Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / It is easier for users to say that they frequent a park because they like the greenery than to say instead, that a park offers opportunities to meet or watch other people (Marcus, 1998).One of the main reasons people visit parks is to engage in both overt and covert social interaction (Gehl, 2010). Many people desire the opportunity to interact with others as a means of fulfilling their social well-being, but it is often unattainable in a civic space due to the lack of activities that promote social interaction. The lack of activities is specifically relevant in and around Washington Square Park, primarily due to a series of physical and social dilemmas the site faces. Washington Square Park is an underused civic space that has the potential to establish itself as a social civic anchor for downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Developing Washington Square Park into a civic space that promotes social interaction will help to achieve this potential. It will also help to bridge the gap with the current physical and social dilemmas that hinder the space. Through a process of literature review, precedent studies, and site analysis, project goals were established. To achieve these goals a set of design interventions were formed to address the physical and social dilemmas in and around the site. These interactions will then inform a final design for Washington Square Park that promotes a healthier lifestyle through social interaction for the users of the site.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Howard D. Hahn / Cities and towns across the world are in a dynamic state of change, and therefore, becoming responsive to new and innovative approaches to creating and restoring public spaces. These new approaches address the need for flexible, multifunctional spaces in order to adapt to and accommodate the changing demands and unexpected circumstances that occur within the city (Wall 1999, Temel 2006, Gehl 2011). Temporary landscapes, or site specific, time-limited designs of open space, have become an emerging approach to improving public spaces. These small scale projects provide unique experiences and offer a laboratory for experimentation where new, innovative ideas can be tested (Lydon 2012, Sargin and Savas 2012, Temel 2006). The idea of flexibility and the need for multifunctional spaces are explored through the following report by investigating how an innovative approach involving temporary landscapes can enhance streetscape quality and offer a variety of public activities. First, I developed a deeper understanding of temporary landscapes in order to identify the transition in approach to urban design from focusing on permanence to temporary, and express the importance of temporality in urban design. A design matrix exploring programmatic options and customizable design features was established through an extensive literature review and case study analysis. Through the application process, I explored the regulatory process involved in implementing a temporary landscape intended for the Aggieville Business District in Manhattan, Kansas. This procedure involved a review of the city's ordinances and liability concerns, designing a portable landscape, and constructing a prototype to be deployed off-street until approval is gained. The results from this project provide field evidence to support recommendations for future design iterations for portable landscapes that increase pedestrian comfort and support an expanded range of activities for public spaces. Prototypes of different design iterations and replications can also serve as future projects for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Design at Kansas State University. Ultimately, this project will begin a critical discussion of the future role of temporary landscapes in cities that are in a dynamic state of change.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason S. Brody / Kansas City is currently under achieving in its capacity of divert recyclable and compostable solid waste from city landfills. The city recycling system provides free access to single family residents, but it does not provide access to high density residential and commercial land uses commonly found Downtown. To solve this dilemma, KCDC has studied the current solid waste systems in the city, and developed its [re]considered proposal through a MARC Solid Waste Management District grant to improve Kansas City waste diversion. This is achieved through a system of links, clusters and nodes which will help to promote and facilitate greater recycling (KCDC 2015 Fall Studio 2015) Compost | KC seeks to answer if the organic nodes as proposed in can effectively compost residential organic waste in down town Kansas City. As part of this system, the organic node at 12th and Holmes functionally demonstrates the potential feasibility and benefits of residential compost of organic solid waste. Through the site design, the proposed organic node creates an integrated system of residential organic waste collection, processing and utilization. Collected form a 15 minute radius the waste is processed into a rich organic compost that is used in various ways to improve soil quality for stormwater management, carbon sequestration, and increased biomass production in and around the site. To compost the organic waste, the site contains a series of in-vessel composting drums, agitated compost piles connected to greenhouses, and an external maturing pile visibly demonstrating and educating the public composting benefits. Managed through a local non-profit organization, compost is used to grow a variety of produce and nursery stock sold to help fund the site management. Organic waste is brought to the site by organized collection with apartment complexes and free public drop-off points. By incentivizing access, ease and appeal of composting in Kansas City for residences, the organic node at 12th and Holmes achieves the goals of both the site design and [re] considered proposals. By meeting those goals, the organic node helps to increase organic waste diversion and increase education and awareness about the benefits of composting in downtown Kansas City.

While Jane Jacobs' frontal assault on "modern planning" is now over forty years old, communities around the United States are still struggling to deal with the legacy of modernist interventions that dramatically altered the historic urban form and culture of their downtowns. In the worst cases, whole zones were transformed into nearly unusable space. Reintegrating these lost spaces into the urban fabric is one of the most significant challenges of urban planners and designers today. Despite the ubiquity of lost spaces in American cities, comparatively little research has been done on the specific historic urban forms that were altered. This dissertation seeks to explore the processes of landscape change through a case study of Louis Armstrong's downtown neighborhood in New Orleans. It employs an urban morphological framework to uncover the specific landscape changes that occurred in the neighborhood over time. This micro-level view is broadened through an examination of the political economic forces that helped to transform the once vibrant neighborhood into the lost space of today. This study concludes that while it is tempting to identify the twentieth century modern interventions as the cause of lost space in New Orleans, such a reading unnecessarily isolates the modern development era from the historical continuum of land use that helped define the city. When the scope of inquiry into the causes of lost space is widened to include the historic formation of landscape remnants, long-standing patterns of lost space development begin to appear that stretch back to the founding of the city. Modern development, seen in this light, exacerbated existing negative landscape features more than created them.

Trata-se do projeto. Isto é: proposta e antecipação. Modificação do que aí está, especificação do que deve ser feito, de como deve ser feito e de onde deve ser feito, para instaurar um outro tempo mais humano e mais justo na cidade do homem. Ao se juntar a outros projetos, a outras propostas (a outras especificações) que virão, este projeto nada mais é do que uma contribuição, parcela e fragmento de um todo maior que se pretende, algum dia, o verdadeiro projeto coletivo nacional. Como projeto carrega várias outras intenções, além desta intenção maior. Houve uma intenção didática, de transmissão de conhecimento e experimentação. Houve também uma intenção metodológica, de instauração de um caminho a seguir, de itinerário a percorrer, de etapas a cumprir. E houve sempre, subjacente, uma intenção criativa, isto é, de produção de cultura e de comunicação do produto da cultura. / Not available

Este trabalho resulta da procura de relações entre arquitetura e cidade a partir da experiência de realizar projetos na cidade de São Paulo. Nesta organização desta experiência monta-se um panorama da evolução das linhas mais gerais da estruturação urbana em construção na intenção de criar sentidos para probabilidades de evolução destas linhas mais gerais onde essas intervenções pontuais como estudos, se apresentam como partes. / This work is the result of the search of relationships between architecture and the city from the experience of accomplish urban design projects in São Paulo city. To organize this experience a panorama of the evolution of the most general guidelines of the urban structure construction is made in order to create meanings for its future evolution probabilities, where the punctual interventions, as studies, are presented as parts.

A partir da comparação do ambiente urbano materializado pelas suas construções contemporâneas e o ambiente do espetáculo, materializado pelas suas construções cenográficas, este trabalho busca estabelecer os limites de cada ambiente e a possibilidade de sobreposição de soluções entre eles, identificando quais os recursos utilizados pela arquitetura, quando adota essa solução e a estratégia de construção da aparência envolvida nessa opção de solução projetual. / From the comparison of urban environment made by it's contemporary constructions and the spectacle environment made by it's scenery constructions, this work seeks to establish the limits of each environment and the possibilities of superposing solutions between them, identifying the ways used by the architecture when it adopts this solution and the construction of appearance involved in this optional of project solution.

The thermal environment in outdoor spaces can significantly influence users’ thermal perception and thus their use of these spaces. Improving microclimatic conditions in urban spaces will most likely encourage people to spend more time outdoors, with the potential to improve their health and wellbeing, as well as boosting social cohesion. As well as enhancing the environmental quality of cities it should also eventually improve the quality of life of its citizens. This thesis is one of the first attempts to investigate the outdoor thermal comfort and the effect of cultural differences in hot arid climates. Case studies were carefully selected in two different parts of the world (Marrakech in North Africa and Phoenix-Arizona in North America) to represent a variety of users in similar climatic context. Field surveys, carried out during winter and summer, included: structured interviews with a standard questionnaire; observations of the human activities; and microclimatic monitoring. The results revealed that the solely physiological approach is insufficient to assess the outdoor thermal comfort conditions in hot arid climates. Environmental variables such as air temperature and solar radiation, could have a great impact on the use of the outdoor spaces in the hot arid climate, and may determine the number of people and activities in them. The study also shows that participants who usually spend more time outdoors due to their life style, “outdoors individuals”, tend to stay longer in the studied sites compared with the “indoors individuals” who spend more time indoors. This is probably because the “outdoor individuals” have better experience of the outdoor conditions and respective thermal conditions. Experience has a strong link with expectations so that according to their past experience, people prepare themselves for the expected weather by taking adaptive measures. People from different cultures in the hot arid climate are likely to evaluate their thermal conditions differently, have diverse thermal comfort requirements, and use urban public spaces differently as well. Further work needs to be done to cover more geographical areas within the hot arid climate. Such an expansion may generalise the findings of this study or explain any particularity associated with the sites of the current study. More research is also needed to investigate he thermal requirements and use of outdoor spaces by different social groups by using robust classification methods. Emphasis should be on investigating the influence of thermal comfort on the use of outdoor public spaces by young and older people, and how that may affect their health and will being in such climates.

A partir da comparação do ambiente urbano materializado pelas suas construções contemporâneas e o ambiente do espetáculo, materializado pelas suas construções cenográficas, este trabalho busca estabelecer os limites de cada ambiente e a possibilidade de sobreposição de soluções entre eles, identificando quais os recursos utilizados pela arquitetura, quando adota essa solução e a estratégia de construção da aparência envolvida nessa opção de solução projetual. / From the comparison of urban environment made by it's contemporary constructions and the spectacle environment made by it's scenery constructions, this work seeks to establish the limits of each environment and the possibilities of superposing solutions between them, identifying the ways used by the architecture when it adopts this solution and the construction of appearance involved in this optional of project solution.

Lack of physical activity among New Zealanders is typically regarded as a serious public health concern. Surveys indicate that a considerable proportion of the population fail to engage in even modest amounts. As well as conferring health benefits, leading an active life can help to build social capital, achieve manual tasks, enhance enjoyment, and reduce traffic congestion and pollution. The research of physical activity in New Zealand is, therefore, important. Many factors influence physical activity behaviour, but traditionally there has been a focus on individual-level behaviour-change approaches. In recent years research has started to focus more on characteristics of physical and social environments, such as provision of cycle paths and development of community social cohesion. Concerned by what I observed to be an over-emphasis by New Zealand agencies on encouraging individual behaviour change, I set out to examine the factors that contributed to the shaping of built and social environments, and their effects on population physical activity. Identifying a gap in the research, I examined these factors via a case study of the Hamilton City Council (HCC). My study employed Foucauldian 'tools' to examine selected HCC documents and interview transcripts with a view to identifying the discourses underpinning local government action with regard to built and social environments and physical activity. In this process I interviewed seven HCC staff members from six relevant departments, including Parks and Gardens, Community Development, and Roading and Transportation. Data was gathered from the staff members using semi-structured interviews, based on pre-prepared guidelines, developed following a review of relevant literature. Relevant HCC strategy and planning documents were selected only after interviews were completed and included their urban design, transportation, creativity and identity and social well-being strategies. I adopted a Foucauldian perspective to analyse the data because I wanted to examine the phenomena of increased physical inactivity by questioning particular 'ways of knowing' and 'truths'. Such an examination, at the level of local government, could help reveal why some cities are more conducive to active living than others. This theoretical approach helped reveal a number of underpinning discourses, including discourses of economic rationality; the council as nurturer; safety and surveillance; participative government; and work efficiency. Key discourses of economic rationality and participative government were pervasive in both the interviews and documents, highlighting the degree to which economic considerations and consultative practices dominate local government actions. My four main findings were that HCC is shaped by and shapes certain discourses; HCC activities are contingent upon many factors outside their control; the creation of supportive environments for active living is a complex task; and, that dominating discourses can silence or obscure other equally valid discourses. These findings gave rise to discursive effects. Firstly, local authority planning, strategizing and action can promote population behaviour control by facilitating resident self-regulation. Secondly, factors outside the control of local authorities can impact on their ability to realise active living goals. Lastly, valid but silenced 'ways of knowing' about physical activity, health, and governance can constrain population physical activity participation. I found that HCC actions were reflective of the discourses identified, illustrating wider societal concerns regarding physical inactivity, obesity, citizenship, economic success, 'democratic' practices, and efficiency. This study contributes to population physical activity research by recognising the value of environmental approaches, but underscoring the need to consider the sources, mechanisms of maintenance, and effects of discourses circulating in local government using appropriate theoretical approaches.