2022-2023 Senior Honors Theses
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This collection contains theses produced by Class of 2023 Honors students
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Browsing 2022-2023 Senior Honors Theses by Department "Architecture and Design, Gerald D. Hines College of"
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Item A Future of Building The Old Way: A case study of bio-based materials substituting for general construction materials(2023-05-01) Wilcox, BlakeStudying The Implementations of Bio-Based Materials And Bio-fabrications To Reduce Residential C&D Landfill Waste. In today's era of architecture, we have made monumental strides in changing our built environment. The developments in technology from the industrial revolution spawned the ability for the mass production and assembly of materials that have been standardized for the ease of construction. For this reason, developers have been able to use these general materials to expand out to new destinations and develop more settlements. Though growth is a good thing for humanity, it also demands the need for more consumption of the materials used for construction. The downfall is that these general materials we are using now are not all sustainable and do create waste at the end of their life cycle. Therein lies the problem that will continue to grow if nothing is changed. [...]Item About Time: Redressing the Runway(2023-05-01) Asuncion, TriciajaneThe fashion industry remains one of the most profitable and significant markets of the global economy. The eminence of the industry often overshadows its own negative impacts that play a role in the social and environmental well-being of the ecosystem. The terms, “back of house” and “front of house” are used in this investigation to indicate the fashion production process the everyday consumer does not see, and the point of sale retail environment that the consumer experiences, respectively. “Back of house” operations such as the exploitation of natural resources and workers, and the production of contamination and pollution, are asked by the extravaganza and glamour of the “front of house.” The selected “front of house” design precedent for exploration and deconstruction is the fashion runway, which displays an idealized image of commodity. Created for the intention of desire and spectacle, runway shows encourage consumption and even overconsumption, employing allure to conceal the ugly reality of the industry. The architectural design in this thesis incorporates semi-transparent fabric as a front-of-house set design element to tell a narrative on the back-of-house of the fashion industry. As a way to communicate flow, movement, excess, contamination, and suffocation of the industry, the fabric set design transforms with a modeled choreography throughout the duration of the show. The choreography is designed after the movement of workers in the supply chain in order to convey the toll that labor takes on the body. The runway is sited in the fashion capital of Milan, Italy, due to its prestige and history of manufacturing and craftsmanship. The runway show is divided into three acts: (1) Construction, (2) Consumption, and (3) Deconstruction. Within the three acts, the circulatory relationship between the audience and the models changes, as a way to change the perspective of the audience to reveal their influence within the fashion cycle. Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project and Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle offer philosophical sources in the development of the thesis objective and design. Benjamin's work investigates architecture in its development to host the uprising of modern consumption in nineteenth-century Paris, more specifically, the arch as a symbol and fetishization of commodified goods and experiences (3). He specifies the series of arches as a designed “dreamworld” that cloaks the realities of capitalism (13). Benjamin’s proposal of “dialectical images” suggests that by collaging the past and present into a single moment, its contradictions become apparent (462). Within the runway design, the back of house acts as the “past,” while the front of house acts as the “present,” coming together to uncover the beauty and ugly of the fashion industry. Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle expands upon Benjamin's criticism on consumer culture, where Dubord proposes that everything that was once living has now become mere age reproduction (2). “Spectacle” as defined by Debord is “the autonomous movement of the non-living,” which influences and arbitrates relationships and perceptions amongst humans (2). Furthermore, Debord cites the method of “détournement” as a way to subvert existing mass media images to generate new criticism (8). The use of depicting Milan’s monumental arches in the form of catenary arches within the runway design is a form of détournement to critique the fashion industry. Semi-transparent fabric is used as a metaphorical material to create a transformational runway design that subverts and uncovers the spectacle of runway shows. Generally used as a construction element in fashion, the fabric becomes redefined in the runway show to expose the underbelly of the problematic industry. This is done through the formation of catenary arches with the fabric, juxtaposing the existing traditional architecture of arches in the Brera courtyard. The purpose of transforming the once solid architectural feature of the arches into a new materiality that is light and flexible is to metaphorically see through the façade of the industry and into the production process that the everyday consumer does not understand in the garments they purchase from retailers. Through draping, stiching, and layering, the fabric is manipulated in a number of ways throughout the runway show, which is transformed with and by a choreography that mirrors the bodily labor of workers. The transformation of fabric explores the material’s spatial and temporal possibilities on the runway, creating moments of tension, movement, and contradiction. Such moments are to convey the negative impacts of the industry on people and the planet, being labor exploitation and environmental degradation. In presenting issues in a theatrical format, the hope is to start a conversation to propose alternative solutions for a more sustainable and ethical practice. The research methodology adapts the architecture design process to produce schematic variations of fabric as a narrative piece in the runway design. Sketches, models, diagrams, and architectural drawings are tested and developed to inquire various design strategies and concepts. The final result is a runway design that incorporates fabric as a set element to redress the essence of the runway, fashioning a critique on the spectacle that challenges and informs the audience about controversies associated with the fashion industry. Benjamin, W. (1999). The Arcades Project. (H. Eiland & K. McLaughlin, Trans.). Harvard University Press. Original work published 1982) Debord, G. (1995). The Society of the Spectacle. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Zone Books. (Original work published 1967)Item Behind The Wall: Re-Defining The Monastic Enclosure(2023-05-01) Martinez-Gallardo, LuisHow to design a monastery for a contemporary order of monks that, due to inefficient enclosures based on outdated models, fail to remain faithful to the fundamental ideal of living a truly cloistered life.Item Blurring the Borderlands: Strategies to Creating Spaces of Extraterritoriality on the U.S. - Mexico Border(2023-05-05) Medina, AndrewThe U.S. - Mexico border has been a topic of contentious debate and political intervention. The flow of people, culture, language and knowledge has been obstructed by the installation of physical barriers and harmful reforms. This project look to mend these broken ties by crafting spaces of extraterritoriality and autonomous zones in the border region. Cy re-ttoling existing infrastructure and terraforming of the landscape, the project critiques the strategies set in place at the border that is anti-people.Item Crossing the Weaponized Landscape(2023-05-09) Perez, Allan VidalThe study area of the thesis encompasses 259,981 hectares of the Sonoran Desert on the Arizona border, named the Altar Valley. Centered on Arivaca, Arizona, the Altar Valley has been one of the most popular crossing corridors along the US-Mexico border in the past two decades. Due to Customs and Border Patrols' strategic efforts in deterring future migration, this desert landscape has been efficiently weaponized as a barrier for informal crossing and is now the site of hundreds of migrant deaths per year and hundreds of unidentified remains. The study examines the spatial conditions created by key surveillance technology the CBP uses to survey the landscape and develops a route and information system that mitigates death and detection as much as possible.Item Emancipation square: Old Thread, New Fabric(2023-05-09) Romero, SaraEmancipation Square is a proposal for a community development in Third Ward along Emancipation Avenue. This area has been underserved for a long time now. Because of this, it has suffered the impact of gentrification due to developers taking advantage of the low prices of the land and its geographical proximity to downtown. These developers have little to no care about the rich cultural and historical significance Third Ward possesses, having no problem proceeding with the aforementioned erasure. The goal of the project is to address the more pressing concerns the community has at the moment related to security, infrastructure, quality of life, housing, and job opportunities. Proposing a series of strategies based on the combination of programs such as Houston Complete Communities, Main Street America, and the Walkable Places and Transit Oriented Development initiatives provides the opportunity to address those issues while producing a physical space where connections of different natures occur. While that segment of the project is taken care of with the previously mentioned actions, an effort to preserve the history of the area will run in parallel by utilizing the concept of palimpsest, consisting in adapting a new program to the existing building while keeping visible traces of the history of it.Item Hàu èm t’áu:yà?: Can you hear me?(2023-05-09) Renfrow, KieranUtilizing Indigenous praxes and tradition to challenge Western modes of practice, interpersonal relationships, and establish deeply rooted connections to Environments.Item Latency as the Desaturator of Cities: Metropolitan Acupuncture(2023-05-01) Xavier, Bruno Belo TelesThis is an investigation on cities, our cities, and their ever-growing battle with densification. As cities become increasingly densified, their density begins to encroach onto the human space, preventing its inhabitants from building relationships with the spaces they inhabit. This paper seeks to explore marginal and unconventional ways to design urban spaces in order to both prevent and remediate saturated urban conditions from taking root, utilizing the spaces of the city which seem unsuitable for the use of the public. This is a provocation to instigate the search for new ways in which people can continue to express their human condition in spaces that tend to keep increasing in density.Item Mediated Interfaces(2023-05-09) Gallardo, RodrigoThe goal of this thesis is to facilitate the establishment of human connections across digital and physical do-mains. The development of public space at the bound-ary of the digital and the physical sphere challenges the commonly held belief that these realms are dichoto-mous. Through an in-depth analysis of the relationship be-tween architecture and the human body, this research delves into the ways in which the evolution of media has impacted and shaped the formation of architectural spaces and our experiences of space and place. This research recognizes the imperative of harmonizing the digital and physical spheres within architectural design, in order to foster a mutually beneficial relationship between humanity and technology. By exploring the interplay between the human body, media, and archi-tecture, this thesis seeks to re-conceptualize the disci-pline of architecture, considering the ways in which technology and the human body interact and shape our perceptions of space.Item Neglected Nature(2023-05-09) Saab, YasmeenNeglected Nature is a project that will propose a system which helps to decay human bodies naturally and return it back to nature as soil, without any added chemicals or use of unnatural substances; to help heal and thrive the land with trees and plants. The simple cycle of the project can make it adaptable anywhere around the world and species of plants and trees can be changed to whatever works best and local to the designated area. This choice of natural burials will help unite our ways of perceiving death and understand that death is everyone's destiny; we must experience it for others to live and the balance of nature to remain. The larger idea of the project is to understand that Everything organic will reach its state of equilibrium. We have no benefit from working against that. If we let go of our loved ones in a natural way, replacing the process with organic matter, then we can start looking at architecture in a similar way; We do not need buildings that live far longer than humans, and we can start substituting unnatural materials with innovative organic materials that will eventually go back to nature if the space is no longer in use.Item Project Frida: Models of Resilience(2023-05-09) Palacios Dorantes, RegynaDisasters heavily affect low-to-middle-income countries as the lack of proper infrastructure fails to respond to the frequency with which disasters occur and the devastation they bring. A longstanding socio-economic system is what keeps communities functioning despite the evident disconnection from the post-disaster aid that is provided by humanitarian organizations. This research will focus on analyzing three post-disaster scenarios located in third-world countries where temporary shelters were provided and thought of as the solution. Within the inconsistencies of the aid provided three elements emerged from survival needs and day-to-day activities in the community. The proposed solution focuses on designing a system identified as the Workshop. The Workshop provides a longstanding solution to post-disaster scenarios as it grows from the existing. Communities possess the opportunity to rebuild their autonomy with this system and become models of resiliencyItem Roots: Renewal from Birth and Decay(2023-05-05) Saotonglang, Pornpun KimFor thousands of years, the way of life was symbiotic with the ecology of lowland jungles in then sparsely populated central Thailand. Such is the condition of birth. However, drastic population growth and inevitable changes in societal behavior today have placed the region on a path of physical development that is unsustainable. This trajectory of decay will only result in further destruction if continued. Therefore, there is an urgent need to restore ways of developing, utilizing, and dwelling that are in harmony with landscape and the natural water cycles – the need for renewal. Renewal is neither a nostalgic recreation of the past nor an utter disregard for the present, but rather a bridge between birth and decay. It is the process of identifying the key factors that made our historical relationship with the land symbiotic while addressing today's challenges and potential benefits to create the hybrid solutions that borrow the best of both worlds for a resilient tomorrow. This thesis restructures ways in which land, in the spirit of renewal, can be developed for living.Item Transient Refuge: Bellfort Avenue Community Closet(2023-05-01) Biscardi, GinaPicture this: the hotel room at the very end of the hall, with the constant rotation of visitors. A truck stop outside of town, alongside a major highway. Think of the local massage spa, with dark windows, tucked away in one of the many strip malls of the city. These spaces, although harmless to some, are where the hidden push and pull factors of human trafficking thrive. It is spatial conditions such as these where vulnerabilities meet exploitation, invading our public spaces and causing an estimated 40.3 million people to be victimized by human trafficking worldwide2. Every situation of trafficking looks different and therefore requires diverse approaches in terms of identification and healing. Transient Refuge poses an adaptive strategy of both physically and metaphorically filling in the gaps of society. By occupying vacant strip mall spaces and redesigning the experience, what was once an unsafe space can be transformed to operate as a Community Closet open to the public, victims, and survivors of human trafficking. This allows victims and survivors to have access to essential needs such as clothing, intentional spaces designed under the Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) model, and connection to the surrounding community and services.