In 2005, city council approved the addition to the city of Trenčín town planning scheme, which deals with the modernization of the railway line. preparatory work is already underway related to the transhipment of the line, the process of modernization will be conducted for several years and will greatly affect the city center. There is the possibility of extending the center to the river. I saw a couple of designs and it is clear that the city sees an opportunity in the influx of investment and capital in the area, the possibility of new attractive commercial zone. I dealt with the reconstruction of the center and the quay in my last semester work entitled Trenčín 2020 - Quay and study center. Trenčín needs more cultural institutions or green instead of other commercial and administrative areas. Trencin is also missing theater building, performances in the present operate within the alternative scene in so called House of army. So i chose the space generated by moving the rail as the location for the new municipal theater and I decided to continue to work on this during the course of the diploma work. I propose theatre as part of the Center of Performing Arts (rather popular topic these days) and i added the alternative arena and a small concert hall on the both sides of theatre, creating a center which could become a decent space for cultural activities for important regional city. Instead of green which would be reduced on the riverbank I proposed green park located in front the cultural center (at the place where today lies vast parking and local train tracks - i dealt with this issue in my previous work), which creates a natural barrier against a relatively busy road in the center. So during the last semester I have already declared the location of the theatre , I have known about the possible access roads, perspectives, problems... Then I started to shape a mass of the building - inspired by the way of work by young Danish architects - I drew a rectangular block and began to form it under the influence of surrounding elements, or limits. So began the erecion of sharp "nose" over the river, which provides a view from the foyer and cafes located on the highest floor. Same nose is on the reverse side of the building facing the city's historic center and the castle, which helps me to extends the area needed for administrative support of theater. Because of the significant design of the foyer the building is extending towards the river and on both sides there are ramps which makes roof accesible for everyone to enjoy the view. At the end the building started to look like a ship stranded on the shore, with desire to reach the water again and sail into the unknown. The basic scheme of the building is divided into three main volumes: the foyer - scene - administrative and warehouse section. Enter the foyer from the river side, walk into the light, the stage is directly connected, and partly surrounded by storage. On the higher floors of the foyer is a music café with a view on the river on the other side of the theater scene are storage spaces are the actors' dressing rooms and administrative department.

The project presents the vision for new development of the site under the Castle of Bratislava . The project deals with important modifications in the city center and waterfront. The vision is verified by volumetric study with the program of new building of culture center.

Water and waterfronts are appealing to almost any person, as a visitor or designer. This study challenges the author's design processes and understanding of the landscape as the sculpted meeting ground, intersecting human and natural physical processes. It progresses from assumptions through collaborated ideas of others in a literature review through case studies of various waterfront situations and finally to the design project of the Jones Point waterfront in Alexandria, Virginia. Here the intermingled aspects from cultural activities over time and local, physical movement of land by water are assessed to be revealed and enhanced for the visitor's benefit, use, and connection with place. For it is the author's belief that the landscape and space can be sculpted, experienced, and imagined for the purpose of connecting us to a larger framework of living systems on this planet and beyond. The design extends the city to the waterfront and vice versa with an understanding of both physical processes and cultural choices to the point of being unable to distinguish action from reaction. / Master of Landscape Architecture

No description available.

This thesis is about openness in the architecture. After traveling and experiencing many different cities in Europe, I was intrigued with open spaces in cities, which offer a stage for different public interactions. I discovered that all these public spaces are formed by the surrounding architecture. This made me wonder about how architecture, as it becomes more independent today, could express and embody this openness within itself. I picked up my site at the end of the King Street in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, which is currently unappealing to the public. I decided to create a urban plaza for the waterfront in an architectural way by generating a pavilion, which will provide various kinds of information and satisfy needs to the visitors and public. The pavilion has several different services and lies in an area with flood issues. In response to these conditions, I made all the projects suspended between columns and assigned them different heights according to the context of the site and their own functions. The different levels of the projects generate vertical open spaces in order to let the surrounding environment flow seamlessly into the pavilion. The entire project has been organized under a glass structured roof with a central staircase that ascends from King Street to the Potomac River, which has all the accesses to each level. There is a designed channel in the middle bay, placed within the girder to direct rain back into the river. / Master of Architecture

This thesis is concerned with architecture and its changes through four seasons. It is about drawing new images of a building in different seasons. Like trees change their leaves in seasons and like people change their clothes in seasons, this project is about architecture changing its architectural elements in four seasons. It all began with an imagination of how a building would respond differently in each of the four seasons. The project, located at the waterfront of Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, is an Aquatic Center with swimming pools, changing areas, saunas, fitness area, and massage areas. The Aquatic Center creates different images to its visitors through surrounding natures and their changes, architectural elements and their movements, visitors and their activities. The goal was to provide people unique and different experiences every time they visit. / Master of Architecture

Water edge communities are portals to terra firma. Their role as negotiators between land and water is more important now than ever before due to increasing fluctuations in water height from storm surges and sea level rise. To understand the future of these edge conditions, my research looks to the past at a 1967 report entitled; The Potomac: A Report on Its Imperiled Future and a Guide for Its Orderly Development, authored by pioneers Stewart Udall, Ian McHarg and others. The report approached the ecology and culture of the Potomac River basin through the lens of the 1960s, a time of unprecedented growth. Emerging at the semi-centennial of the original report, my thesis is both an homage and critique, challenging its concepts of order and development, and redefining four of the original eleven principles in the report's concept of the ideal region. The thesis investigation also works within a more actionable scale of intervention, a tributary to the Potomac River. The project develops a transferable approach for other tributaries, exploring Quantico Creek and the town of Dumfries, Virginia, a historic seaport in Prince William County, as a case study for design intervention, and analyzes the historic and ecological conditions that led to the marginalization of the community in the wake of siltation and urban sprawl. The resulting proposal reconnects the community with the creek, and fulfills an intention of the original Potomac Report: to spark inspired realities along the river's 400-mile course. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Denna uppsats har skrivits under vårterminen 2011 och behandlar de riksintressen för kulturmiljövården som finns i Sverige, med en fallstudie som analyserar processerna rörande det omdiskuterade hotell- och kongresscentret Stockholm Waterfront i centrala Stockholm. Syftet är att få en förståelse för vad kulturmiljöns riksintressen innebär, vilket skydd de har och hur dessa påverkar omgivningen när förändringar sker. Planer på ett centralt beläget kongresscenter i Stockholm har funnits sedan 1990-talet, men det var år 2000 som processen drog igång på allvar. Flera förslag har tagits fram under årens lopp, men ekonomiska besvär har satt stopp två gånger om innan Projekt Klara, som var arbetsnamnet för det nu färdigställda Stockholm Waterfront, kom att bli verklighet. Projektet har dock fått utstå hård kritik då det från vissa håll menas att byggnaderna inkräktar på det riksintresse som Stockholms innerstad med Djurgården utgör, och stadsbyggnadsdebatten i Stockholm har delvis på grund av detta blivit mer aktiv än tidigare. Den kanske viktigaste frågan har visat sig vara huruvida nybygget utgör en påtaglig skada på riksintresset, vilket inte har varit lätt att avgöra då det är ett subjektivt ämne. / This essay was written during the spring term of 2011 and focuses on the national heritage areas in Sweden, with a case study which analyzes the processes around the controversial hotel and congress center Stockholm Waterfront in central Stockholm. The purpose is to understand what the term national heritage area actually means, what protection they hold and how they affect the surrounding area when changes occur. Plans for a new congress center in Stockholm have existed since the 1990s, but the actual planning process begun in the year 2000. Several proposals have been presented during the years, but economical difficulties have stopped two of them before the so called Projekt Klara, which today is known as Stockholm Waterfront, could become reality. The project has generated a lot of criticism since some claim that the buildings are intruding on the national heritage area that Stockholm’s inner city and Djurgården form, and the city planning debate has partly because of this become more active than before. The perhaps most important aspect has been whether the new buildings have caused significant damage on the national heritage, which is hard to determine since it is a question of subjectivity.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary C. Kingery-Page / Our water bodies have functioned as a critical transportation network, moving people, raw materials, products and goods across countries and continents. Starting as hubs of shipping, trade, and commerce, water bodies were the center of social and economic life of early cities. Technological advances in freight transport spelled the eventual demise of urban ports. This transformation has left vast swathes of vacant, urban waterfront property under-used, neglected, and disconnected from cities that once thrived along the water. This under-utilized land is now seen as a resource for revitalizing urban cores. Cities are looking to reclaim their once prosperous waterfronts (Fisher et al. 2004). Detroit’s riverfront has long been plagued by industry and pollution. For the past 25 years, Detroit has been striving to turn its dilapidated shoreline into a thriving public asset. Today, three and a half miles of the Detroit RiverWalk stretching from Joe Louis Arena east to Gabriel Richard Park have been completed and is open to the public (Brown 2007). Designs are currently being developed to extend the RiverWalk west to Ambassador Bridge, but no studies are planned for the east end toward Water Works Park and beyond(Brown 2007). The existing eastern terminus of Detroit’s RiverWalk does not allow access to the riverfront from neighborhoods that lie to the north and east. Residents have expressed growing interest in extending the RiverWalk and greenway connections to promote use (The Villages Community Development Corporation 2010). How can the Detroit RiverWalk be configured to extend eastward in order to connect neighborhoods and communities to the waterfront, provide amenities in waterfront parks, and create pedestrian greenway linkages? The Detroit riverfront will be accessible to surrounding neighborhoods with the east extension of the RiverWalk, redesign of waterfront parks, and greenway linkages which connect communities with the waterfront and amenities. Humans have a natural attraction to water; therefore “the public increasingly desires and expects access to the water’s edge” (Brown 2007). Pedestrian access is fundamental, particularly linking outlying areas to the water’s edge (Marshall 2001). The RiverWalk extension consists of research of waterfront theory, greenway practices, and the existing riverfront. Critical theory principles and contextual information will be extruded and organized into key components: Extend, Connect, and Provide. These components will outline the analysis, programming, and design phases in order to create a coherent master plan. Detroit can be a precedent for greenway and waterfront development in residential neighborhoods. The Detroit riverfront can be transformed into a public amenity for residents and visitors to benefit, enjoy, and appreciate the power of our fundamental resource: water.

After the fall of communism in Eastern and Southeastern Europe in 1989 the countries that had been under socialist rule underwent a process of political, economical and social reforms and changes. These changes also had a major impact on the process of urban planning; creating a disruption in previously held planning ideas and patterns and causing a brake with the former planning system. In this context new approaches to planning arose, as did new challenges and problems, such as the phenomenon of informal and unplanned settlements. This study seeks to give some answers to the origins and causes of the development of informal settlements in Belgrade as well as inquiring how planning authorities are currently dealing with the problem in light of the large-scale new construction project Belgrade Waterfront. The data was collected using an inductive, qualitative approach through interviews, observations and by examining secondary sources on the topic. The results indicate a city still struggling with finding a functional planning system, scarred by wars, sanctions and an ongoing refugee crisis and with a government that too often prioritizes grand building projects over meeting the needs of its citizens.