THESIS
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A graduate level thesis project centers around an independently formulated question that addresses a specifically architectural topic. In other words: what is your question for architecture? It should be structured, researched, outlined, and managed by the individual student with guidance from a faculty committee. There are a couple of different formats available for thesis. 1) an individual thesis project. 2) a directed studio – this could be an elective studio, comprehensive studio, or even the Marcus Prize or Urban Edge studios. An individual thesis requires a high degree of independent direction in terms of thought and work habits. For instance, you may meet with advisors only once every week or two. A directed studio offers a lot more faculty contact and guidance – the usual 3x a week schedule. For an individual thesis, the student formulates the question, the research topic, the site, program, performs all the research, etc. In a directed studio, the topic and questions are generally framed by the instructor along with site and program constraints – although this may vary with different faculty.
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Critics:
Nikole Bouchard Carolyn Esswein Whitney Moon Kyle Reynolds Brian Schermer Jim Shields Filip Tejchman Karl Wallick Jim Wasley |
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The building at 828S 1st street has faced a life of continuous change. As the needs of its inhabitants has evolved, it has been renovated and expanded in many phases, resulting in a unique, almost absurd form that is no longer the manifestation of one architectural vision but that of the visions of many different stakeholders throughout time. This building can be called a “perpetual draft”, and as such it offers aninvitation and a license to design the next revision. Currently, the building is home to a Latin night club in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood. In the next revision the club’s program evolves to include daytime and outdoor events and expand its role as a community gathering space. The design of this revision to the perpetual draft evolves over several formal and material explorations—the existing building is documented through orthographic drawings, which are then remixed to find new and exciting spatial conditions, the best of which are brought into the new design. The material palette of the existing structure is documented and redeployed in unique and unexpected ways. The final design expands the building’s occupiable spaces to house the new program while retaining the most successful qualities of the existing structure. The resulting revision to the perpetual draft is one of what is expected to be a long line of many.
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Project Images (Click to Enlarge)
Student Presentation
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This thesis project aims to question how people inhabit the built environment after a disaster and attempts to develop an architectural design proposal for new and novel solutions to such conditions. Considering the many possible scenarios that could present themselves as threats to human habitation, generating new solutions for living within extreme conditions will become a contemporary necessity, less as questions but instead as requirements for survival. The effects of nuclear war continue to be one of the most threatening possible condition for human life on the planet. With the Doomsday Clock currently set to an all-time shortest length of only 100 seconds, this hypothetical future presents itself as an extremely relevant possibility that must be addressed immediately or else face the resulting conditions. B.O.B.(or Basic Occupiable Body) is a deployable pneumatic shelter intended to create a habitable environment for post-fallout survival and other relevant situations within the built environment where something needs to be both impermanent and novel, while still providing a place of respite from disaster. The concept of the B.O.B. system allows for almost infinite combinations to offer any possible forms of post-fallout habitation. By combining the correct size Body along with all of the required hardware, a pneumatic shelter can be created that offers all of the customizability of traditional residential living, but now with an additional element of radiation protection! The generic form of the B.O.B. is flexible enough to accommodate any required programming, while double-walled, Pb vinyl structure offers structure.
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Project Images (Click to Enlarge)
Student Presentation
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Community and Environmental Resiliency: A Case Study of 3201 N 40th St
This thesis seeks to explore resiliency through the two lenses of community and environment to create a more robust, wholistic design. Resiliency is important to design because the future is unpredictable; it is full of recessions, pandemics, climate change, and unforeseen events. To apply concepts of resiliency and seek potential solutions, a site in Milwaukee (3201 N 40th St) was chosen with no preconceived notion of what program needs to go there. It was chosen because it is embedded in a community and has an existing building that reflects a common typology in Milwaukee: the vacant brick building built in the early 1900s. The site is full of opportunity to change from an unused lot to a community cornerstone. This process began with a broad range of research. For the existing building, its history, context, and existing conditions were documented. The needs and character of the Sherman Park neighborhood were also researched though past listening sessions, a webinar that held conversations with residents and local leaders, and some of my own research by posting a sign outside the building asking passersby to fill in the blank “I wish this was...”. Key issues found for the community were homeownership, access to fresh food, community building, and families. Climate change predictions for Milwaukee were researched showing a future of increased rainfall and flooding as well as a dramatic increase in heat waves and days over 90 degrees. All of this research came together in the proposal of a cohousing community with a focus on urban agriculture. The goal of the design is to create an asset that addresses the current needs of the Sherman Park community while preparing the building for its next 100 years in a way that is sustainable for the community and environment. |
Project Images (Click to Enlarge)
Student Presentation
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The world's urban population is constantly growing, and Milwaukee's population is expected to grow by another 1.3 percent. Habitats have been torn down and altered due to urban development. Urbanization and continuing to build concrete jungles have been found as some of the quickest and most destructive forms of landscape alteration. As architects, we need to think about more than just how we are comfortable, but how we can decrease the loss of native species especially within the urban fabric? How can we take an average site anywhere in the city, and make this a luxury, habitat creating space? Increasing natural greenspaces in the city increases the overall human health, and human psychological wellbeing. The sociocultural ecosystem services increase the amenity value and increase social and cultural integration. Taking a small parking lot, and creating a high rise, luxury tower that encompasses vertical habitat reserve and connectivity between residents and species, will create an experience like no other, and a city that gives back land to native threatened and endangered species. To change the meaning of luxury in the eyes of sustainability, there must be the sense of status and pride living in a building that can deliver the natural environment to the buyers doorstep. As the luxury market changes, the idea of sustainability in ecosystems and architecture can evolve to other markets. High rise and high end living will create strong urban ecosystems
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