UH Faculty, Staff, and Student Works
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Browsing UH Faculty, Staff, and Student Works by Department "Architecture and Design, Gerald D. Hines College of"
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Item 3D Printed Limb Prosthesis(2022-04-14) Edquilang, DavidResearch and development of a 3D printed prosthetic arm which seeks to tackle the issues of high cost and discomfort associated with professionally-made prosthetics.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 Accelerated Odyssey: The impact of the Camera Obscura on perception, reflection, and environments and how contemplative design can respond to a thoughtful life.(2018-10-18) Martinez, DanielleThe camera obscura accelerated our ability to capture light, time, and environments. Through environmental analysis in material, light, and time, artistic examples throughout history have shaped the augmentation of the design. The result of this inquiry was a design that provides moments of reflection, pause, and contemplation in a formal spiritual space that dynamically changes over time.Item Adjustable Smart Limb Socket(2020-09-29) Bibikova, AnnaArtificial limbs can cost upwards of $100,000 but without a proper fit, it is difficult to wear them for even more than a few hours and may even cause further injury to the patient. In fact, 13.4% of amputees in third world countries end up abandoning their prosthetic due to discomfort. My goal for this project was to improve amputees’ quality of life by designing a transhumeral prosthesis socket to be as perfectly fit, breathable and user friendly as possible. For this project, I spent time conducting biomedical research about the anatomy of the upper arm and the various pressure points within the residual limb of transhumeral amputees, as well as material research on electroactive polymers and “artificial electric muscles” that contract and expand when exposed to a low voltage. I also did research on user experiences with existing sockets and the problems that are experienced. Through the SURF summer program I have developed a concept for a minimal , highly ventialted ,self adjusting prosthetic socket for transhumeral amputees that is able to conform in real time to the patient's arm depending on the activity being done. The Smart Socket uses sensors to measure pressure and determine arm position within the socket, in order for a low voltage electroactive polymer band to contact or release around the arm in real time.Item After Kahn at IIM(2020-05) Bhatt, RishmaAlexandra Tyng describes her father's design approach at the Indian Institute of Management as a combination of building typology and program. Library, classrooms, dormitories and teacher’s residences are designed as separate objects but are organized ‘around the idea of meeting’ in Tyng’s words.(Tyng,141) She writes that Kahn is also interested in the ‘pols’ of Ahmedabad, the semi-public alley cluster of homes for a larger family unit, and sought to bring some of the formal qualities into the organization of the program elements. The formal geometry of forms and voids make the reading of the informal pol network difficult to read in the final design, however. This thesis reintroduces the pol network into the geometric campus in order to project an urban, hybrid habitation of the isolated university, and investigates the problem of European design sensibilities grafted onto Gujarati space.Item Amman: Jordanian Identity after Modenrism(2020-05) Salameh, Petra K.The Municipality of Greater Amman sought from the early 1950s to frame Amman as the Modern City of the Middle East. To reach such a goal, they instated five urban planning commissions over the course of fifty years. The base of all five plans was laid out in 1955 by Max Lock and Gerald King, two British planners, to produce urban plans and guidelines on how the city should expand, build new structures, and a site plan for Lock’s Civic Center. The following master plans reorganized the same components of the civic center while ignoring the neighboring demographic. The establishment of institutional buildings in the middle of a dense, low-income neighborhood has left the site sterile and unused. The relocation of the Friday market, from its original site to a smaller and less accessible site, was the most recent addition to the site. My thesis proposes the placement of the National Library, the last unbuilt component from the 1955 master plan, on the same site as the Friday Market.Item Assisting Children with Hand and Wrist Spasticity with 3D Printing and Elastic Materials(2022-04-14) Mortazavi, MohammadmehdiChildren with cerebral palsy often suffer from spasticity. Spasticity happens when muscles contract and expand involuntarily and there is no cure for this condition. There are treatment options however and for hand and wrist spasticity there are multiple spasticity gloves in the market but they are all for adults, are complicated, uncomfortable, and expensive. Therefore I attempted to design a spasticity glove for children that is affordable, comfortable, and easy to use.Item Auto Isolation: The Reshaping of Infrastructure, Society, and Space with Autonomous Cars(2017-10-12) Thomson, MeganThe car was a vital part of American society and identity. Traditionally, driving one signified one’s right of passage and allowed the user freedom and status. Cities have evolved around automobiles with freeways and parking lots dictating the spaces of human participation. According to theorist Jane Jacobs, this independence produced a detrimental result: social isolation. The development of autonomous vehicles presents a potential remedy to this problem via the decrease in spatial needs of cars. Autonomous vehicles liberate space to find new purpose devoted to people and public life. By examining various examples of human and car occupied urban space in Houston on multiple levels, along with the time and productivity lost in commutes, the impact of autonomous vehicles on the future development of cities may be seen. The autonomous vehicle disrupts the current norm of city growth, allowing people to rethink the future development of space in American cities. When the need for location based use as well as ownership is no longer required, car storage and maintenance can become centralized, freeing up valuable space for the occupation of humans. The application of this research proposes a design solution that addresses the liberated space in the city of Houston.Item Bathing in History - Damascus(2020-05) Alhakeem, Gada“England knows Egypt; Egypt is what England knows; England knows that Egypt cannot have self-government; England confirms that by occupying Egypt; for the Egyptians. Egypt is what England has occupied and now governs; foreign occupation therefore becomes “the very basis “ of contemporary Egyptian civilization.“ (Said 34) Knowledge in the hands of the powerful is a tool to shape the identity of the weak. Identity is shaped firstly through dominant environments and secondly through reason. Multiple overlapping imperial cultures (Aramean, Greek, Roman, Umayyad, Ayyubid, Ottoman, and French) in Damascus demonstrate the tie between knowledge, identity, crisis and the space of the city. Colonial planning and social elements of the city are molded and adjusted over time to fit the values of each empire. A surviving archetype- the bath- is the most dominant social evolutionary element in the city, although under a threat due to the development of modern Damascus, private residential baths, and the lack of Skin-ship values and traditions, especially between 1940s- 2004. Today’s civil war and the constant fear of death brought modern residents to value social traditions of the old city and gave rural and suburban refugees of Damascus a social and hygienic refuge . This thesis proposes revealing a contemporary Syrian identity by re-imagining the bathhouse.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 Berlin Germany: The Disaster of WWII(2017-10-12) Zepeda, MichaelItem 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 Body-Powered Prosthesis Design for a Patient with a Partial Hand Amputation(2022-04-14) Bhattacharya, Karina3D-printing technology allows designers to create customizable and functional prosthetics for amputee patients in need. This study explored the creation of 3D-printed prosthetic fingers that were specifically designed for a patient with a partial hand amputation. Since the patient’s remaining hand maintained a high degree of strength and wide range of motion, a body-powered prosthetic could enable the patient to move the prosthetic fingers with the rest of their hand. On-site visits with the patient and occupational therapist helped establish technical information such as finger measurements and current range of movement, details that were later used to design the prosthesis. The final design aimed to achieve basic grasps, appear near life-like, and be comfortably worn on the hand. 14 prototype iterations and physical models were 3D-printed and tested for durability and functionality. The final design of the prosthesis incorporated a four-bar linkage mechanism system that closed the fingers by flexing the back of the hand. It tailored to the specific needs of the patient and offered them the ability to perform basic functions such holding, grasping, and writing.Item Brisbane: The Great Floods(2017-10-12) Burciaga, RaymondItem Building Structures with a Swarm of Robots(2018-10-18) Ike, RhemaAdvances in construction automation have primarily focused on creating heavy machines to accomplish repetitive tasks. While this approach is valuable in an assembly-line context, it does not always translate well for the tight confines and dynamic nature of construction sites. To address the challenges of construction-site assembly, this project suggests an alternative technique that uses a fleet of smaller robots working collaboratively. Instead of using complex robot manipulators and simple building materials, we embed most of the complexity in the build modules. In our tests, we used cardstock that could pop-up from its 2D form into a 3D brick. Curved creases were laser-scored into the cardstock to encourage it to take a 3D form when the robots applied forces to it at certain points. The proposed method has potential advantages over large machines and simple build materials. It enables task-assignment flexibility and portability. Scaling the operation can be accomplished by adding or removing additional units as needed. The use of assembly robots also opens new horizons for design creativity, allowing architects to explore new ideas that would be unwieldy and expensive to construct using traditional techniques. Our proof-of-concept used a fleet of five Cozmo robots. Each Cozmo weighs 180 grams and has a 3D printed forklift attached to its lift. The Cozmos work collaboratively to popup-construct 3D bricks and assemble them into a chain.Item Calgary, Canada "The Great Fire of 1886"(2017-10-12) Wang, AshleyEvery city has experienced a major disaster, some cities survived and learned from it, some did not. This project is going to find the biggest disaster from individual’s case city and explore how did resolve the problem during the history. Calgary is the largest city in the Canadian province of Alberta. Founded in 1875 by European settler, the city now rapidly growing as the center of Canada’s oil industry. 1886, only couple years after the city started, Calgary had its first major fire in town. The big fire on Ninth Avenue, brought big changes to the new-born city and started a sandstone building boom after the fire.Item Casablanca: Colonial & Post-colonial Urbanism(2020-09-29) Monroy, AngelicaThe 2019 PAN-AFRICA study abroad program was based on a comparison of three major port cities: Casablanca, Tangier, and Marseilles. Students were to see first hand the inter-relationship between Arab and French culture in the built environment in each city. The French re-imagined Casablanca, also the site location, had a port that was largely industrialized after becoming a major port city in Africa. As a result, the port isolated itself from the rest of the culture-rich city. The purpose of CASAPORT was to re-imagine 8 million square miles of port grounds into a hybrid 2019 master plan.Item Copenhagen Fire of 1728(2017-10-12) Ali, AfreenItem 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.