that men's traje use will soon enter a "sleeping" state in which it is not actively used but is documented and preserved. However, returned migrants are actively supporting women's traje use. I thus show that experiences in migration encourage returned migrants to continue the use of ethnic markers, a stance supported by the pan-Maya Movement. The Movement has had difficulty connecting to grassroots populations that include most of the migrants in this study. This research thus shows how migration aligns migrants' ideologies with the pan-Maya Movement. I conducted research in the three Kaqchikel-speaking townships of Tecpán Guatemala, San Juan Comalapa, and Santa Catarina Palopó. Each township has significantly different historical interactions with the state, connections to urban centers, rates of migration, and policies regarding language and clothing use that impact current migration paths and ethnic marker usage in each township in important ways. / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation examines the early history of the East African Revival in the 1930s and 1940s with careful attention to the way in which Christian beliefs and practices were appropriated and shaped by African revivalists in colonial Uganda and Ruanda-Urundi. With the sympathetic support of the evangelical-minded missionaries of the Ruanda Mission, the African revivalists (widely known as Balokole, Luganda for “saved ones”) played an indispensable role in the expansion of the revitalization movement beyond geographic, social, and cultural boundaries. In addition, the African revivalists made significant contributions to the creation of a distinctive African Christian spirituality that precipitated moral and spiritual transformation of numerous individuals. This study shows how the Balokole Revival gained adherents and spread into nearby regions through the involvement of African evangelists, teachers, and hospital workers. The “Bible Team” of itinerant evangelists who served voluntarily in remote villages was key to the rapid expansion of the movement. To sustain the effects of their conversion experiences, the African revivalists employed creative practices such as public testimony and fellowship meetings. In schools, Balokole teachers spread new moral values by living out the virtues of the revivalist piety; in hospitals, converted workers led daily prayer meetings and engaged in personal evangelism. All these efforts built up a strong indigenous Christian community based on common experience, belief, and liturgy. This dissertation contributes to the existing scholarship of the Revival by tracing its social and theological roots in the Ruanda Mission, and by foregrounding the pivotal role of the African revivalists in the shaping of the unique spiritual character of the movement. Particular attention is given to the causes, nature, and effects of religious conversion in the colonial context. An important feature of this study is its integration of social scientific studies about religious conversion with insider perspectives in the form of interviews and personal narratives. As active agents in the multiethnic and multicultural movement, the African revivalists articulated through their words and changed lives what it meant to be “saved.”