Search results
(1 - 20 of 58)
Pages
- Title
- House museums In Chicago: a re-examination of motives, origins, and transformations of the institutions
- Creator
- Whittaker, Daniel Joseph
- Date
- 2018
- Description
-
A house museum is a former residence converted into a publicly accessible structure, which preserves an identity of its original domestic...
Show moreA house museum is a former residence converted into a publicly accessible structure, which preserves an identity of its original domestic history. These houses shelter a wide variety of institutions with a diverse range of imperatives and services. With a focus on Chicago house museums, this dissertation seeks an overarching pattern underlying this conversion and reuse of residential buildings. This dissertation focuses on six house museums in Chicago: the Palmer Castle, the Harding Castle, the Clarke House, the Glessner House, the Madlener House and the Robie House. The Palmer and Harding Castles ceased to exist as house museums and are no longer standing.Conventional archival research conducted during the initial phases yielded historiographies that corroborate as well as contradict popular stories about the process by which the houses were preserved, salvaged and converted. Key primary-source research includes interviews with persons involved in—and observant of—motivations and forces in play upon these six case studies. Texts of the interviews are included in appendices. The dissertation reveals how select individuals (acting variously as architects, historians, concerned citizens, and leaders of institutions) influenced the creation of the six house museums. This dissertation contains a chronicle and an evaluation of the values which informed and influenced the house museum condition in Chicago in an environment which largely pre-dated the historic building preservation movement in America. The case studies show that the persons and parties involved in saving various houses for reuse did not generally execute definitive plans, in full, with a clear ultimate goal. Instead, in all cases, individuals and small groups of people fought an array of idiosyncratic battles, often yielding short-term victories. Economic pressures, political conditions, and societal values evolve, ushering in new opportunities and new dangers for nascent institutions inhabiting former residences. As each generation of directors, curators and governing boards mature and matriculate, the goals and objectives which influenced the reuse of their house museums changed. The very notion of attaining some sort of permanent statis has been found, through this research, to be elusive. Dynamism in both the people and the institution reusing these house museums can yield positive outcomes ensuring preservation of the institution of the house museum.
Show less
- Title
- Making A Hot, Arid, Desert Arab City More Livable: Investigating the Role of Street Design in Enhancing Walkability in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Creator
- Almahdy, Omar Esam
- Date
- 2020
- Description
-
Since the introduction of automobiles in the 1950s, cities in Saudi Arabia have evolved around an automobile infrastructure. Riyadh, the...
Show moreSince the introduction of automobiles in the 1950s, cities in Saudi Arabia have evolved around an automobile infrastructure. Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia with a population of over 7.2 million, is facing an urban mobility challenge. For most inhabitants, driving is the only transportation available, since there is not yet an efficient public transit system. Currently, contemporary urban streets in Riyadh are limited to automobiles and inaccessible to pedestrians. Creating a walkable environment and improving walkability could solve numerous problems like the obesity crisis, the lack of city vibrancy, traffic congestion, environmental injustice, and social isolation. In this research, I investigate the climatic, geographic, social, and cultural factors that influence walkability in Riyadh as a hot, arid, and desert Arab city. The study uses mixed methods that include structured streetscape observations and pedestrian activity mapping as well as surveys and interviews with Riyadh’s citizens. Also, more data were collected through interviews with experts in Saudi urban planning and development. The issue of walkability in Riyadh extends beyond the design of the built environment. Many non-physical barriers hinder people from walking. Again, the perception of the streets as thoroughfares for automobiles only has deepened the problem. However, the lack of adequate sidewalks on most streets is the main reason why people do not walk. Also, this lack is a critical indicator of the dearth of efficient and proper urban design. The harsh climatic conditions along with the occasional sandstorms as well as polluted ambient air make the walking experience uncomfortable most of the year. To sum up, this study indicates that people’s awareness of the value and importance of having walkable streets and minimizing the reliance on motorized transport modes is a key driver in creating a pedestrian-friendly street.
Show less
- Title
- REVISITING MODERNIST MASS-HOUSING: RESIDENTS AS ACTIVE AGENTS OF CHANGE
- Creator
- Shah, Nadia
- Date
- 2021
- Description
-
In this PhD research, I have examined the modernist approach of mid-20thcentury mass housing projects against the backdrop of post-colonial...
Show moreIn this PhD research, I have examined the modernist approach of mid-20thcentury mass housing projects against the backdrop of post-colonial nation building and the need for housing refugees through resettlement projects after World War II. In this epoch most of the refugees were accommodated in newly decolonized nation states that were struggling to create their national identity as ‘modern'. It was at this critical moment in history, when the West assumed the paternalistic role of development of the so-called ‘Third World’, the ‘Global South’ or the ‘Underdeveloped Nations’, that they defined what is 'modern' using Western standards of ‘normalcy’. Aboard this international development project, architectural modernism’s response was to ‘generalize problems’ and provide ‘normative prescriptions’ as solutions based on rational models. I have reviewed the timeline of modernist ideas that led to mass housing and the associated notion of ‘normalization of space,’ presenting three scales used to organize society: regional planning, land use zoning, and mass-produced architecture, as a prescriptive process. I have examined architecture’s ‘normalization’ as a source of conflict for nation states in their process of national identity formation. I argue that the pedagogy of both modernism and late modernism, presented cultural distinction as an intermediary condition that was subject to change. In particular, modernist architecture engaged with the “concept of normalcy” for the formation of a modern society through spatial and physical organization. Using the case study of Pakistan, I present how this notion was at odds with Pakistani nationalism, since the country was created on the premise to house a traditional society. I have used the example of the Greek architect, Constantinos Doxiadis and his trajectory of late modernism for solving the global housing crisis after World War II. For this purpose, I present the case of a particular post World War II refugee resettlement project called Korangi Town in Karachi Pakistan. This case is studied in the light of modernist planning and architectural models to examine what was proposed, designed, and predicted by this professional architect and how Korangi Town has evolved in the past sixty years. The objective is to see how the new normal architecture and planning standards of the West were received in the non-Western culture? The case study of Korangi Town reveals that the residents of a locale may organize themselves along cultural and ethnic lines, deviating from implemented prescriptive and normative solutions. The changes that the residents made to their built environment through the processes identified as ‘appropriation’, ‘adaptation’ and ‘expansion’ in the dissertation are interpreted as the signs of their active agency. The residents’ agency emerges to reshape their built environs to meet their cultural and individual needs, but most of all their economic needs. These observations show that rather than being passive recipients of ready-made and prescriptive solutions, the residents were active agents in adjusting and adding to their environment. Inhabitants’ active agency needs attention by the planning and architecture professions to assure that environments intended for them have their meaningful input. This dissertation raises questions about how these professions can support this active agency from the beginning and through the planning and design processes.
Show less
- Title
- TOWARD A MODERN CIVIC MONUMENTALITY: ARCHES, VAULTS, AND DOMES IN POSTWAR AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE
- Creator
- Amado Petroli, Marcos
- Date
- 2021
- Description
-
This dissertation studies the use of arcuated structures in post-World War II American civic buildings, which serve both to answer the...
Show moreThis dissertation studies the use of arcuated structures in post-World War II American civic buildings, which serve both to answer the practical and functional demands of the architectural program, and to communicate a distinct and hierarchical character inherent to the very genesis of civic architecture. This research demonstrates how a generation of multicultural architects, educated in the academic tradition, with the collaboration of structural engineers, participated in the expansion of the syntax and vocabulary of modern architecture at a time when the language of monumentality was also being discussed. In doing so, they moved away from a Bauhaus-German doctrine that promoted a universal, orthogonal, and homogeneous architectural language, serving all types of buildings. In this context, this research redefines the relationship between academic tradition and modern approaches to monumentality in American architecture, which are usually seen as antagonistic languages. To test the hypothesis that these new arched forms, of high structural engineering, were linked to both modern and academic aspects, and more precisely, French roots, this research addresses three main issues: (i) the mistrust of the new monumentality, which was often mystified and associated with totalitarian regimes; (ii) the analysis of this production through pioneering case studies in postwar arched structures; and (iii) the relationship between academic tradition and modern architecture, with an emphasis on the theory of "architectural character." Finally, this research concludes that the construction of this civic monumentality in the United States was not only a rational response to special programs and an opposition to the universal character of modern buildings, but also the result of an immigration of more inclusive ideas, which, reacting with the local tradition and heritage of the Beaux-Arts system, gave rise to an autochthonous American production.
Show less
- Title
- An aircraft hangar and the study of long-span metal structures
- Creator
- Sharpe, David C. (David Carold)
- Date
- 1962-06
- Description
-
The study of long-span structures developed from a design problem for an aircraft hangar. The problem of the aircraft hangar was concerned...
Show moreThe study of long-span structures developed from a design problem for an aircraft hangar. The problem of the aircraft hangar was concerned with the development of a reasonable structurtal type into an architectural solution. Several types were considered; the truss, the arch, a rigid frame system in prestressed concrete. These were discarded in favor of a rigid frame system of steel that seemed to give the best visual solution.
Show less
- Title
- A Hybrid Data-Driven Simulation Framework For Integrated Energy-Air Quality (iE-AQ) Modeling at Multiple Urban Scales
- Creator
- Ashayeri, Mehdi
- Date
- 2020
- Description
-
To date, limited work has been done to collectively incorporate two key urban challenges: climate change and air pollution for the design of...
Show moreTo date, limited work has been done to collectively incorporate two key urban challenges: climate change and air pollution for the design of sustainable and healthy built environments. Main limitations to doing so include the existence of large spatiotemporal gaps in local outdoor air pollution data and a lack of a formal theoretical framework to effectively integrate localized urban air pollution data into sustainable built environment design strategies such as natural ventilation in buildings. This work hypothesizes that emerging advanced computational modeling approaches, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques, along with big open data set initiatives, can be used to fill some of those gaps. This can be achieved if urban air quality explanatory factors are properly identified and effectively connected to the current building performance simulation workflows.Therefore, the primary objective of this dissertation is to develop a hybrid AI-based data-driven simulation framework for integrated Energy-Air Quality (iE-AQ) modeling to quantify the combined energy reduction profiles and health risks implications of sustainable built environment design. This framework (1) incorporates dynamic human-centered factors, including mobility and building occupancy among others into the model, (2) interlinks land use regression (LUR), inverse distance weighting (IDW), and building energy simulation (BES) approaches via the R computational platform for developing the model, and (3) develops a web-based platform and interactive tool for visualizing and communicating the results. A series of novel machine learning approaches are tested within the workflow to improve efficiency and accuracy of the simulation model. A multi-scale model of urban air quality (using PM2.5 concentrations as the end point) and weather localization model with high spatiotemporal resolution was developed for Chicago, IL using low-cost sensor data. The integrated energy and air quality model was tested for the prototype office building at multiple urban scales in Chicago through applying air pollution-adjusted natural ventilation suitable hours.Results showed that the proposed ML approaches improved model accuracy above traditional simulation and statistical modeling approaches and that incorporating dynamic building-related factors such as human activity patterns can further improve urban air quality prediction models. The results of integrated energy and air quality (iE-AQ) analysis highlight that the energy saving potentials for natural ventilation considering local ambient air pollution and micro-climate data vary from 5.2% to 17% within Chicago. The proposed framework and tool have the potential to aid architects, engineers, planners and urban health policymakers in designing sustainable cities and empowering analytical solutions for reducing human health risk.
Show less
- Title
- THE SPATIAL BLOCK: NATURAL VENTILATION IN HOT AND DRY CLIMATES OF TURKEY
- Creator
- BAY, EZGI
- Date
- 2020
- Description
-
The housing deficit is a global problem. In Turkey, solutions to remedy scarce, unaffordable, and low-grade housing are being proposed by TOKI...
Show moreThe housing deficit is a global problem. In Turkey, solutions to remedy scarce, unaffordable, and low-grade housing are being proposed by TOKI, the governmental mass housing administration. Its residential projects based on ‘standard regulations’ and ‘high-rise typologies’ have been widely criticized. The ‘one size fits all’ approach is known for its limited exploration of contemporary needs of this society. Low quality urban and architectural conditions in TOKI projects are believed to marginalize the living standards of the residents. Sprawling rapidly throughout different regions around the country, a permanent complaint of TOKI residents is related to outdoor and indoor thermal conditions. As consequence of this ‘homogenization effect’, overheated and underheated conditions are experienced in these ‘naturally ventilated buildings’ designed with few considerations regarding the surrounding environment. Minimal research has been done on how TOKI towers perform under extreme seasonal conditions and what other building forms could be used in consonance with localized Turkish climates. Most TOKI projects have been developed for ‘hot and dry climates’ that also correspond to areas with larger urban growth from recent migrations. Through post-occupancy evaluations, this dissertation investigates a TOKI built in this climatic context. At the same time, this study brings new ‘typological’ alternatives analyzed through energy simulations and computer fluid dynamics (CFD). These methods are intended to bring clarity about the dynamic of thermal stress inside this project, and how renewable sources, such as prevailing winds, could be used to alleviate thermal related problems in consonance with ‘building forms’ derived from ‘vernacular architecture’ in this region.Inputs from residents illustrate the dynamics of thermal stress and reliance on natural ventilation in summer conditions. It is confirmed through results of the Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD) and the Air Changes per Hour (ACH) obtained from Simulations in the IES-VE software. The relationship between human thermal comfort and indoor microclimate in TOKI housing can be improved through the reformulation of its residential typologies. The ‘Spatial Block’ approach presented in this dissertation brings the idea of how urban and architectural decisions in addition to improving indoor climatic conditions and thermal satisfaction or residents, brings them improved social integration.
Show less
- Title
- Bungalow - Alternate front elevations for wide or narrow lots
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1990
- Description
-
Hand-colored laser print.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Tahiti Hotel: Village des Pecheurs
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1990-11
- Description
-
Color conceptual drawing of a "fishermen's village" for the Sheraton Hotel project on the island of Moorea, northwest of Tahiti.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Tahiti Hotel: Seaside bungalow
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1990-11
- Description
-
Color conceptual drawing of a bungalow for the Sheraton Hotel project on the island of Moorea, northwest of Tahiti.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Tahiti Hotel: Des Terrasses
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1990-11
- Description
-
Color conceptual drawing of terraces for the Sheraton Hotel project on the island of Moorea, northwest of Tahiti.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Tahiti Hotel: View of chute with spa in the foreground
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1990-11-06
- Description
-
Color conceptual drawing of the spa for the Sheraton Hotel project on the island of Moorea, northwest of Tahiti.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Tahiti Hotel: Rooms overlooking the Pacifc
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1990-11
- Description
-
Color conceptual drawing of terraces overlooking the Pacific Ocean for the Sheraton Hotel project on the island of Moorea, northwest of Tahiti.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Tahiti Hotel: Full moon dance
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1990-11
- Description
-
Color conceptual drawing for the Sheraton Hotel project on the island of Moorea, northwest of Tahiti.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- San Bar house - East elevation
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1979-04-13
- Description
-
Color sketch of the east elevation of a home designed for the San Bar Beach community of South Haven, Michigan.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- San Bar house - Plan
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1979-04-13
- Description
-
Floor plan of a home designed for the San Bar Beach community of South Haven, Michigan.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- San Bar house - East elevation
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1979-04-16
- Description
-
Color sketch of the east elevation of a home designed for the San Bar Beach community of South Haven, Michigan.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Walton Carpets Exterior, ca. 1976
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1976
- Description
-
Photograph of the exterior of Walton Carpets designed by Robert Gordon. Date of photograph is unknown. Date listed is approximate.
- Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Uptown Theater District painting, 1997
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1997-03
- Description
-
Watercolor painting completed as part of a proposal for the renovation of the Uptown Theatre and development of the Uptown theater district in...
Show moreWatercolor painting completed as part of a proposal for the renovation of the Uptown Theatre and development of the Uptown theater district in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.
Show less - Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010
- Title
- Uptown Theater District painting, 1997
- Creator
- Gordon, Robert Philip
- Date
- 1997-03
- Description
-
Watercolor painting completed as part of a proposal for the renovation of the Uptown Theatre and development of the Uptown theater district in...
Show moreWatercolor painting completed as part of a proposal for the renovation of the Uptown Theatre and development of the Uptown theater district in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.
Show less - Collection
- Robert Philip Gordon papers, 1963-2010