Abstract by Cassandra Cautius Rammed earth is an ancient and imperishable material-process. Traditionally associated with rural construction and underdeveloped settings, the material has begun to enter the modern vernacular. While its use is not yet wide spread in the contemporary built environment, its benefits and positive applications to that setting are numerous. Rammed earth as a building material possesses ripe aesthetic qualities and hard geometric forms which frame the basis of the material’s compatibility with the contemporary urban vernacular. As a...
50:50 Sovereignty, Price, Density, Efficiency – Housing-led Economic Urban Expansion in Hong KongAbstract by Kam-Ming Mark TamHong Kong is an ideal laboratory in which to study relationships between economy and architecture. In this city, tremendous power is held by both the state and in private capital. Urban form may be read as a tangible spatial manifestation both calculated and inadvertent, of a historic model of economic development since its origins as a colonial outpost living in borrowed times....
The Average Best Solution : A Generative Design Tool for Multi-Objective Optimization of Free- Form Diagrid Structures Abstract by Farzin Misami Azad This research describes the generative modeling method implemented in an open-source program (Grasshopper) as a computational tool for performance evaluation and multi-objective optimization. It explores the initial steps of the design process to find the most fit design, based on goals defined by the designers, from among all possible solutions. In this context, this...
ABSTRACT by Caitlin Perry The Annapolis Valley Region is home to a rich and varied landscape. Agriculture, historic sites, the Bay of Fundy Shore, and the inland forests are just some of the aspects that together make up this unique region. Yet this exquisite region is under threat from the dual challenges of depopulation and unconsidered development leading to the loss of its essential historical and environmental character. These are quintessential rural problems and feed...
ABSTRACT by Leanna Lalonde “…last came the prospector and the mining company, but when they came they made the region theirs, and what they found, made all other industries seem of no account. Even the sulphur that blasted all things living, only made nature’s grimness grimmer still, substituted, as it were, deadly purpose for beautiful desolation.” – Stephen Leacock, My Discovery of the West; cited in John M. Gunn, Restoration and Recovery of an...
ABSTRACT BY Claire LubellObject _ This thesis draws from the specific universality of Johannesburg to develop a theoretical framework that critically examines the opposing forces of its urbanization. In just 130 years the city of Johannesburg has in fact been many different cities. As the embodiment of rapidly shifting economic and cultural ideologies, each identity was expediently manifested, leaving little time for sedimentation. Built through accumulated juxtapositions, Johannesburg has continuously evaded categorization despite popular perception as a...
Photos from KLH UK (top right) and Ecobuild (bottom right). ABSTRACT by Henry Murdock Our built environment is constantly adapting to changing factors: technology, the state of the economy, material resource availability, and, in turn, environmental conditions. The latter has gained notable importance in popular discourse, and especially in the architecture and construction professions. However, as much as we see terms such as “sustainability” and “green” in our everyday lives, government and industry are slow to take action investing in our future environment....
ABSTRACT by Amanda Motyer Disability is a part of the human condition and has existed since the beginning of time, yet the vast majority of people with disabilities are still expected to live in a built environment designed for what society has designated as the human “norm.” This has created a built world that is actually contributing to disablement. The past twenty years have seen many positive changes in terms of removing physical barriers to those with disabilities, in particular allowing wheelchair...
ABSTRACT by Jamie Usas In 1916 the macrocosmic tensions of global conflict became focused on the microcosm of Berlin, Ontario. The nationalistic turmoil of the First World War incited a series of destructive events resulting in a schism within the flourishing industrial community and pitting ethnic Germans against the loyalist British. The outcome of this internal conflict would see one identity forfeited for another, the name Berlin for that of Kitchener. Over the next century,...
As of June 24, 2014, Anna-Joy Veenstra’s completed thesis can be accessed here: https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/8553. ABSTRACT by Anna-Joy Veenstra Currently, the spaces designated for death in the city of Toronto are separated from other programmes — in states that range from neglected, full, inactive or marginalized — while any new sites are pushed to the outskirts. The decrease in time provided to grieve and in places to face the mystery of death means Toronto residents are losing their connections to the sacred. The...
