_Pallasmaa, J. (2005). The eyes of the skin: Architecture and the senses. Chichester, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Academy.

For a while, designers usually create with vision as their forefront. In the Eyes of the Skin, Pallasmaa tackles the “bias towards vision, and the suppression of the other sense.” The engagement of our senses in architecture plays a very significant role, it informs us of our presence and existence in space. The encounter of a multi-sensory space is discussed as well, explaining the objective of such spaces and the importance of it. Pallasmaa also emphasizes how engaging other senses aside from just our visual is connected to how we perceive and engage the space as well as our capacity of thoughts.

_Busch, A. (2004). The uncommon life of common objects: Essays on design and the everyday. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers.

Although Akiko Busch describes the intimate relationships that one has with certain objects, one could argue that these object focused relationships could also foster certain intimate experiences within the space that they occupy. These stories explore and describe to us how we often learn to understand and also redefine our relationship without object. Busch elegantly describes to us the cherished relationships that her family, friends and as well as herself has with objects such as a stroller, a cereal box, a vegetable peeler, and many more. As we all know, all objects are designed and they are usually designed for efficient function. However, the intimate experiences that users have with these objects reveals something much grander. It reveals humane and genuine moments, moments that help us understand these artefacts in a much deeper level. Any of these everyday objects “compose a profile”, they shape us, they “tell a story not only about them, but also about the rooms, the landscapes they inhabit.”

_Gallagher, Winifred. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. New York: Poseidon, 1993. Print.

_Ellard, Colin. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

_Malnar, J. M., & Vodvarka, F. (2004). Sensory design. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

_Beatley, T. (2011). Biophilic cities: Integrating nature into urban design and planning. Washington, DC: Island Press.

The idea of a biophilic city includes not only lush greens of various scales but citizens would also be actively involved with the nature that is offered around them as well. A biophilic city allows for “urbanites” to be exposed to native foliage and also helps us realize the potentials of how our city can include greenery. Beatley describes how a biophilic city can be executed through our infrastructure, our roofs, our patios, our small urban gardens, our buildings’ walls; the list can go on really. A green wall by the botanist Patrick Blanc in Paris stood out from Beatley’s list of green precedents. Incorporating such designs has demonstrated its social benefits, this wall evoked amazement, wonderment, engagement, and participation. Being a part of a biophilic city sounds like something out of a fairy tale. It may seem impossible to do, but it is gradually getting there, many cities are taking steps towards it. Although Beatley describes the benefits and strategies of how to develop a biophilic city, these recommendations could also be scaled down to be better fit for facilities.

_Giesecke, A., & Jacobs, N. (2012). Earth perfect?: Nature, utopia and the garden. London: Black Dog Publishing.

In this book of essays, Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia, and The Garden, the author Donald Dunham explores the relationship between the garden with architecture. Here he emphasizes about how the idea of a garden has the usual connotation of gardening as merely a chore or as a hobby, which also pairs with backbreaking work and dirty knees. Many also describe the garden as tamed nature. The place of a garden could also be seen as a clearing of a space that allows for reflection, for people to become aware of the edge condition between nature and the built. To be the mediator between architecture and nature. The birth of a garden is conscious, it requires place and human intervention. Dunham explains the importance in his text, “A deliberately planted tree in a clearing or space in the forest certainly reflects intentional action, but without continued acknowledgment of its existence, it becomes another tree in the forest, no longer able to claim the right of place. It is at the complete mercy of nature untamed.”

_Almusaed, A. (2011). Biophilic and bioclimatic architecture: Analytical therapy for the next generation of passive sustainable architecture. London ; New York: Springer.

Almusaed encapsulates the discipline of biophilic architecture and different methods of how to apply it into our lives. He also references to how the application of biophilic architecture can  benefit us in our overall health and well-being. The introduction of indoor plants has also been proven that it improves indoor air quality. He supplements this by providing the background information of different plants and vegetations, all varying in terms of application and environment.

For some people, leaving home for the first time can be a challenging thing. It means starting a new life and stepping into a whole new world, especially when entering college. Students go through a transition during those years of school. They enter as children and exit as adults. During these years, students find out about themselves. They find out their own identify by figuring out what they like, don’t like, and who they are in general. Students also learn how to get out of their comfort zone, meaning socializing. College is not just a time for one’s education, but also for learning how to make new friends, get along with roommates, and maintain those relationships. Lastly, without parents, students have to everything on their own and become more independent. This includes shopping, food, and finding balance between the schoolwork and relaxing. This transition can be made easier if prepared well in the beginning with the correct environment within their school. This leads to quality freshmen student housing.

The aim for this study is to find out how freshmen residence halls can facilitate goals of identity, independence, and social skills and how it can be provided through architectural design. It would also take notice of a safe and secure environment would include safety of students, crime, reputation, and marketing. The way this will be done is through three methods: literary review, precedent study, and survey. Since the topic of what makes a good residential hall isn’t new, there are plenty of previous experiments and surveys that have been done on that works as well as student preferences, and their own psychological behavior. These will be analyzed for a literary study. For the precedent study, while a few exceptional dormitories will be looked at, it will primarily be on the colleges within Buffalo. Each campus that offers freshman housing has its own different room styles and amenities. Lastly, a survey will be issued to students of the University at Buffalo asking them of their opinions of their on-campus housing as a freshman and what can be changed. There is no better source of information than from the people who use these facilities.

All this material will result in the design or renovation of a university residence hall within the location of Buffalo, since that is where most of the approach is. The design would take note of what the university/college do for freshmen and then grant what they need. It will feature different styles of rooms for students of diverse personalities and preferences. This includes their own definition of privacy, community, and convenience. Additionally, the design will also have amenities that will help and benefit students and make their already busy lives a little easier. The implications of this study would be to improve freshmen housing in universities to better prepare freshmen students for the years ahead by helping them learn about themselves.

Public space by itself does not form a community; rather, a community is built by people who participate in community building activities. Despite being the capital city of Iran with so many public and semipublic spaces such as parks, restaurants, cafés and shopping malls, Tehran is still missing a dynamic and active public space. The current public spaces of Tehran suffer from dysfunctionality of features and lack of coexistence among users which make them unattractive for the young generation. In this age of communication, young generation is looking for new experiences and they are eager to expand their social circle. Despite the rapid changes in social trends over the last few decades, there hasn’t been any significant changes in the design of public spaces of Tehran which is located in a developing country. This study will try to solve this issue by providing a public space that could improve coexistence and understanding of the others.

Main focus of this research is to come up with new features that will support social interaction in public spaces in one of the significant historical streets of Tehran; Valiasr street is a tree-lined street which divides this city into eastern and western parts, which makes it one of the major paths for both pedestrians and motorists. As it was mentioned, there is a great potential for improving the public space of this street. To address this issue, multiple methods of gathering data such as archival information, observation, surveys and crowdsourcing of social media will be used. A part of this study relies on social science to find trends and patterns in people’s behavior. Also historical research has to be used to study the past and present state of the area to develop a design for the future.

The outcome of this study would result in design features for small scaled places that will make a dynamic environment to make young generation pause for a few moments from their daily routines and socialize. My goal is to find answers for the following questions: What kind of experiences make the young generation enthusiastic about social interactions? What factors of place can transform passive users to active ones? What aspects of design makes it possible to spark something among strangers who have no previous history from each other?

Many people now typically spend long work hours in built environments, in a detached and dispassionate environment. Such environments can be one of the factors of mental stress, restlessness, and dissatisfaction. Facilities that harbor such long work hour routines should accommodate to the occupants’ needs. Many of these built environments tend to ignore our inbuilt human need for sensory variety. Instead, many spaces are typically designed to solely be visually appealing. Engaging with only our visual senses and not the others doesn’t do the space justice; our eye works together with our body and our other senses to help strengthen our sense of reality.

Considering this, shouldn’t it be critical to design a multisensory space that harmonizes with the occupants, an affectionate space that sympathizes with the them? Perception of our environment is always mediated by our senses. A passive way to engage our senses within facilities could be through botany; it activates our sense of smell, touch, hearing, and sight. The theory of biophilia is that humans have an innate connection to living systems, such as humans, animals and plants. Using the concept of biophilia as leverage to create a multisensory spacescape can be one of the few ways we can help give more meaning and spirit to our disengaging environments.

Introducing natural elements, such as plants, indoors undoubtedly helps improve the indoor air quality but it will also help evoke positive responses in people. Intervening a living system into a facility can also encourage engagement. A series of orchestrated interventions can help reveal the influences and beneficial impacts that they have within facilities. The propinquity, versatility, and arrangements will help define the possibilities and limits of the different interventions. Analyzing the engagement that occupants have with these interventions will help develop design recommendations. These temporal interventions will be executed in the 2nd floor student lounge located within Hayes Hall. It is an ideal(?) location due to the heavy foot traffic, accessibility, and access to daylight.

The involvement and experiences that these interventions may cultivate within our built and cultural environment can be far more significant than the shell that happens to house them. Each intervention will be generate different attributes of engagement. Some would encourage occupants to tend to the plants, while others may encourage occupants to lay down with it.

V4 Thesis Abstract

The Buffalo Bills are a defining icon for the Buffalo area. Originally located in Downtown Buffalo in War Memorial Stadium that was affectionately called “the rockpile” they moved to their current stadium, New Era Field, in 1974 when construction was completed. The Bills have been playing in the same stadium for the past 42 years making New Era Field the oldest stadium still in use in the NFL. “Keep up with modern facilities if you want to remain in Buffalo”. – Roger Goodell NFL Commissioner. On several occasions, Roger Goodell has made a comment like this. When the Bills founding owner, Ralph Wilson Jr. died in 2013, there was speculation that the team would move to a city with better facilities. However, Terry Pegula, who had just purchased Buffalo’s NHL team the Sabres saved the day for Buffalonians. Now that the team had a new owner, the talk shifted from “will the Bills leave Buffalo?” To “where in Buffalo will the new stadium be built?” Along with a new owner that has deep pockets, the lease for the current stadium ends in 2023 and it is very unlikely that the lease will be renewed. What happens to the stadium once the Bills move out is the area of study that I will be focusing on.

One might argue that the stadium in its current state is already a public building. However, it is only public on certain days of the year. As such, the intentions of this project are to give the stadium back to the people of Buffalo by repurposing the structure and grounds into a multi-purpose facility that can be accessed by the general public more than once a week during Football season. I will be partnering with several public officials in the Orchard Park area that can add insight to the development of my project in regards to what the area needs.  WIth the lease for the stadium ending soon, the research that I do now in collaboration with these public officials will hopefully be informative to what the plan is for the stadium once a new one is built.

The end result that I will be designing for is a place of public use that also maintains the historic and local cultural value that the Bills have brought to the City of Buffalo. WIth civic and public facilities spread out, repurposing of the stadium into a civic center would serve as a hub for the surrounding facilities enabling the growth of the community and preserving of the Bills history.

With everyone’s’ busy schedules and routine days, it is very easy to become restless, bored and eager to give ourselves a mental break. Especially in facilities such as office buildings and schools, a typical user would spend a good majority of their time indoors undertaking multiple tasks.

“Our beds are empty two-thirds of the time. Our living rooms are empty seven-eighths of the time. Our office buildings are empty half of the time. It is time we gave this some thought”         – Buckminster Fuller

People usually spend at least eight hours working, socializing, existing, in  built environments, in  a detached and dispassionate environment. Many built environments tend to ignore the inbuilt human need for sensory variety. Considering the fact that the average human spends a majority of their time in their workplace, shouldn’t it be critical to design a space that harmonizes with the occupants, an affectionate space that sympathizes with the occupants? The concept of a biophilic environment exhibits the instinctive and deep-rooted bond between living systems (such as plants) and humans. Bringing natural elements indoors undoubtedly helps improve indoor air quality, but it can also help evoke positive responses in people, and offers the sensory variation that us humans are frequently yearning for.

This study is intended to study social aspects through the lens of botany within detached facilities, an attempt to evoke cheerfulness in users through the interventions of botany. Can a biophilic environment help produce a more joyful and exuberant place?  Can a biophilic environment help turn space into place? The interventions will be generated as passively as possible to remain unintrusive to the results. If the outcomes are deemed effective to the occupants, then interventions will be implemented within studios/office spaces as well.

Draft of the abstract

The unpredictable crisis can happen suddenly and rapidly.  Millions of people are affected. Who forced to move out and who hosts the waves of displaced people.  According to UNHCR, 65.3 million are affected, in a daily base 33.972 people obliged to escape their homes because of conflict or persecution and seek to resettle to have their basic needs such as food, housing, and clothing. 21.3 million are registered as refugees, 16.1 million refugees under UNHCR Commission and 5.2 million UNRWA registered Palestinian refugees. Over half of them are under the age of 18.

The Jordanian social fabric rapidly changed and still is due to the surrounding conflicts as a consequence. This significantly reforms the cities and creates new genuine metropolitan.  Jordan hosts 2 million Palestinians, 130,911 Iraqis and 1,265,000 Syrians census result in Nov 2015, 657,422 registered as refugees as well as other nationalities. The population of Jordan is 9.5 million, over 35% are non-Jordanian. Historically; waves of Circassian, Chechen, Turkmen and Armenian resettled in Jordan and became Jordanian minorities.

Social diversity shapes the Jordanians’ social networks. One can find a person who has a Palestinian grandmother, having a substantial Iraqi`s friend, and teaching Syrian students. The location of the research offers to people of concerns safe and secure settings by the conditions of the surroundings. The settings of the new existence for new social fabrics where the cities generate and uncertainty transformed due to these rapid changes. Within the current period, the challenges are unpredictable grow, and the waves are containing loads on the infrastructure, and the resources as consequences many cities` educations, healthcare, economies, transportation and built environment are in transitioned phases.

I will explore the layers of these multilayers conditions by generating several maps and analyzing photograph, statistics, interview and recorded videos. The settings that have been transformed due to the refugees will be analyzed at different scales. The mapping will set a timeline for its period and will investigate the resources that refugee’s need that is living in camp or settlement where the immediate support took place to serve the impacted members.  The settings will be classified by the formal of the social aspect of refugees locations and the waves existence. This way of analysis will try to answer Who is “Us” and who is “Other”?What fixes boundaries of us and others? What constructs it?Who has the power? Who is the audience?.

A place of survival and hope which has the intelligently hidden power of forming refugees’ settlements and design applicable assumptions of how the host countries can respond to the rapid influx of refugees through resilient strategies, inclusive urban design, and the management of social changes This study will try to find the potentials and the gaps and reorient the cities towards a vision of responses to the rapid changes within its context by the refugees. By understanding the underlying of the cities practice. The analysis of the operational conditions to reach the intersection of the existence of resilient components and spaces of possibilities, the design also will be trying to reach how to obtain a general comprehensive architectural and urban strategies.

Abstract v_0.5

The field of responsive architecture has explored many avenues of response such as media screens, light sensitive facades and reactive wall systems, but has not directly addressed the tectonics of our built environment.  These tectonics will face a harsh change in a future where material efficiency, capability, and performance will increase, while the availability of materials will decrease.   This thesis will address issues of response through the exploration of delicate, branching, aggregate structures that inherently embody notions of “Liveliness”

Using Wood for its embedded tensile properties, models will be developed that explore varying “precarious” branching typologies that are conducive to responsive environments.  These investigations will be used to inform digital simulations, and these simulations will then be used to study the material capabilities and possible structure aggregations.  Light, shadow, overlap of materials, and opacity will also be explored for its potential to register a visual liveliness and alter our perception of space.

Using the gained knowledge from the model studies and simulations, a full scale immersive installation will be built that embodies liveliness through its branching tectonics that explore part to whole relationships as well as the use of light and density to affect visual perception.

The goal of the research is to question typical notions of response through the development of a new lively tectonic that blurs the boundary between materiality and space, thus allowing use to design more immersive spaces and open a different dialogue on constructing for response.

One of the major concerns of the architectural design is what features make a place meaningful. The raised question is what features can transform space to place, to make it meaningful in terms of encouraging social interaction among strangers. Tehran as a capital city of Iran, despite of having so many parks, restaurants, coffee houses and shopping centers, still misses social interaction and passion in public spaces that could improve coexistence and understanding of the others. Unfortunately, with passage of time, the passion of people to go to the parks has decreased, mainly because of safety issues. Therefore, enjoyability has decreased and many parks have become places for homeless and addicted people. On the other hand, restaurants and coffee houses in Tehran are typically designed in a way that they do not engage people in social interactions. Furniture arrangement is mostly focused on separation of spaces, meaning that they provide a private space for groups of people. Also, in these kind of places there are no special events to provide a foundation for connecting people with different backgrounds, cultures and thoughts. So, you can usually see individuals enjoy their privacy. Therefore, it is unlikely to see sparks among strangers.

The focus of this study is to explore new methods that will support social interaction in public spaces in one of the significant historical streets in Tehran. Valiasr street is a tree-lined street which divides this city into eastern and western parts, which makes it one of the major paths for both pedestrians and motorists. Even though it is one of the major attractions of Tehran, lack of a decent public space is obvious. Although, it has lots of common public spaces such as parks, restaurants and cafés, as a capital city of a developing country there is a lot of room for improvement. To achieve this goal, multiple methods of gathering data such as archival information, observation, surveys and crowdsourcing of social media will be used. A part of this study relies on social science to find trends and patterns in people’s behavior. Also historical research has to be used to study the past and present state of the area to develop a design for the future.

The result of this study would be coming up with design of small scale places with specified boundaries or furniture arrangements that will make a dynamic environment to make people pause for a few moments from their daily routines and socialize in new ways. The outcome is mostly concerned with the experience of the users. There are some questions that need to be answered: What kinds of social interaction beyond conversation could be developed in urban space? What kind of experience makes people enthusiastic about social interactions? What factors of place can transform passive users to active ones? How is it possible to spark something among strangers who have no previous history with each other?