Architecture Masters Theses
RISD’s Master of Architecture program is one of the few in the US embedded in a college of art and design. Here, architecture is taught in a way that understands the practice of design and making as a thoughtful, reflective process that both engenders and draws from social, political, material, technological and cultural agendas. The program aims to empower students to exercise their creativity by understanding their role as cultural creators and equipping them to succeed in the client-based practice of architecture.
The degree project represents the culmination of each student’s interests relative to the curriculum. A seminar in the fall of the final year helps focus these interests into a plan of action. Working in small groups of five or six under the guidance of a single professor, students pursue individual projects throughout Wintersession and spring semester. Degree projects are expected to embody the architectural values that best characterize their authors as architects and are critiqued based on the success of translating these values into tangible objects.
Graduate Program Director: Hansy Better Barraza
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Theses from 2022
Immortal/ ephemeral/ versatile, Zhenhong (Brad) Lei
Objects in transformation, Caroline Coxe Lippincott
System as a living organism, Xinyi Liu
Unnoticeable city corners, Yuchen Liu
Immaterial realities, Tyler Lovejoy
Houston, TX Walkable Circuit interventions to aid Houston’s safe/accessible walk-ability, Isabel Manahl
Reference: a field guide for new practices, Eric Mason
With water, KT McLeod
Scaffolding: medium, mediator, mediated, Mono Yingyi Mo
Solar panels, Marco Nuno Mourão
Post-standardization, Hengrong Stanley Ni
Domestic disturbance: cleaning, labor and maintenance of architecture, Valeria Portillo
Cycle of care: a study based on home-care elderly living in Beijing, China, Wenyue Remi Qiu
[daymeh] a postmemory database, Natalie Rizk
The value in intentional impermanence, Dominique Tsironis
Salt infrastructures & geographies, Jordan Voogt
Framing: embracing trauma in your "surrounding world", Zheng Xu
Flexing boundaries : tectonic strategies for the multi-generational home, Elise Young
Unseen body, unheard voice, Chunxin Yu
Together: a transformational sequence of healing, Deborah Zhuang
Reclaiming memory through soft spaces, Wendy Zhuo
Space of ambience : learning the relationship between environment, emotion, and behavior, Xueyun Zou
Theses from 2021
Responsive markets: structures supporting economic activity in postcolonial Mumbai, Bilal Ismail Ahmed
Whores, sluts, and bitches; the perceived limits of sexualisation and the affects on space, Chloe Jenny Bennie
Black exposure: a new typology, Teisha Bradley
Imprints of home, Sara Burashed
Architecture of aging care: a field through architectural innovation, Eve Huining Guo
Preserving modern architecture & new railway infrastructure in New Delhi, Yash Sahai Gupta
Manahatta, Nicholas Hinckfuss
A house on a street: a proposal for the multi-generational house in America, Ian Johnson Kienbaum
Play & protest, James Kloote
Breaking the mold: a journey of the brick, Sumanth Krishna
Balance the conversations, Karen Kuo
Community Healthcare Clinic - adaptation system to the pandemic and post pandemic periods, Nhu Le
City of archive: visualize and spatialize archive, Zaiheng Liang
996 & anti-996, Jinmi Liu
Live-work autonomy system on Mars: China's collective living onto Mars, Lishunxiang Luo
An interplay: biomimetic exploration of systems in architecture, Sanjana Masurkar
In service of _____; an inclusive architectural collage practice, Blair Ramsey
Sensory bridge, Ouqiao Sun
Segments of reality: interface / space / movement, Yuan Tao
Reconstructing property, borders, and sites: nestling the built, Christina Truwit
Healing through architecture: role of architecture in promoting healing in cancer care settings, Vrindha Vijay
Design for the past, Zexi Wang
Ecotourism in vacationland: shoreline development and economic inclusion on the Southern Maine coastline, Quinn Christopher Wilcox
The bridge / the stream / the home: interactive social housing typology in Wuxi, Weiyi Xia
Water inspired places, Jiaqi Zhang
Translated architecture, Ruiqi Zhang
Vernacular Future Architecture, Yang Zhao
Theses from 2020
Water ceremony, Adriana Alva
Vacancy never vacant, Marina Bibidakis
Change of plans: the subversive kit in the planned community, Hugo Caldwell
Revisionist histories : Parallels of monuments and absence in the present, Scott Craft
Field Notes on Seeing: An Archive of Color, Mirrors, and Light, T. Deutch
Acoustic signatures: their study, representation, and agency in the experience of architectural spaces, Nathalie d'Hennezel
In-between through : bordering bodies ; a spatial containment, Aroly Enamorado
Tolerance : material conversations on life & architecture, Keyan Hansen
Climate resilience for a neighborhood without privilege: East Boston, Peter Niels Heller
Project fusion, Tianbao Hu
Occupying the public : humans, space & identity, Brittany Knowlton
Two-gather / collective living : housing and recreational facilities in suburban Mumbai, Rashi Harshil Lalaji
Playgrounds : symbiosis of humans, nature, and architecture, Hannah Langmuir
Transform through architecture : a journey of discovery at the Providence Place Mall, Haoning Li
About intimacy, Jiamin Lin
Adaptive reuse pattern book : re-evaluating historical capital, Taylor McCabe
Living together : revisiting the SRO + new forms of collectivity, Elizabeth Parker
Digital duck, Zach Schumacher
The story of Market House, Patrick Spence
Intimacy in infrastructure, Andrew Sponseller
Adapting home : residential development and domestic comfort in Vermont, Mikéla Sumner
A city's culture should include birds : to rethink of architecture with birds in mind, Pan Sun
Blueridgelivin' : environmental development and suburban sprawl, Chris Villalta
Uncanny genericism, Eamon Wagner
Possibilities in void, Fangyu Wei
Specific : and practices in the urban periphery, Sam Wesselman
Architecture of dreams, Alex Jing-Seng Wong
Urban village compound : new collectives in Shenzhen, Lu Yu
Relocation community revival, Zhan Zhang
Theses from 2019
Slowness in the fray : architecture that orients to nature, Colin Christensen
Urban acupuncture : can the deliberate use of tactical interventions reinvigorate informal settlements?, Robert Samir Diaz Vicente
No long urban, can't be rural, definitely not suburban : the experience of Detroit, Karin Jane Hostettler
Tanzania : a new architectural pedagogy, Cameron Leandri
In the wake of the atoms+sphaira, Jesús Meléndez Vázquez
The urban shelf : a hybrid between architecture and infrastructure, William Morales
Trash as culture : culture as trash, Sara Naja
Kippee-ki-yay : an energy case study, Madison Blaize Russ
Can you shut the door? : exploring the personal as political in the domestic bathroom, Hannah Winders
Theses from 2018
The space in between : liminal space, Wei-Chun Cheng
Opine : positioning architecture, Kevin Crouse
Chaos and order, Jie Du
Archinaut : Archinaut design laboratory office manual, Joseph Echavarria
Woven curvature, Yuhao Jiang
Throwing architecture to the sea : discipline out of context, Andrea Kelly
Transporting eating architecture, Margaret Kiladjian
The long forgotten city element, Yun Chu King