VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Davis, A. Jack"

Browsing by Author "Davis, A. Jack"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 21

Advancing the Global Land Grant Institution: Creating a Virtual Environment to Re-envision Extension and Advance GSS-related Research, Education, and Collaboration
Hall, Ralph P.; Polys, Nicholas F.; Sforza, Peter M.; Eubank, Stephen D.; Lewis, Bryan L.; Krometis, Leigh-Anne H.; Pollyea, Ryan M.; Schoenholtz, Stephen H.; Sridhar, Venkataramana; Crowder, Van; Lipsey, John; Christie, Maria Elisa; Glasson, George E.; Scherer, Hannah H.; Davis, A. Jack; Dunay, Robert J.; King, Nathan T.; Muelenaer, Andre A.; Muelenaer, Penelope; Rist, Cassidy; Wenzel, Sophie (Virginia Tech, 2017-05-15)
The vision for this project has emerged from several years of research, teaching, and service in Africa and holds the potential to internationalize education at Virginia Tech and in our partner institutions in Malawi. The vision is simple, to develop a state-of-the-art, data rich, virtual decision-support and learning environment that enables local-, regional-, and national-level actors in developed and developing regions to make decisions that improve resilience and sustainability. Achieving these objectives will require a system that can combine biogeophysical and sociocultural data in a way that enables actors to understand and leverage these data to enhance decision-making at various levels. The project will begin by focusing on water, agricultural, and health systems in Malawi, and can be expanded over time to include any sector or system in any country. The core ideas are inherently scalable...
Between water and land
Otero-Lopez, Rosa D. (Virginia Tech, 1995-07-01)
none
Café of Dance
Borges, Pedro José (Virginia Tech, 2007-05-02)
A beginning of questions about architecture and humanity and searching for those answers that begin to initiate the process of design and improving the quality of life. This is an investigation and an understanding of those values which make a place unique. Once those attributes have been found then we can begin to embrace them within architecture. Inside the small town of Veron, on the eastern shore of the Dominican Republic, unique economic and social conditions are apparent there that are mirrored throughout this small island nation and throughout many parts of Latin America. There are powerful forces at work, along with nature, that are affecting local communities and degrading the social status. This is only a small microcosm of the social, economic and environmental effects of the tourism industry in this paradise nation. How do we sustain those qualities that are embedded within the fabric of a nation's culture, heritage, and begin to give the nation a voice within design. How do you provide a sustainable solution between private tourism industries and local governments and communities within the setting and conditions of the eastern shore of the Dominican Republic?
College of Architecture and Urban Studies 50 Year Anniversary
Frampton, Kenneth; Davis, A. Jack; de Hahn, Henri (2014-09-23)
Kenneth Frampton spoke at Virginia Tech during the College of Architecture and Urban Studies’ 25th anniversary celebration, and we are thrilled to welcome him back for our 50th anniversary. British architect, critic, and historian Kenneth Frampton is the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. In 1972, he became a fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York and a co-founding editor of its magazine Oppositions. Frampton is well-known for his writings on twentieth-century architecture. He achieved prominence in architectural education with his essay, “Towards a Critical Regionalism” (1983). His books include Modern Architecture: A Critical History (1980; revised 1985, 1992, and 2007) and Studies in Tectonic Culture (1995). In 2002, a collection of Frampton’s writings over a period of 35 years was collated and published under the title Labour, Work and Architecture (Phaidon Press, London).
The Door of Return Museum of Senegal
Ngutter, William Nguta-Makau (Virginia Tech, 2014-01-29)
Door of Return Museum symbolizes a synthesis of environmental building systems (EBS) and extends Senegal's cultural fingerprint along the Atlantic shoreline. Benefits of EBS technologies include ecologic imperatives, coexistence with nature, and transcultural synergies to name a few. Architecturally speaking EBS is the purposeful integration of environmental systems in a harmonious manner that maximizes passive energy solutions to the fullest extent possible. When doing so problems exist both environmental and contextual yet resolutions can be rewarding to the client, community, and most important the end-user. Overcoming problematic challenges maintains sensitivity towards nature, cultural history and vernacular typology. Design methodology mitigates natural systems such as thermal heat transfer, daylight control, natural ventilation and thermal lag prior to incorporating mechanical systems. The paramount result is a contemporary museum that educates via its collection and economized performance systems.
Fairfax County Park Authority sports and recreational facility
Burke, Daniel P. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1988)
"The room is not only the beginning of architecture: it is an extension of self. If you think about it, you realize that you don't say the same thing in a small room that you say in a large room. If I were to speak in a great hall, I would have to pick one person who smiles at me in order to be able to speak at all. "The large room and the small room, the tall room and the low room, the room with the fireplace and the room without, all become great events in your mind. You begin to think, not what are the requirements, but rather what are the elements of architecture that you can employ to make an environment in which it is good to learn, good to live, or good to work." Louis I Kahn¹ "A good structural organism worked out passionately in detail and in general appearance is essential to good architecture, structural architecture leads to that synthesis of static—aesthetic activity, technical knowledge and mastery of execution which produced the masterpieces of the past." Pier Luigi Nervi²
The Impetus of Locomotion
Searcy, Jack Candler (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-19)
The "Impetus of Locomotion" takes the implication of a force in which movement happens. This thesis takes this connotatively resonant idea in which movement is construed and creates a static definition of it in a building, in this case a high speed rail station - a literal translation of movement. Through design interventions of modes of transportation, wayfinding, and architectural form, the impetus of locomotion is defined.
Interview with A. J. “Jack” Davis, CAUS 50th Anniversary
Davis, A. Jack (Virginia Tech. College of Archiecture and Urban Studies, 2014-01)
Interview with A.J. “Jack” Davis, dean of Virginia Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies, on the history of the college and its departments.
The James River Nature Center: A Study of Context and Concept
Richards, Bradley Vincent (Virginia Tech, 1999-07-15)
Contextually, each program has a set of inherent issues, stemming from physical, social and historical conditions. This context can be helpful, if not essential, in developing the architectural questions that lead to a concept. To establish an autonomous existence as an architectural place. The James River Nature Center provided a complex program that allowed for the exploration of context and concept as a thesis.
Layers for communition: low-rise, high density apartments in-between urban and suburban
Lee, SeungJu (Virginia Tech, 1998-11-04)
Housing is one of the most fundamental subjects of architecture, not just for the basic purpose of shelter, but for the place where vitality can be transcended to the people living in them. 'Housing' rather than 'house' marks the intersection between architecture and urban design and the simultaneous existence of the individual and collective. Housing is also a form of material culture. As such, it cannot be understood without studying the cultural and economic conditions of its production. - Rem Koolhaas, 'Conversations with students' With the gradual change in family structure, housing accommodations would be smaller as the family size reduces, however, common open space and active recreation of all types would be enlarged. This would be a greater opportunity to integrate urban with suburban environments - the town's cultural and employment opportunities would be within easy access to the countryside and to nature. "Architecture is an art filled with contradictions. The more we learned about these contradictions in architecture, the more they translate these contradictions into an antitheses; between discipline and freedom, between technology and environment, between modernity and tradition. But....discipline sets limits to freedom, yet it is also its container, the thing that gives it form. These two elements coexist and interact." - Herman Hertzberger, 'Lessons for students in Architecture' The meaning of space can be clarified as dualities; between public and private, light and shadow, positive and negative, horizontal and vertical, man-made and nature, and denotative and connotative. Space is transformed into characteristic place through these changes, layers and sequences of movement. It would undoubtedly guide urban growth toward a more humane living environment which can recover community space set against stereotypical architecture.
Life in Downtown
Weddle, Evelyn Luck (Virginia Tech, 2000-08-24)
Architecture is a product of its surroundings. The response to site, program, and history of place differs everytime. How we interpret a place is influenced by our own experiences in life. We each possess a unique set of tools which we use to construct the spaces that surround us. A place is given life and vitality through the people that use them. It is the architect's job to create a place that encourages life to exist. Everyday activities take many forms - eating, sleeping, working, playing, sitting - all forms of interaction. When these activities are set in an urban location, life begins to dictate the spaces necessary for them to take place. An urban setting needs people to thrive; and people choose to live in these settings for human interaction, dependence on others, and a sense of belonging. This thesis investigates the integration of urban housing and retail space in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. It is architecture that is desperately needed in order to sustain urban life in this part of town.
My Father's House - Element, Space, and Architecture
Lin, Tza-jen (Virginia Tech, 2000-07-10)
The study of architecture is a journey. This thesis is a stage in that journey that allows me the opportunity to wonder, to explore, and to investigate. During the design of a house for my father, many issues concerning architecture are visited and these inquiries help me to search and develop my own position in architecture. The process of making this project is also a journey. It is a journey to see how an idea can be developed into a building by various means. A building is composed of many elements. The elements play functional parts and represent the aspirations of the architects. In this thesis project, I seek to create desirable spaces by the manipulation of the elements. The inseparable relationship between the element and the space is essential not only for this project, but also in the study of architecture.
An oceanographic research facility
Craig, Phillip Scott (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994)
The natures of two contiguous worlds in a dramatic symbiosis inspire a singular expression for the two. The moving, highly energetic, brought to order through regulation; not abruptly, but sensitively, through dynamic forms and moving interactions. Land joins water and forms a critical edge that through the mechanism of change is never fully determined. A moving contour presents a foil to the more orderly, precise nature of man-made construction. A building manifests itself as a bridge that unites the realms of land and water. The orderly progression of structural piles assumes power against the backdrop of an unordered field. Suspended pathways traverse the field, uniting the realms and organizing the waterfront. It is the nature of connection: the union of two made possible by a third. Beyond the connection implied of two contiguous realms, a larger order poses its question. What is the sense of belonging; the intimate connection; belonging to and of this place? Validation extends from referencing the immediate site and surrounding area. Perceived and associative images, as well as indigenous forces inform the design and help determine the forms and manner of execution. The exigencies of the site provide the framework for expression. From the Poetics of Gardens: "Sometimes the most poignant qualities of site come not from what is actually there but from what is connected to it through time and space, by our recollections and hopes." An Oceanographic Research Facility, derived from forces and forms indigenous to the coastal milieu, emerges as a platform to experience Land and Sea and by definition, unified: joined in a common sense or relationship.
perspective: design of Cascades visitors' center
McCullough, Julie Graham (Virginia Tech, 2000-02-11)
Consider the construction of a perspective drawing. The perspective is made by drawing lines between a point of origin and several focal points. A series of lines connect the focal points to one another. The culmination of lines drawn from origin to focal point and focal point to focal point describes a place. The perspective is a view, or window into this place. The relationship of these three elements - the origin, focal points, and view - is analogous to the development of a architectural project. The origin is a point of beginning. Each architect brings a set of experiences and ideas to the project. The project springs from the architects' knowledge and ideals. The focal points involve the design development of a project. They relate to the areas of study and discovery for the project. Some foci are specific to a site or program. Some foci further investigate design intentions and how they relate to a given program. The links between foci create a place. Each drawing or description of this place is a view into the project. This thesis outlines the origins, focal points and views of a design for a visitors' center located in southwestern Virginia.
Places of the Earth: A Cultural Center for Zimbabwe
Sterne, Christie Savidge (Virginia Tech, 1998-09-04)
This thesis began with research in the rural areas of Zimbabwe, in southern Africa. I began with a little background knowledge and a great desire to learn. I took my research to the rural areas to try to understand the roots of traditional architecture and the why's of building methods in Zimbabwe. My thesis project grew out of a desire to give something back to the people that had so generously opened up an opportunity for me to learn about their culture and traditions. My cultural center was an attempt to take the essential elements of traditional building, use the structural language of the homesteads and create a place that would become part of the site and culture of today's Zimbabwe.
Sightlines: A New Airport for St. Louis
Shuba, Matt (Virginia Tech, 2010-11-01)
A consideration of the challenges that make airports such a difficult building type to design, use and visit; and a new airport that proposes to use unconventional layout, expansive windows and open sightlines to provide a more welcoming building to users, employees and visitors.
Sports Center (relationship between architectural space and exercise performance)
Gao, Yuan (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-28)
Function is the first priority of designing architecture. Function lets architectural space serve human body movement properly. Today, there are many sport centers( gyms) for people to choose. Most of the gyms are simply rooms with machines. Although their spaces can fulfill the basic demands of a workout gym (function), the function of gym design is not only to give people space to work out, but also to use the architectural space to improve exercise performance. As a bodybuilder and powerlifter for seven years, I have competed in bodybuilding. I am also planning to compete in powerlifting. So, I want to use my knowledge and experience of training to improve the exercise performance through design of the architectural space.
tapestry: towards a newer 'parchitecture, that which is 'pataphysical
Fendik, Erik (Virginia Tech, 2018-06-11)
How do we design for a local community while respecting heritage and touching their hearts? We know through our minds and we understand through our hearts. Consciousness touches minds and experience touches hearts. Since phenomenology is the study of both consciousness and experience, this phenomenological architectural thesis is designed to touch both minds and hearts. Instead of replacement, we need embracement in order to root one's social identity. Only then we will elevate cultural heritage in any context, for example African. This thesis includes a case study of light followed by a 'pataphysical design proposal for Tapestry: a new library at Mzuzu University in Malawi. The library proposal is introduced through poems and visual information in the following sets: metaphysical, physical, 'pataphysical. Through the inquiry in haiku writing style, this poetry collection evaluates corners, windows, light, intensity, form. Not only we propose an exciting and unique library design, but we also discover that dignity is the key to unlocking the spirit of light in any project, regardless of its form.
The temporary and the permanent
Metzger, A. Susanne (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993)
When the design of a building is understood as a creation of ideas, and construction as putting these ideas into reality, then a building is only created once, and every change or growth will be just another construction phase. Under these circumstances, the act of creating the basis for flexibility requires the knowledge about quality and location of changes at a time when the building, Its use and Its user configuration do not exist. Since form and function are closely tied together, designing for flexibility will influence form. In the past, what was thought to be the most flexible building tended to have the most unspecific form. It must be the contributIon of architecture to achieve both, the adaptability for change, and the ability to express and interpret time, place and meaning. Since the introduction of mass production, building flexibility has been a leading economic factor in the planning of industrial and commercial facilities. Technological progress not only affects production conditions, but also constantly redefines requirements for spatial quality and the building conception. For the benefit of architectural meaning, and a work environment that can meet human requirements under changing conditions, planning methods and architectural concepts must distinguish between spaces with different flexibility demands. The sum of functions in a building can be divided in work-related and people·related activities. Work-related activities are production-oriented involving a relatively high degree of technology. People-reIated activities are oriented toward the basic human needs involving a relatively low degree of flexibility. Whereas work related functions have a high frequency of change affecting the building in many degrees, people-related spaces hardly ever change experiencing rearrangements rather than construction work. In architectural design, the relationship between these two different types of space finds expression. As examples in the past show, there is a variety of architectural interpretation of flexibility. The ability to replace elements in a building’s metabolic transformation is influenced by architectural order. In the design of a Research and Development Center an order is created serving work and people functions and distinguishing between temporary and permanent areas.
Thoughts on Architecture…
Simino, Sarah (Virginia Tech, 1999-07-30)
Architecture is more than mere building. Architecture is a process involving the study, observation, and solution of aesthetic and pragmatic problems. The act of building solves the pragmatic questions, but it is the architect's intellectual commitment and line of inquiry that ultimately produces architecture. This inquiry provided the opportunity to develop and elaborate a position on the thinking and making of architecture. The study of the urban condition, structure, enclosure, multi-functional elements and photography became a base of knowledge from which to begin. The range of ideas presented were the result of a line of inquiry that became this thesis. Quality is not inherent in an object. It must be expressed through the ideas by which it was created. In the same respect, this project does not represent the concepts, it presents them. "...the first imperative is to gain the critical knowledge that will permit the choice of the coordinates within which his or her career will develop; these are the coordinates to which his or her buildings will refer." Raphael Moneo

Browsing by Author "Davis, A. Jack"

Results Per Page

Sort Options