Center for urban ecological dialectics at Mill Street: A living building in Geneva, New York

Protecting drinking water and emphasizing a need to understand historical watersheds benefits urban ecologies. Geneva, a City in New York State (USA) is to invest in its economic future - especially regarding water for greater public use. To this end, an educational and experiential center in Geneva shall inform the public of a creek’s valuable sub-sources and its own important municipal hydro-geological features. Focusing on the city’s Castle Creek topography, a comprehensive design is developed adjacent to the creek’s urban density combined with a goal towards preservation. Existing watershed education programs, socio-ecological connectivity, and public recreation are the stimuli informing ecological behavior around the creek as a means for better treatment of connected public stormwater systems within its parks, and public-use spaces. This thesis makes the recommendation for the case of opening up urban natural water-spaces (river daylighting) and establishing a center of ecological education, interpreting daylighting, for greater public dialogue between academic scientists and laymen. Considering all urban environments, a built center of excellence (Center for Urban Ecological Dialectics, or CUED) shall be developed to address these needs. Abstract (Spanish) Proteger el agua potable y enfatizar la necesidad de comprender las cuencas hidrográficas históricas beneficia a las ecologías urbanas. Ginebra, una ciudad del estado de Nueva York (EE. UU.) Invertirá en su futuro económico, especialmente en lo que respecta al agua para un mayor uso público. Con este fin, un centro educativo y experimental en Ginebra informará al público sobre las valiosas fuentes secundarias de un arroyo y sus propias características hidrogeológicas municipales importantes. Centrándose en la topografía de Castle Creek de la ciudad, se desarrolla un diseño integral adyacente a la densidad urbana del arroyo combinado con un objetivo hacia la preservación. Los programas educativos existentes sobre cuencas hidrográficas, la conectividad socioecológica y la recreación pública son los estímulos que informan el comportamiento ecológico alrededor del arroyo como un medio para un mejor tratamiento de los sistemas públicos de aguas pluviales conectados dentro de sus parques y espacios de uso público. Esta tesis hace la recomendación para el caso de abrir espacios naturales urbanos de agua (iluminación natural de los ríos) y establecer un centro de educación ecológica, interpretando la iluminación natural, para un mayor diálogo público entre científicos académicos y laicos. Teniendo en cuenta todos los entornos urbanos, se desarrollará un centro de excelencia construido (Centro de Dialéctica Ecológica Urbana, o CUED) para abordar estas necesidades

Designing for adaptability in architecture

The research is framed on the premise that designing buildings that can adapt by accommodating change easier and more cost-effectively provides an effective means to a desired end a more sustainable built environment. In this context, adaptability can be viewed as a means to decrease the amount of new construction (reduce), (re)activate underused or vacant building stock (reuse) and enhance disassembly/ deconstruction of components (reuse, recycle) - prolonging the useful life of buildings (reduce, reuse, recycle). The aim of the research is to gain a holistic overview of the concept of adaptability in the construction industry and provide an improved framework to design for, deploy and implement adaptability. An over-arching research question was posited to guide the inquiry: how can architects understand, communicate, design for and test the concept of adaptability in the context of the design process? The research followed Dubois and Gadde s (2002) systematic combining as an over-arching approach that continuously moves between the empirical world and theoretical models allowing the co-evolution of data collection and theory from the beginning as part of a non-linear process with the objective of matching theory with reality. An initial framework was abducted from a preliminary collection of data from which a set of mixed research methods was deployed to explore adaptability (interviews, building case studies, dependency structural matrices, practitioner surveys and workshop). Emergent from the data is an expanded and revised theory on designing for adaptability consisting of concepts, models and propositions. The models illustrate many of the casual links between the physical design structure of the building (e.g. plan depth, storey height) and the soft contingencies of a messy design/construction/occupation process (e.g. procurement route, funding methods, stakeholder mindsets). In an effort to enhance building adaptability, the abducted propositions suggest a shift in the way the industry values buildings and conducts aspects of the design process and how designer s approach designing for adaptability

EVTOL concept design

This master thesis consists of a research and development project¿s documentation about Electrical Vertical Take off and Landing (EVTOL) technology. The main target is providing an investigation about this technology, reviewing its history since its origins to the future lines, understanding how it works by revising all the technical aspects such as the mechanical part, hardware components, software systems, structural stress design¿ In addition, a market study is carried out around this technology to come up with a first prototype. Based on a research for the applications and utilities that it can offer regarding the future problems that humanity is facing. Furthermore, this thesis documents the analog and digital methodologies that are being used throughout the entire creative process combining design and engineering workflows in order to achieve the proposed objectives. The project¿s value resides on the creative design aspect, therefore all the content is based from the pre-production design perspective. As the most technical part involving the product production such as the stress design aspect to select the right components, or quality validation process would be carried out on further stages by the engineers.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::13 - Acció per al ClimaObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::15 - Vida d'Ecosistemes Terrestre

Energy conscious design for subsidized multi-family housing development

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: p. 202-205.Until now, passive solar energy has been overlooked as a viable alternative for home heating in urban subsidized housing. Rather ironically, in housing whose residents could most benefit from the use of solar energy, such concepts and technologies are not utilized. This thesis demonstrates how passive solar heating and energy conscious design can be economically implemented in low- and moderate-income subsidized housing. The research and design work presented explain the well-integrated system of natural environmental tempering that includes passive solar heating, natural daylighting, natural ventilation and energy conservation. A crucial aspect of the thesis is the method of dollar-for-dollar tradeoffs that is used to keep the cost of the natural environmental tempering components within the strict budget constraints of subsidized housing. Also, the housing is designed with careful attention paid to the needs of the inhabitants. Thus, in addition to the energy concerns, the design reflects new attitudes toward subsidized housing. The resulting solar architecture is a significant answer to the need for economical public housing that allows low-income urban residents to benefit from the sun's abundant energy.by Karen M. Duncan.M.Arch

Sustainable by design

The increasingly rapid breakdown in natural systems that humankind is currently witness to has brought home the urgent need for a new approach to society. Modern technologies born of the Industrial and Information Ages have brought prosperity undreamt of by previous civilisations, but it is rapidly becoming clear that this prosperity may have come at too high a cost. This work will explore the issue of sustainability within the framework of architecture and the built environment, and attempt to identify a new paradigm for architectural design whereby built-environment professionals are able to ensure the consistent realization of sustainable architecture. The first part of the thesis will address the origins of and need for sustainability, and explore it within the context of architecture and the built environment. This will be followed by a critical investigation into conventional design practice and the emerging alternative - integrated design practice, and how suitable each of these design practices are for the task of ensuring sustainability. The second part of the thesis will detail a practical implementation of the conclusions reached in section one, investigating sustainable design in architecture using a “Design-Based Research” approach

Marine Robot Sample Retrieving System

The exploration of our underwater ecosystems is critical. The aquatic ecosystem has a significant effect on human life, yet our understanding of the oceanic environment is severely lacking. Santa Clara University’s Robotic Systems Lab contributes to subsea exploration through its investment in remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technology. This project was done with the guidance of not only professors in the Robotics Systems Lab, but also stakeholders from the US Geological Survey scientists and researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Our team goal was to further advance SCU’s efforts by creating a sediment sample collection system consisting of a manipulator arm and sample storage container compatible with an existing SCU ROV. Our project has the potential to give researchers better access to submerged ecosystems and assists their efforts to understand and protect subsea environments in the future. We designed, built, and tested a prototype of a multiple degree-offreedom arm and storage system for the existing Nautilus ROV, for safely manipulating and storing submerged sedimentary artifacts at 300 feet deep with a maximum dive time of 45 minutes. At the end of this project, we were able to see robust three degree of freedom movement of the arm within its anticipated workspace. We achieved a basic level of motion control of the arm which was successfully tested and evaluated within a testing tank. However, there is still need for additional testing and increased functionality of the mechanical and controls systems. The storage system for samples design needs a thrust bearing to better rotate and there is still much work to make the controls of the arm user friendly such as end effector control for depositing a sample into the storage system instead of doing all the movements manually

Marine Robot Sample Retrieving System

The exploration of our underwater ecosystems is critical. The aquatic ecosystem has a significant effect on human life, yet our understanding of the oceanic environment is severely lacking. Santa Clara University’s Robotic Systems Lab contributes to subsea exploration through its investment in remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technology. This project was done with the guidance of not only professors in the Robotics Systems Lab, but also stakeholders from the US Geological Survey scientists and researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Our team goal was to further advance SCU’s efforts by creating a sediment sample collection system consisting of a manipulator arm and sample storage container compatible with an existing SCU ROV. Our project has the potential to give researchers better access to submerged ecosystems and assists their efforts to understand and protect subsea environments in the future. We designed, built, and tested a prototype of a multiple degree-of-freedom arm and storage system for the existing Nautilus ROV, for safely manipulating and storing submerged sedimentary artifacts at 300 feet deep with a maximum dive time of 45 minutes. At the end of this project, we were able to see robust three degree of freedom movement of the arm within its anticipated workspace. We achieved a basic level of motion control of the arm which was successfully tested and evaluated within a testing tank. However, there is still need for additional testing and increased functionality of the mechanical and controls systems. The storage system for samples design needs a thrust bearing to better rotate and there is still much work to make the controls of the arm user friendly such as end effector control for depositing a sample into the storage system instead of doing all the movements manually