School of Architecture + Design

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Arthurdale Reviewed: Sustainable New Deal Housing in Appalachia
Galford, Gregory; Tucker, Lisa M. (2021-05-21)
This work in progress is connected to Eleanor Roosevelt’s passion to provide residents of an Appalachian coal-mining town an opportunity to live in a community based on principles of sustainability and social justice. Arthurdale, West Virginia was designed as an ideal community with each family receiving a new home and a plot of land with sufficient acreage to produce their own needs for food. Each home had its own above-ground root cellar and was designed to make the family as independent as possible. Local artisan workshops provided wage-earning jobs and community functions were housed in a town center building. This work in progress revisits that town to learn from the residents how the models have transformed with time. Most houses are still in existence, but with alterations to suit changing needs. The goal of this study is to see what insights of sustainable design can be gleaned from the lived experience of its residents over time. A mixed methods approach will be used, with both surveys and interviews used as tools within both a quantitative and qualitative framework. Expected results will find that longitudinal differences in family lifestyle are reflected in home renovations, and the demographic changes in family makeup have had a strong influence on home adaptations. As new generations of homeowners seek innovations in housing models, the historical lessons of Arthurdale can provide relevance.
From the City to the Shopping Mall and Back Again: Design and Control in the Memphis Mid-America Pedestrian Mall
Keslacy, Elizabeth M. (2024-07-03)
Victor Gruen viewed the shopping centre as a perfected form of the city, one which brought together commercial, civic, and social activities without the undesirable aspects of the downtown central business district. The privately owned shopping centre offered an alternative to congestion and scarce parking, its highly regulated spaces omitted panhandlers, protestors and unruly youth. In response to the loss of business effected by suburban shopping malls, cities across America transformed their downtowns by installing pedestrian malls that closed streets to vehicular traffic and instead provided landscaping, fountains, and benches to create a more pleasant shopping environment. While the urban designers of pedestrian malls often cite historic European cities as their dominant influence, this paper investigates the extent to which their design and regulation was in fact shaped by the suburban shopping mall itself. Examining the Memphis Mid-America Mall designed by Gassner, Nathan and Browne and constructed in the mid-1970s, I reveal how the city sought to impose the spatial order, aesthetic regulation, and behavioural restrictions first developed in the shopping mall on the urban pedestrian mall in an attempt to curtail the freedoms associated with public space in favour of the restrictions of what legal scholars describe as quasior pseudo-public space.
"I WANT": Agency and Accessibility in the Age of AI
Borunda Monsivais, Luis; Gipe-Lazarou, Andrew; Meng, Na (2024-06)
"I WANT access to public buildings and technologies"; "I WANT all stairs to have railings"; "I WANT there to be a talking pedestrian sign"; "I WANT curbs to be more noticeable"; "I WANT technology that is dedicated to the blind". Young, vision-impaired learners from across the world, participating in our team’s human-centered research and participatory design initiatives, express an impassioned desire for agency and inclusive space making. Utilizing these statements as a foundational element of the participatory design process, our work continues to explore the intersection of AI and inclusive space-making, the methods employed through human-centered research and computational techniques such as machine learning and app development, and the potential contributions of these interventions to a more accessible future. This paper presents a two-part investigation into the role of advanced technological interventions and participatory design in shaping the future of architecture and design. Part 1 explores the outcomes of AI assistive device research centered on the voices of future professionals. This phase involved interviews and focus group discussions with blind and visually impaired individuals, designers, and computer scientists in an ongoing human subject research, leading to the creation of an AI-driven navigation app. Part 2 anticipates the deployment of working prototypes derived from these participatory design processes during [Affiliation Placeholder]'s annual Blind Design Workshop, in which more than a dozen young people with vision-impairment participate each spring. Its itinerary includes analog exercises in drawing and model-making (using material samples and wax sticks on Braille graph paper), guided tours of multi-sensory learning spaces across [Location Placeholder], accessible training in the production of 3D-prints and embossed drawings, and mentorship from practicing design professionals of the vision-impaired community, culminating in a final presentation and group critique of accessible design proposals. The workshop is a unique career exploration experience in architecture for individuals with vision impairment, designed to empower them with the understanding that they can have agency in the space-making process by giving them a voice and teaching them to architect their ambitions for the future. The synergy of AI and architecture presents profound opportunities to propel young, vision-impaired individuals from passive observers to active participants in crafting inclusive environments. Our paper discusses how innovative approaches to research and learning can seed future generations with the goal of harnessing AI for social impact in design and substantiating their role as the vanguards of a more accessible world. The outcomes of this study hold the potential to shape pedagogical strategies and industry standards, contributing to a profound reimagining of inclusive design education and practice.
Identifying Factors for Designing a Successful Interactive Telemedical Training System for Remote Pediatric Physical Exams
Morshedzadeh, Elham; Muelenaer, Andre; Morris, Michelle; Werlich, Dana; Nelson, Margaret (Cumulus Association, 2021)
During the 2020 pandemic, telemedical consultation became a core tool for continuous access to healthcare. However, the skills required of medical teams to provide pediatric healthcare through telehealth are new and undeveloped. To address these issues, our pilot study focused on the interaction between the nurse, patient, and provider with telehealth technology. This study sought to provide evidence that training protocols for operation of a telemedicine system such as a telemedicine cart and its corresponding attachments are highly effective. Based on our results, users (nurse and provider) need to be familiar with the functions of the cart and its components. This suggests that an interactive training system consisting of hands-on learning and augmented reality can elevate a pediatric telemedicine visit, from a video call to a comprehensive physical exam. This research received a “Pilot Translational and Clinical Studies Program” grant from the US National Institutes of Health in October 2020.
Planning for Resilience: Predicting Vegetated Roofs’ Runoff Reduction
Grant, Elizabeth J.; Black, Kenneth Allan; Jones, James R. (2014-06-09)
The rate of incorporation of vegetated systems into urban buildings is on the rise. These systems represent a psychological link to the natural world that city-dwellers have left behind and a physical filter to temper the effects of head, flooding, urban noise, and pollution. The main premise behind this trend is the ability of vegetation to dampen extremes of temperature and rainfall, which will become more unpredictable as climates change. To study the rainfall retention capacity of vegetated roofs, researchers at Virginia Tech have compared the runoff volumes flowing off three different depths of modular vegetated roofing systems to those flowing off a white reflective single-ply membrane roof. Results of this study demonstrated roofing systems to those flowing off a white reflective single-ply membrane roof. Results of this study demonstrated significant reductions in runoff in all the vegetated roof samples. Relationships among variable such as average temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and time between storms, and their effect on runoff reduction at the treatment platforms, were identified. Statistical analysis of the data has yielded a function relating these weather variables, with predictive capacity for future implementation of modular vegetated roofing systems. Armed with tools such as these, architects and roof consultants can better design buildings prepared to accommodate the evolving global climate.
Problematising the Sublime: Affective Archives in Landscape Design
Rosier, Shaun (2024-10-12)
This paper brings forth the problem of bodily, affective, intelligence and its role within landscape architectural design processes. Specifically, how might landscape designers draw on their internal memory-archives of body-environment affects to help shape design decisions? Despite sustained interest in phenomenology and other theories of environmental aesthetics, the operations of spatial affective experience have remained ambiguous within design discourse. This has led to the design of spatial experience being viewed with suspicion due to claims of ‘mere subjectivity’ or a lack of rigor compared to recent trends towards universality and positivism. To counter this, this paper argues that the concreteness of affect can be made present through Deleuze and Guattari’s aesthetics of affect and assemblages. More specifically, experiences of the [landscape]sublime can be understood as an ecological encounter with intensity that disrupts our being’s ability to reference it against one’s bodily archive of affects. This disruption shocks us into determining a creative solution to the spatial and sensory problem at hand, which at first may manifest as a sense of terror. Still, as the processes of experimentation unfold, we find ourselves reveling in the joy of the creation of a new self through the processes of individuation and actualization. Through this aesthetics of affect, this paper argues that although the sublime is an ‘experiential limit case’, it reveals how other forms of landscape experience can be deciphered and made concrete through and for design.
Public Access: A Driver for Preservation and Discovery of Datasets at a US Land-Grant Institution
Ogier, Andrea; Petters, Jonathan L.; Pannabecker, Virginia; Settledge, Robert; Grant, Elizabeth J.; Harden, Samantha M.; Griffin, Julie; Walters, Tyler (2019-08-24)
Public access to federally funded research data ensures preservation and discovery of datasets to promote translation of research evidence into meaningful outcomes. However, historical policy and concerns regarding making data publicly accessible impede realization of implementing public access to data. These concerns include worry over the treatment of intellectual property, the cost (in time and money) of making research publicly accessible, and the danger of accidentally releasing human subjects data. To overcome these issues, a Public Access to Data Committee was established at a public university in rural southwest Virginia. In this paper we review the history of federal public access provisions, share goals, and describe the committee’s process to ultimately engage faculty and administrators in this critical link from research to practice.
Reclamation through Extraction
Rosier, Shaun (2024-03-21)
Reflective Roofing Research: Influence of Roof Color on Adjacent Air and Surface Temperatures
Grant, Elizabeth J.; Black, Kenneth Allan; Werre, Stephen R. (2017-03-19)
An experimental study was conducted to answer questions about the thermal effects of roof reflectivity on the neighbouring built environment. Temperatures were recorded at the surface of black ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) and white thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) membrane overlay areas; in the air and at electrical metallic tubing (EMT) above them; and at opaque and glazed wall surfaces adjacent to them. The surface of the EPDM roof was significantly hotter than the TPO roof by 36°C and 26°C on two test dates. Air temperatures were 2°C higher above EPDM versus TPO up to 14 cm, with no significant differences above this height. Temperatures were 2°C higher at EMT above the TPO surface than above the EPDM. A precast concrete panel wall was 3°C to 5°C warmer adjacent to TPO versus EPDM. Exterior glazing surface temperatures were 2°C warmer adjacent to TPO versus EPDM.
Transforming food waste into natural pigments: Raising community school awareness of food waste recycling opportunities through co-design methods
Choi, Jung Yoon; Okumura, Hiromi; Kennedy, Brook; Lee, Chang Hee; Gendell, Avery (DRS Digital Library, 2024-06)
In a world grappling with ongoing food scarcity, the issue of food waste in US school cafeterias remains a pressing concern, often without sufficient attention given to recycling. School communities play a pivotal role in shaping behaviors, as individuals are significantly influenced by their peers' actions and opinions, making them more open to positive reinforcement. This research explores design opportunity to raise awareness and encourage food waste recycling behaviors through a co-design approach. Students are invited to participate in the interactive exhibitions, where they learn and provide feedback about the pigment-making process from food waste using a toolkit for art painting. Through sharing their experiences, students help spread awareness and foster a commitment to recycling behaviors among their peers. Engaging students as active participants in these activities shows promise as a strategy to increase awareness of food waste recycling opportunities and empower school communities to support circular food systems.
Understanding product hibernation periods with children's products and exploring motivations for product care to encourage their reuse
Choi, Yoon Jung; Kennedy, Brook (Aalto University, 2023-10-02)
The phenomenon of product hibernation, namely the process by which end-of-use products are kept but no longer used is a common and significant barrier to prolonging product lifespans within a circular economy. Obsolete products challenge users' decision-making process for the after-use phase and are often discarded despite being perfectly functional. Especially in households with growing children, where children’s products are outgrown but not discarded, product hibernation is the result. This paper presents the survey findings of 157 hibernating children’s products, and interviews with ten families with growing children in the UK who have moved house, exploring product ownership, reasons for product hibernation, and the various barriers for their reuse. Understanding owners’ product care motivation for re-recognizing their value and providing choices to reuse the children’s products is vital to reduce product hibernation. Further, a workshop was conducted to explore the owners’ reuse experience of with their children’s products and the factors affecting their consistent caring process which aim to encourage people to reuse these products more. Through an idea generation process, nine influential factors were identified that suggest opportunities to change users' perception of the value of the end-of-use and care for these products. This paper makes an original contribution to product reuse knowledge with the development of a framework for understanding reuse motivations and barriers through the lens of care.

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