Browsing by Author "Schneider, Mark E."
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- Architecture and the Inspiration of the MuseumConstantine, Irene Elizabeth (Virginia Tech, 2001-06-15)Architecture exists through human experience. As the product of the relationship between a building and a person, architecture gains meaning when it is viewed and contemplated by an individual moving throughout a building. Architecture simultaneously engages the body and mind of one who experiences it, and its intentions become visible through a continuous weaving of motion through situations that constitute a place. My thesis examines the interplay between architecture and human action. Manifest in the following thesis are explorations of the institution of the museum. From its earliest forms to its present day forms, the museum has undergone many changes due to a number of influences. In this thesis I will look at the cultural dynamics that shape museums. Specifically, my critique will be through the lens of its cultural history, my own culturally based observations, and through a design: the demonstration. One objective of this thesis is to revive the idea of the museum as a place of the muses, where the muses inspire those people who experience the place. I have selected Charleston and its historic setting for the project location of a Museum. This is a place where one might participate in a journey of initiation, education, and cultivation. Through design, I demonstrate a museum, which aims to initiate and encourage self-cultivation by one's experience of the objects in the museum and the space that surrounds the objects. It is perhaps through a perusal of objects contained without authoritative concepts applied that one may acquire knowledge and become inspired.
- Beyond the Institution: The Making of a Visual and Conceptual Playgroundmcleran, jennifer (Virginia Tech, 1999-12-15)this thesis Presents an exploration of the residence hall as an institution through formal and conceptual play.
- City on the Hill - Palazzo della CommediaKorkuti, Arian (Virginia Tech, 2012-06-13)This thesis is an exploration of three architectural types: regia, tholus, and theatrum which put together in the form of a building would demonstrate the nature of architecture. My quest traces these types in time and geography and combines them in a play that takes place in the form of a building in Blacksburg, Virginia and on the foothills of mythical Mount Alban near Rome, Italy. Furthermore, this thesis addresses questions regarding methods of construction techniques, and building materials used in each of the building forms presented. In doing so it reinterprets a traditional construction technique through a study model.
- Completion Reforms That Work: How Leading Colleges Are Improving the Attainment of High-Value DegreesSchneider, Mark E.; Clark, Kim (American Enterprise Institute, 2018-05-30)In this report, the authors evaluate institution-level practices aimed at improving college completion rates. While this report focuses mostly on four-year institutions, many of the highlighted reforms can be implemented at any type of postsecondary institution if properly tailored to a school’s and student body’s particular needs and characteristics. With such large variation among college completion rates across the country, this report offers a worthwhile look at some specific practices that are working at the institutional level, examines how much we know about the success of those programs, and evaluates whether policymakers can assist in scaling up ones that work.
- Decoding Chinese Classical Architecture for Contemporary Architectural Design - With Special Reference to Modern Architectural Development in TaiwanSung, Li-wen (Virginia Tech, 2006-10-11)This research began with an exploration of the phenomenon of cultural conflict and fusion in the process of architectural modernization in Taiwan. It will examine the impact of modern and contemporary theories on the practice of architecture of the island. It will then seek out the essence of Chinese classical architecture in order to develop an approach for the development of the future Chinese/Taiwanese architecture. In addition, the findings of the study could serve as a reference for scholars who would pursue historical and theoretical studies of in the subject, or for architects who are seeking design concepts to enhance their projects. The study utilizes an interpretive-historical methodology. It emphasizes that researchers should investigate social phenomena within broader and more complex contexts of what to uncover the underlying cultural factors. To highlight their significance, the author will pursue a hypothetic project to examine and demonstrate the meaningfulness and applicability of the concepts learned from the research. Efforts were made to discover ways in which Taiwanese and Chinese architectural culture can deal with foreign influences, such that it will be able to enjoy the benefits of modernization while maintaining its unique character and identity. Moreover, it will attempt to uncover ways in which Chinese architecture can in fact influence the global contemporary architectural culture. Finally, it is hoped that this work will produce a useful reference for students, scholars and architects who wish to develop design projects that reflect and celebrate regional cultures.
- Descendents: Research in ArchitectureFleming, Jonathan Paul (Virginia Tech, 1998-09-05)This thesis investigates the relationships between projects in the form of resistance. The thesis is accompanied by a series of projects that investigate a number of resistances. These resistances spur relationships to other works in progress; descendents. The projects are a testing ground for the ideological content in an architects work. Each project we undertake is a part of a much larger whole that may or may not be a life's work, but is, certainly, an influence in the creation of coherence as we move forth in our practice. This is not to say that everything must look alike, rather it is to keep one involved in the fundamental aspects of a project that may give clues as to what you as an architect stand for. It is itself a resistance to the problems facing us as we attempt to build. Those problems that may begin to bog us down and force us to lose sight of architecture. There are many things on one's plate as a project proceeds, it is not easy to keep focus. The architect must seek aspects that put us into dialogue with those things outside that inevitably influence the specific work at hand. A way of arriving at conclusions that do not confound an architecture. I see it as being analogous to Hertzberger's discussion of warp and weft, a defined structure into which possibilities may be woven creating relationships between the elements of the architecture. This asserts a set of rules that an architect learns how to work with, and even violate. This formulation creates multiple possibilities within and outside a framework of the architect's order. The architect learns to question within the boundaries of his times, and perhaps beyond those bounds with that understanding. He learns what to ask and what not to ask; which resistances offer stimulus and which do not. The work, through time, acts as an analogue to history itself. The designer may then create with a better grasp of the full potentiality of Architecture.
- Drawing an Education: Influence and EvidenceSmith, Brenda Forrester (Virginia Tech, 2000-09-18)This thesis is concerned with the art and act of sketching existing architecture. "Drawing an Education" refers to both educating the line by the practice and habit of drawing and to allowing the line to be the educator by drawing from buildings and places, disclosing relationships, structure and meaning. "Influence and evidence" refers to the influences that affect the process and the evidence as exhibited in a finely tuned intuition. This thesis is arranged as a three-part inquiry: • Drawing: how sketching facilitates an intimate connection between the architect and the place, the effect on the collective reality and cultural transmission, and sketching in relation to the photograph, both as a device and as a source; • Influences: how six major influences impact the drawing process, each investigated individually and in relationship to one another, both in an historical as well as a poetic context - eye and perception; interpretation; representation; hand and discipline; media and format; and the line itself; • Implications: how an architect's drawing an education through sketching the built environment is evidenced as a developed intuition and imagination. It is intended that the reader will have a greater awareness of the process of architectural sketching and be encouraged to draw more, perceive more, and understand more as he sketches along the way, as well as when he embarks on his own Grand Tour.
- Drawing Towards BuildingWright, Daniel (Virginia Tech, 2011-06-03)This is a story of a buildingâ s becoming. It begins sixteen years ago when I was first made wholly subject to a drawing. It was not the kind commonly considered proper to architecture, but no drawing in architecture has made sense to me if not for that first. The drawing was toward music. The work of art for the architect is drawing out relationships of embodied belongingâ drawing from memory towards building. I once remembered a beloved house of brick and drew upon it. As building emerged in the drawing, it became its own thing with its own desires. I was myself drawn in by its presence and made attendant to its longings. I listened, in a way, to what it called for and then drew it out, again and again, all the while towards building.
- Geometric Improvisations Leading to a Musical InstrumentKhoury, Sari Bassem (Virginia Tech, 2000-01-27)Thesis explores a theory of proportion, its application within a design-build experiment, while establishing essential elements of design language.
- The Giant Dream ChamberPomerance, Ethan (Virginia Tech, 2009-08-21)The Giant Dream Chamber is an underworld figure chanting Aperspectival intuition, the image arrives. Matter undresses, interiority silhouetted.
- Girard Desargues, the architectural and perspective geometry: a study in the rationalization of figureSchneider, Mark E. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1983)Girard Desargues (1951-1662) was a key figure in the transformation of architectural geometry from its ancient and venerated status as transcendental knowledge and supreme reality to a mere technological instrument for the control of building construction practice. As a friend of Rene Descartes and Marin Mersenne, Desargues participated in the development of the mechanistic worldview which accompanied the emergence of experimental science and the renewed interest in mathematics and geometry as axiomatic, deductive systems. This dissertation examines in detail Desargues' methods of stereotomy (the geometrical basis of architectural stone cutting) and his system of perspective construction without vanishing points beyond the picturespace. Desargues' theorem and other key discoveries for which he is still known in the history of mathematics are discussed as they bear upon his methods of stereotomy and perspective. Desargues' stereotomy is almost certainly the first attempt at a universal descriptive geometry such as Gaspard Monge finally developed after the French revolution. Desargues' work in this area may thus be seen as a precocious foreshadowing of the engineering geometry in common use today. The writings of Desargues have been consulted in the original French. Extensive passages are quoted and translated, and a number of illustrations from the original texts are reproduced. Supplementary illustrations are also provided. Appendices list the known architectural works of Desargues, his writings and those of his friend and student Bosse which bear upon the exposition of Desargues' methods.
- In-Between: Architectural Drawing and Imaginative KnowledgeKoliji, Hooman (Virginia Tech, 2013-03-01)Design drawings mediate between the world of ideas and the world of things, spanning the intangible and tangible. However, contemporary technical architectural drawings, in establishing a direct relationship between the drawing and its object, tend to base this relationship on a visual paradigm that authenticates the visible physical world over the conceptual invisible world, including that of the designer's imagination. The result is that the drawing may become a reduced utilitarian tool for documentation, devoid of any meaningful value in terms of a kind of knowledge that could potentially link the visible and invisible. The imaginal drawing, assuming mundus imaginalis, is an ontological third world mediating between the invisible and visible worlds. As such, it offers an alternative view of the architectural drawing. Inhabitants of this domain are subtle bodies that hold physical attributes (e.g. form, proportion, color), highly evocative, yet with no matter. Representing a world of similitudes, the imaginal is fundamental to the field of architectural representation, as it introduces a perspective in which the architectural drawing finds an ontological home, wherein the drawing becomes a true in-between territory, mediating between the invisible and visible. In this realm, the drawing becomes a subtle architecture in itself. Prevalent Islamic geometric architectural drawings, namely girih, which lend themselves to the imaginal, provide clues by which the drawing is recognized as an in-between. The geometric interlocking patterns they feature, the girih mode, represent a creative agent by which the built transcends the physical world and penetrates realm of spirituality. An examination the girih mode in its intellectual, imaginative, and physical contexts re-identifies these geometric drawings as a productive realm of consciousness. As an aperture to the imaginal, these architectural drawings open the door to a world of its own, wherein the drawing has a true subtle existence. In this view, the drawing starts from the domain of human imagination with the possibility of ascending to the realm of the intellect, while at the same time descending to the realm of the senses to guide the architect toward a built object. Seen this way, the imaginal drawing can offer an in-between state of being and becoming, a subtle matter, lighter than the building and denser than the idea"essentially representing a mode of consciousness involving the conscious imagination.
- The Master’s as the New Bachelor’s Degree: In Search of the Labor Market PayoffSchneider, Mark E.; Klor de Alva, Jorge (American Enterprise Institute, 2018-01-08)American universities awarded roughly 760,000 master’s degrees during the 2014–15 academic year, yet we know little about the payoff associated with these degrees, especially by field of study. Using new data from three states, the authors show that field of study is closely related to post-graduation earnings from master’s degrees. Master’s graduates in fields such as philosophy, art, and early childhood education have the lowest median earnings—often less than graduates with bachelor’s or even associate degrees.
- Motion and Emotion, Urban Dwelling in New OrleansKeeney, Benjamin S. (Virginia Tech, 2006-08-10)This thesis brings forth the regional architecture of New Orleans, Louisiana, and applies it directly towards the reconstruction and reconstitution of the Lafitte Housing Project closed as a result of Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005. The half-mile long Lafitte Housing Project rests just outside the French Quarter in the Sixth Ward. This thesis proposes reopening the canal along Jefferson Davis Parkway and extending it into the French Quarter to the southern edge of Louis Armstrong Park. As many of the former apartments were damaged by flooding from Hurricane Katrina, some units will be demolished to make way for site changes. A problematic condition of the former public housing complex was the way that it stood within the site as a massive homogenous entity, far out of scale to the surrounding urban fabric. The solution to rebuilding the site is not to construct another massive housing community. Rather, this proposal would include restoring many of the existing units, providing a historic anchor to the new neighborhood, and allowing them to remain along with new construction. Earth removed from the canal will stay on the site and be used to construct a half-mile long mound, running most of the length of the projects. This mounded area will feature spaces for recreational activities, Marti Gras celebrations, relaxation, and it will allow bridged access to the second floors of the new buildings. More important than what the mound does, is what it is: a metaphor for rising up from the mud and water and towards an elevated way of living, for inhabitants of the new and old structures. The vehicle for the form and structure of the new dwelling units is the historic Foursquare house. A house that symbolizes aristocracy and well-being, these new units are a refinement of the two bedroom apartments in the existing public housing complex. In this proposal, both will coexist throughout the site.
- PSE Poultry Breast Enhancement through the Utilization of Poultry Collagen, Soy Protein, and Carrageenan in a Chunked and Formed Deli RollDaigle, Scott Paul (Virginia Tech, 2005-09-08)Pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) poultry originates during rigor mortis when the muscle pH drops rapidly in high temperature carcasses. This condition results from antemortem stress and/or genetic material in the live animal. PSE poultry is pale in color, has low water-holding capacity, and forms products that are unappealing, dry, and unacceptable to consumers. Since value added products processed with PSE turkey meat display poor protein bind, color, and water retention, enhanced usability could add value to this low value raw material through locating a niche for PSE meat currently utilized in further processed products. Experiment 1 consisted of four broiler breast treatments: 100% PSE, 100% PSE + 1.5% chicken collagen, 100% normal, and 100% normal + 1.5% chicken collagen to test the effects of raw material and chicken collagen. Incorporation of collagen improved (p<0.05) protein bind and CIE L* values in both PSE and normal broiler breast treatments, while decreasing (p<0.05) the cooking and chilling loss of PSE broiler breast treatments. Experiment 2 consisted of four turkey breast treatments: 100% PSE, 100% PSE + 1.5% turkey collagen, 100% normal, and 100% normal + 1.5% turkey collagen to test the effects of raw material and turkey collagen. Addition of turkey collagen improved (p<0.05) the protein bind and CIE L* values in both PSE and normal broiler breast treatments, while decreasing (p<0.05) the cooking and chilling loss of PSE turkey breast treatments. Experiment 3 consisted of five turkey breast treatments: 100% PSE, 100% PSE + 1.5% collagen, 100% PSE + 0.30% kappa/iota carrageenan, 100% PSE + 1.5% soy protein concentrate, and 100% normal to test the effects of raw material, turkey collagen, soy protein concentrate, and carrageenan. Addition of soy protein and turkey collagen both decreased (p<0.05) cooking and chilling loss and increased (p<0.005) the protein bind of 100% PSE. Purge loss was decreased (p<0.05) in PSE raw material when turkey collagen, soy protein concentrate, and kappa/iota carrageenan were utilized. Treatments with collagen displayed similar (p>0.05) CIE L* and CIE a* values to that of normal treatments. No differences (p>0.05) in consumer acceptability existed among the treatments.
- Ratiocinium in the Architectural Practice of Giuseppe Terragni and its role in the relationship between architecture and the city during the modern movements in ItalyKorkuti, Arian (Virginia Tech, 2021-01-11)The architectural practice of Giuseppe Terragni (1904-1943) takes place during the twentieth century modern social movements, as architecture and urban form follow a major shift in the political conditions, in Italy and beyond. This dissertation is a demonstration of the quest for the rational in the architectural practice of Giuseppe Terragni. Furthermore, it sorts out the role of Terragni's practice in the dichotomous relationships between city and architecture as well as state and project. Initially, it is the obligation of this dissertation to address questions of principles, in order to build a plenum for the relationship between the city and architecture. It traces movements through translation and transformation of architectural impression, in form and type, and its meta in concinnity, in terms of legacy, legitimacy, and the rational in idea. THESIS. The implicit rational in architecture exists in hierarchical order that allows for it to form unity of the whole that any of its constituents cannot form individually. It should be the architect's duty to fully reconcile all the elements in action – for and against form – in architecture, and demonstrate that the resultant is not a mere compromise but a necessary optimal condition. Therefore, I start with a stance in which I attempt to show how Giuseppe Terragni, in his ratiocinium, explicates the implicit rational in architecture, against the sea of protean political conditions. Giuseppe Terragni can be understood in his convictions which we may be able to sort out through his words, works, and deeds. In his pursuit of the rational Giuseppe Terragni offers a clue to the time and actions taking place, as if he were to remind us of the Homeric song about the deeds of men with convictions under their destiny and their ironic tragicomedy. Terragni's Danteum is the one instance where destiny seems closer to fulfillment. Dante Alighieri's dream of the glorious empire seems to materialize in the signs of the monarchy and its savior – Mussolini. Since the fascist movement concerns itself with questions of legitimacy that in lineage shifts between histories of origins and middles, the shifting in language plays an important role in the sorting out of factum and verum. Languages that enter into this play shift laterally mainly between Greek, Latin, and Italian. And, at times Dardanian and Proto-Albanian, both Illyrian dialects, enter the play. METHOD. Many aspects of this inquiry demand specific research methods as shown through the general and specific instances of man's activity as work which results in that which is made (factum) and the pursuit of that which is true (verum). Therefore, method in the sense of search for the way concerning purpose in what is made is conducted through istoria and historiography. Meanwhile, the search for truth, as it does not concern itself with the same scope as factum, requires philosophy as means towards knowledge, to sort out questions regarding truth. This dissertation follows certain Italian philosophers as guides in the pursuit. Not the least among them is Giambattista Vico who proposes that universal laws of development of men and society can be traced through the union between verum and factum. So, verum and factum become characters of the same play. Philology, love for reason, as a subspecies of philosophy, is a means toward knowledge in unraveling of the layers of the rational in the making. Additionally, in this inquiry, I employ analogies, diagrams, ideograms, and images, which demonstrate the quest for the rational in the architectural practice of Giuseppe Terragni.
- Return on Investment: What is the Value of the Associate Degree?Schneider, Mark E. (Association of Community Colleges Trustees, 2016)In this report, the author compares sub baccalaureate credentials with baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate degrees. In 2014, there were 100,000 more sub-baccalaureate degrees or credentials awarded than bachelor’s degrees. The author shows that majors matter, and specific degrees offer the potential of high earnings, particularly in fields where graduates will “fix things or people.” He advises that one of the best ways to ensure that community colleges can help students achieve labor market success is to develop strong pipelines from the college to the workplace. The paper provides a checklist of high-impact practices that colleges can employ to support students on their journey to degree completion and ultimately improved employment outcomes.
- Saving the Liberal Arts: Making the Bachelor’s Degree A Better Path to Labor Market SuccessSchneider, Mark E.; Sigelman, Matthew (American Enterprise Institute, 2018-02-20)Rising college tuition and an uneven economic recovery have left many recent college graduates underemployed and saddled with debt. Even though the bachelor’s degree has historically been a solid investment, many have begun to question whether higher education, especially liberal arts programs, has value for today’s students facing an evolving economy. To explore the questions around the value of the liberal arts, the authors analyze detailed information on millions of job postings and worker resumes from Burning Glass Technologies.
- Transformation for architectsSchneider, Mark E. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1978)Transformation has been studied in a number of fields such as geometry, music and linguistics but has never been investigated in architecture even though it occurs there with some frequency. The basic task of this essay is to prepare the way for a study of transformation in architecture through an examination of the nature of transformation as an operation type and through a brief study of some cases of transformation in architecture. The first part of the paper examines transformation in several fields where it has a history of use, and establishes what it is and what it can be used to do in these fields. From this investigation a series of five characteristics of transformation are developed. In the second part of the paper, a strategy for the investigation of transformation in architecture is developed. In the third and final section, the strategy is applied to a study of a number of types of transformation in existing architecture, and suggestions are made for future research. Proposals are also made for some new uses of transformation in future architectural work.
- What makes a passenger ship a legend: The future of the concept of legend in the passenger shipping industryCoggins Jr., Andrew Oscar (Virginia Tech, 2004-10-22)Cruising, a ten million plus passenger, multi-billion dollar, world-wide industry, is one of tourism's fastest growing sectors. With many new ships entering the market each year, ships must capture the public imagination in order to compete. Over the years the ships that have done this have become legends. This study investigates the qualities necessary for a passenger ship to be identified as a legendary ship and asks how companies make their ships stand out as legends. This study proposes that legendary ships, "grand hotels of the sea," are extensions of other hospitality and tourism legends. Using the Grounded Theory Approach, in which the theory emerges from data, notable ships and their properties were identified from the literature. Integration of categories, factors, and their constituent properties under a Constant Comparative Method created a model of the legendary ship. A Delphi Panel tested and confirmed these properties as well as the study's initial model. It also produced a pool of legendary ships and additional properties. The results were further validated by the passenger shipping public using a world-wide electronic survey. Respondents rated intangible properties such as "External Appearance," "Internal Layout," "Quality of Service and Cuisine," "Funnel Design and Shape," "Repeat Passenger Patronage," "Legacy," "History," "Media Attention," "Speed," "Marine Technology," and "Route;" and the tangible properties of "Facilities, Fittings, and Furnishings," "Size," "Speed," "Marine Technology," and "Non Marine Technology," on their importance and named up to ten ships they considered legendary. Factor analysis was used to divide the properties into four composite factors - "Attractiveness," "Significance," "Power," and "Competitive Advantage." Cluster analysis of the ships produced four legend classifications - "Grand Legends," "Legends," "Demi Legends," and "Personal/Local Legends." Results confirmed the thesis that legendary status is based on superiority across a combination of factors. Those with more intangible properties were found to be stronger, with "Attractiveness," and "Significance" being the strongest. Significantly, no modern cruise ships placed in the top three legend classifications; except Queen Mary 2, built, marketed, and viewed as an ocean liner; indicating that the public views ocean liners and cruise ships as distinct entities.