Waterfront space is an essential urban component that protects inner land and functions as an interface between nature and the built and human environments. Researching both theoretical and practical resources could be helpful in determining their prospective roles and benefits. Instead of being used solely as a public space, it should be a site that combines urban and natural environments. The Bund in Shanghai is an ideal location for studying the development of a more sustainable environment and investigating the relationship between urban and natural environments. The current Bund is in response to a row of buildings built during the period of foreign settlement and has weak connections to both the city and the river. As a first step toward reimagining its role and relationship with its surroundings, I investigate the site's design development history, site features, and people's needs. The general design direction is guided by two design principles. First, the proposed Bund is strongly associated with its history, natural environment, and urban context. Thus, the new development is inextricably attached to its location and environment. In addition, the new Bund provides more micro-spaces that people can utilize based on their activities. These spaces are interconnected, but their occupancy by different people does not conflict. The Bund's function and relationship with the urban environment, people, and nature will be redefined through the analysis and design phases. / Master of Science / Cities adjacent to bodies of water, such as the ocean, a river, or a pond, have waterfront space. It protects the city and is also a popular outdoor space. It is essential to understand its roles and functions thoroughly. Exploring and utilizing the potential benefits of waterfront space could create a more enjoyable and sustainable outdoor space for the public and the city. The Bund in Shanghai is ideal for studying the function of urban and natural environments and their relationship. The location would be evaluated and experimented with to create a better public space for the city and its inhabitants. The design development could be used as a waterfront prototype and standard for communities seeking a harmonious environment among the city, nature, and people.

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My thesis is regarding the regeneration of identity and a sense of place on the unappealing nature of public open space, in terms of its urban context and architecture. A sense of place is related to the quality and character of making a place unique or special. It could be described as the established atmosphere or character of an individuals relationship with a place.  So a good sense of place becomes a place that people would like to be a part of and enhances a human's positive emotional attachment making people feel connected to a place. So creating a sense of place should be based on understanding the cultural identity, social activity, physical environment and heritage of a place. Shown on the left are two images captured from the movie "Lost in Translation"an American comedy-drama film directed and written by Sofia Coppola in 2003. The film revolves around an aging actor, Bob Harris, and a recent college graduate actress, Charlotte. These two Americans develop empathy after meeting by chance at their hotel bar in Tokyo. The movie explores themes of loneliness, insomnia, existential boredom and culture shock against the surroundings of a modern Japanese city. Both images from the movie show an unbalanced scale of the environment around the actor. These images reminded me of the first impression of disconnected or disappointed that I had of the atmosphere at the end of King Street in Alexandria, Virginia. The place was not comfortable to be in with its own character and the access to the water was hard to be sense visually. The first impression of this place still occupied my mind rather than any other attractive aspects within the area. This unpleasant experience arose from my own individual relationship with the place but later I figured out that it had already been seen as a public issue. These circumstances motivated me to think about how to regenerate a strong local sense of place in the area. The site of the project is an entire block from the Old Dominion Boat Club at the King Street Park to the Waterfront Park on Prince Street along the Potomac River in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. The main access to the site is at the end of King Street. King Street has been the dominant connection to the water and the main corridor, carrying most of the entertainments in Old Town. Currently though, it lacks designated routes to the water at the end of the street. This project, an urban park pavilion, is composed of four different programs: the roof park, plaza, community performance Theater and boat taxi terminal which will be treated as equal value by a juxtaposed arrangement and interconnected street grids. My thesis will narrates how to develop a sense of place through the interaction of quality of architecture, infrastructure, cultural identities, social activities and the environment. / Master of Architecture

This project is an investigation into issues surrounding the placing of a building into the context of a sloped site. The study manifests itself through the design of a farmer's market, restaurant and retail space on a site defined by a change on volumetric disposition, movement pattern and structural system. / Master of Architecture

In an attempt to address the accessibility of the arts in Washington, D.C. and also to engage the underutilized waterfront, this thesis proposes a cultural center for the arts that at once links the building with the water, but which also becomes a source of excitement for the city. The arts center will act as an atelier that mixes education, production and exhibition of fine arts, theater, dance and music, with the goal being to achieve a space alive with activity and shared energy. Typically, buildings for art education have followed a model that emphasizes interaction by forcing artists of different media to share the same space in a classroom environment. Those same rooms may appear no different than, say, a room intended for an English class or science lab. The District of Columbia Waterfront Atelier (DCWA) aims to offer spaces that are designed for the specific medium and nothing else, thus, elevating the importance of the craft. By separating the arts into singular units, one may wonder if interaction between artists is lost. Interaction, however, may be achieved through different methods rather than, simply, by programmatic ones and the DCWA has become an exploration to discover alternatives to maintain and heighten the universal goal of an art atelier: to become engulfed and energized by the arts in an interactive setting. / Master of Architecture

wilderness and urban texture Since the earliest beginnings of civilization, mankind has strived to form urban space by limiting its outlines and bringing a system of order to the wilderness of nature. Thus street and place mark the public space clearly bound by built mass, the enclosure of the more private space. In many modern cities of the United States the urban counterpart of street and place the continuous building mass is largely missing. Colin Rowe describes this phenomena as the unpleasant condition of urban texture of the modern city. If we want to fix that urban wilderness of the American City, we have to redraw its outlines and redefine its spaces. / Master of Architecture

This study evaluated the role of waterfront development in urban regeneration, as waterfronts are used as the element that re-establishes the physical links between parts of the city. Consequently, waterfront development is an essential open resource where visitors can carry out diverse social and cultural activities on a daily basis. Furthermore, CBDs benefit from lively waterfronts, which become popular tourist attractions. There is a dire need for urban regeneration. The study focuses on the evolution of waterfront development through the urban morphology modelsto identify the starting point of central places and the factors that may have an effect on the growth of a city. Just as urban regeneration forms part of the evolution of cities and waterfronts, and as the cities and waterfronts developed so did the term urban regeneration evolve to its present form. Thus, one has to understand what components have an influence on the term urban regeneration and what the benefits are. Thereafter, the different aspects of urban development and urban regeneration are incorporated into waterfront development to understand the role of waterfront development in urban regeneration. As waterfront development took place, the first port was developed to ensure transportation of goods from one place to the next. Subsequently, the role of the waterfront became economically driven. As time passed and the old harbour fronts fell into disuse, a new role for the waterfront was needed, and the new role came with waterfront regeneration. Historically, waterfront regeneration was only seen as imperative when a waterfront area is critical for the growth of the city. Notably, when there is no use for the area and the city is in the decline period, waterfront regeneration will be a priority. Consequently, the empirical study focused on exploring this role of waterfront development by means of two international case studies (Baltimore Inner Harbour, Toronto Harbour Front) and two national case studies (V& A Waterfront, Mossel Bay CBD and Port Precinct Plan). A qualitative approach was selected because it focuses on collecting and analysing information in as many forms as possible. Furthermore, a qualitative approach aims to achieve an in-depth understanding of the matter, which is important to allocate the role of waterfront development in urban regeneration. As the study focuses on understanding the role of waterfront development as part of urban regeneration within cities, it explores the methodological framework of case studies. The case study approach involves one or more circumstances within a bounded system. As some of the case studies can be irrelevant to a study, the qualitative approach was appropriate for this study, because it focuses on eliminating unwanted case studies. This is importantto ensure that case studies do not influence the result. To ensure that the relevant information is selected, the multiple case study design was used. The study concludes that waterfront development has three primary roles in urban regeneration and that these roles have evolved over time. In conclusion, the role of waterfront development is not only economically motivated, but also environmentally and socially significant. / MSc (Urban and Regional Planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This study evaluated the role of waterfront development in urban regeneration, as waterfronts are used as the element that re-establishes the physical links between parts of the city. Consequently, waterfront development is an essential open resource where visitors can carry out diverse social and cultural activities on a daily basis. Furthermore, CBDs benefit from lively waterfronts, which become popular tourist attractions. There is a dire need for urban regeneration. The study focuses on the evolution of waterfront development through the urban morphology modelsto identify the starting point of central places and the factors that may have an effect on the growth of a city. Just as urban regeneration forms part of the evolution of cities and waterfronts, and as the cities and waterfronts developed so did the term urban regeneration evolve to its present form. Thus, one has to understand what components have an influence on the term urban regeneration and what the benefits are. Thereafter, the different aspects of urban development and urban regeneration are incorporated into waterfront development to understand the role of waterfront development in urban regeneration. As waterfront development took place, the first port was developed to ensure transportation of goods from one place to the next. Subsequently, the role of the waterfront became economically driven. As time passed and the old harbour fronts fell into disuse, a new role for the waterfront was needed, and the new role came with waterfront regeneration. Historically, waterfront regeneration was only seen as imperative when a waterfront area is critical for the growth of the city. Notably, when there is no use for the area and the city is in the decline period, waterfront regeneration will be a priority. Consequently, the empirical study focused on exploring this role of waterfront development by means of two international case studies (Baltimore Inner Harbour, Toronto Harbour Front) and two national case studies (V& A Waterfront, Mossel Bay CBD and Port Precinct Plan). A qualitative approach was selected because it focuses on collecting and analysing information in as many forms as possible. Furthermore, a qualitative approach aims to achieve an in-depth understanding of the matter, which is important to allocate the role of waterfront development in urban regeneration. As the study focuses on understanding the role of waterfront development as part of urban regeneration within cities, it explores the methodological framework of case studies. The case study approach involves one or more circumstances within a bounded system. As some of the case studies can be irrelevant to a study, the qualitative approach was appropriate for this study, because it focuses on eliminating unwanted case studies. This is importantto ensure that case studies do not influence the result. To ensure that the relevant information is selected, the multiple case study design was used. The study concludes that waterfront development has three primary roles in urban regeneration and that these roles have evolved over time. In conclusion, the role of waterfront development is not only economically motivated, but also environmentally and socially significant. / MSc (Urban and Regional Planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The thesis deals with issues of waterfronts along the Svitava in Brno. The project is based on previous two semesters, when a thorough analysis of the waterfront area was elaborated in cooperation with Bc. Linda Pisova and Bc. Zdenka Sedlakova. The analysis deals with issues of brownfields that occupy an extensive area along the river as well. The aim of this work is waterfront revitalization and reinterpretation and creating designs to bring new activities to particular areas that will be adequate to distinctive atmosphere of the sites. Linking the broken relations and propose new ideas as means of recovery or restitution of the city's lost relationship to the river.