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Description
Natural resource depletion and environmental degradation are the stark realities of the times we live in. As awareness about these issues increases globally, industries and businesses are becoming interested in understanding and minimizing the ecological footprints of their activities. Evaluating the environmental impacts of products and processes has become a key issue, and the first step towards addressing and eventually curbing climate change. Additionally, companies are finding it beneficial and are interested in going beyond compliance using pollution prevention strategies and environmental management systems to improve their environmental performance. Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) is an evaluative method to assess the environmental impacts associated with a products' life-cycle from cradle-to-grave (i.e. from raw material extraction through to material processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and finally, disposal or recycling). This study focuses on evaluating building envelopes on the basis of their life-cycle analysis. In order to facilitate this analysis, a small-scale office building, the University Services Building (USB), with a built-up area of 148,101 ft2 situated on ASU campus in Tempe, Arizona was studied. The building's exterior envelope is the highlight of this study. The current exterior envelope is made of tilt-up concrete construction, a type of construction in which the concrete elements are constructed horizontally and tilted up, after they are cured, using cranes and are braced until other structural elements are secured. This building envelope is compared to five other building envelope systems (i.e. concrete block, insulated concrete form, cast-in-place concrete, steel studs and curtain wall constructions) evaluating them on the basis of least environmental impact. The research methodology involved developing energy models, simulating them and generating changes in energy consumption due to the above mentioned envelope types. Energy consumption data, along with various other details, such as building floor area, areas of walls, columns, beams etc. and their material types were imported into Life-Cycle Assessment software called ATHENA impact estimator for buildings. Using this four-stepped LCA methodology, the results showed that the Steel Stud envelope performed the best and less environmental impact compared to other envelope types. This research methodology can be applied to other building typologies.
ContributorsRamachandran, Sriranjani (Author) / Bryan, Harvey (Thesis advisor) / Reddy T, Agami (Committee member) / White, Philip (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Violence in schools occurs throughout America, prevalent to the point of daily happenstance. The epidemic of violence in our society is in sore need of healing efforts. Ending Bullying with Multiple Architectures focuses on the violence of bullying in young children and adolescents, in an effort to mitigate bullying at a critical age, before it transcends into their adult behavior. Bullying begins in elementary schools, a time when our minds are extremely impressionable and our behavioral habits take birth. Bullying may happen for a certain segment of a person's life, but the effects transcend a person's entire life. People who bully may follow a familial cycle of bullying and people who are bullied may become bullies and start a new cycle. With bullying and aggressive behavior increasing exponentially in schools, our society is growing up in a place where it is acceptable to react aggressively to stressful or undesirable situations. Today, violence in our society infiltrates every aspect of our lives, from road rage, to grocery store quarrels, to family ties breaking, to gun violence in school and public spaces. Unplanned acts of violence occur in "spur of the moments". Is our society so impatient, aggressive, antagonistic, individualistic, and isolated because we have been conditioned as human beings to behave this way? Did we miss our chance to work cordially as a community, peacefully and patiently, because we put progress and productivity in front of community and collaboration? How can architecture slow you down, keep you aware of your surroundings and facilitate collaboration and getting along? Why do we accept abrupt anger and violence, and how can architecture create, improve or encourage positive behavioral habits in our impressionable young minds? Ending Bullying with Multiple Architectures translates existing bullying strategies (social architecture) into physical architectural intervention, in an effort to mitigate bullying at the critical age when behavioral habits take birth. This project challenges efficiency based design in order to complement the human experience. By creating healthier spaces that foster wholeness, we can heal violence at this critical age, and thus hopefully reduce future societal violence as a whole.
ContributorsRaghani, Divya Nikita (Author) / Shraiky, James (Thesis director) / Hejduk, Renata (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The institutionalized environments of government aid, void of architectural creativity, are regular sights in Native American communities. Meanwhile, the community falls victim to obesity, diabetes, addiction, and many other maladies. I believe that the design of a community's buildings can greatly affect the health of the community. This thesis focuses on the social aspects of design. How might we enhance the social capital of Native communities through the built environment?
ContributorsValenzuela, Kristina Marie (Author) / Brandt, Beverly (Thesis director) / Shraiky, James (Committee member) / Zingoni, Milagros (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
The United States elderly population is becoming increasingly larger, there is a need for a more adequate housing type to accommodate this population. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be a need for approximately 1.6 to 2.9 million units of affordable Assisted Living (Blake, 2005). With limited income and higher health bills, adequate housing becomes a low priority. It is estimated that 7.1 million elderly households have serious housing problems. (Blake, 2005) The scope of this research will look at literature, case studies, and interviews to begin to create and understand the necessary design aspects of Assisted Living and Affordable Housing to better create a housing typology that includes both low income residents and Assisted Living needs. This research hopes to have an outcome of Design Recommendations that can be utilized by designers when designing for an Affordable Assisted Living typology.
ContributorsRothner, Colleen (Author) / Bender, Diane (Thesis advisor) / Shraiky, James (Committee member) / Stapp, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014