http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7772 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49737 Send my love to Tijuana -- Tijuana sends her love : the transcendental Tijuanense telecommunications bridge to everywhere Hale, Mary E., S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Send My Love to Tijuana I Tijuana Sends Her Love replaces an existing pedestrian bridge that connects two vibrant neighborhoods in Tijuana, Mexico. The bridge is strategically situated to integrate itself into the city's urban fabric, while maintaining visibility from the United States Border and the San Ysidro Border crossing, the most heavily trafficked border crossing in the world. There, passage is tightly controlled, extending wait-times to unbearable lengths for even those permitted to cross legally. Nearby, my project provides an alternative portal that is universally accessible to those who wish to reconnect with their loved ones by way of another, virtual means: free videoconferencing within dedicated spaces. These spaces range in scale, beginning with the precedent of the phone booth for private, intimate conversations and ending with large-scale public projection zones for families. In either case, families and loved ones are reconnected on opposite sides of the border in a communion whose significance is witnessed by the monumental scale and form of the architectural composition. Not only is the building's form significant, its details also contribute to its monumental character. While the fagade facing the United States is a severe 900 foot-long, 40 foot-high, rectangular, corrugated steel, reflection of the existing border "fence", its symbolic severity is subtly subverted by an array of millions of end lit fiber optic cables. These cables are translucent hairs that blow in the breeze and that channel in from the fagade through the building's folded steel structure, and out into rooms, out beside walkways, and out through ceilings. (cont.) When light activates one end of the optical cable, it illuminates on the opposite end as well. Therefore, the cable channeling system allows for daylight to penetrate the interior spaces, whereas at night, the fagade is illuminated by the internally lit building. The illumination on the fagade is an eery, abstract depiction of the activities inside, as shadows from pedestrians deactivate the cables they pass, and the family-conferencing projections activate cables that portray content on the fagade. Finally, individual lights within the personal telecommunications rooms, when in use, can also be mapped to their own zones. Thus, form and fiber optics enhance the symbolic value of the bridge, which anyway represents the human desire to connect, and directly opposes the ever impassible border wall, which is an embodiment of military might and the distinctly human desire to separate. This thesis project was inspired by my personal experiences with the family members left behind in Central and South America by their dearest relatives-children, husbands, wives-who journeyed illegally to United States in order to garner a financial foothold to support their loved ones back home. Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-57). http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49736 Staging disassembly : incubating post-industrial renewal Stulen, Eliot Falk Over the past five decades, the American urban industrial landscape has become marginalized as the expanding global economy has sought international markets for manufacturing. At the agency of the user-as-investor, this proposal seeks to re-manufacture the post-industrial site to explore the problem of how to effectively reclaim salvaged materials for on-site reuse. As a critique of speculative, clean-slate development, the thesis will explore an incremental disassembly and phased reorganization of a site in Brooklyn at the material and urban scale. Through on-site implementation of manufacturers and automated tooling, this project will speculate on means of creating new value for salvaged materials. The resulting form is a vaulted roofscape that supports public access and leisure space while creating a local strategy for post-industrial renewal. Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-73). http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49735 Programmed path : the conceptual re-enactment of a Charlestown warehouse and dock Reeves, Sarah Rundquist Conceptually re-defining the role of a 100-year-old waterfront brick and timber warehouse structure, it is turned inside-out : interior becomes path. Programmatic functions imitate the physical characteristics of a conceptual dichotomy set in motion by the creation of two sides to the 'path'. Program ranges from flexible and transitional to static and massive, and is laid out laterally along the proposed line. Specific program elements become, relatively, physical archive and digital exhibition space. Denying the over-preserved role of distinct and bound artifact, the old structure attempts animation. The structural patterns of the original warehouse form the armature (interior grid) against which differences are registered. There is no longer bounding geometry but an interplay of landscape and transitional spaces - this is not a 'marker' or symbolic monument but a reconciliation between monumental artifact, material memory, and pattern via path. Traditionally static boundaries are re-interpreted as inverted and fluctuating zones that provide for new forms of spatial, programmatic, and aesthetic engagement. Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-75). http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49734 Lightweight plywood construction assembly : a lightweight approach to the elegant utilitarian form Kwong, Edmund Ming Yip What will be the fundamental aspect and concern of today's good design? As global energy reserves deplete over the coming decades, a strategy of reduced consumption will be essential to the production of furniture and architecture, alike. A lightweight design strategy is a way for designers to participate in reducing the environmental footprint of everyday objects. We are witnessing a Paradigm shift in design and the decorative arts of a magnitude not seen since the Modernist movement in the early 20th century. A design style embraces the combination of sustainability with building production. Today we recognizes that our resources are finite and that careful consideration should be given to the building process. Since ecological concern of materials become one of the foremost issues of today's building industry, For this project, I developed a lightweight and low-cost framing system that is collapsible and easy to assemble. My goal is to create compelling designs in the hope they will inspire people to choose sustainable design over safer and more traditional designs. Making building from thin bent plywood yields 9-10 times more usable wood from a log than making a building from hardwood lumber During the production of plywood, only 15 percent of the wood from a log is lost to waste. On the other hand , the average waste it takes to make a finished solid wood frame building is 1.5 times more wood than is used in the building itself! Bent plywood has been utilized by a mere handful of designer, most notably Alvar Aalto and Charles and Ray Eames, but the application of this material remained in furniture scale. (cont.) Since the creative potential of this material is still largely unexplored. My motivation is to extend the application of this very particular thin material-plywood. Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009. Word "construction" in title purposely crossed-out on title page. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 81).