Architecture Masters Theses

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.

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Theses from 2022

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Immortal/ ephemeral/ versatile, Zhenhong (Brad) Lei

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Objects in transformation, Caroline Coxe Lippincott

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System as a living organism, Xinyi Liu

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Unnoticeable city corners, Yuchen Liu

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Immaterial realities, Tyler Lovejoy

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Houston, TX Walkable Circuit interventions to aid Houston’s safe/accessible walk-ability, Isabel Manahl

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Reference: a field guide for new practices, Eric Mason

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With water, KT McLeod

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Scaffolding: medium, mediator, mediated, Mono Yingyi Mo

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Solar panels, Marco Nuno Mourão

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Post-standardization, Hengrong Stanley Ni

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Domestic disturbance: cleaning, labor and maintenance of architecture, Valeria Portillo

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Cycle of care: a study based on home-care elderly living in Beijing, China, Wenyue Remi Qiu

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[daymeh] a postmemory database, Natalie Rizk

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Salt infrastructures & geographies, Jordan Voogt

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Framing: embracing trauma in your "surrounding world", Zheng Xu

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Flexing boundaries : tectonic strategies for the multi-generational home, Elise Young

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Unseen body, unheard voice, Chunxin Yu

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Together: a transformational sequence of healing, Deborah Zhuang

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Reclaiming memory through soft spaces, Wendy Zhuo

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Space of ambience : learning the relationship between environment, emotion, and behavior, Xueyun Zou

Theses from 2021

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Responsive markets: structures supporting economic activity in postcolonial Mumbai, Bilal Ismail Ahmed

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Whores, sluts, and bitches; the perceived limits of sexualisation and the affects on space, Chloe Jenny Bennie

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Black exposure: a new typology, Teisha Bradley

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Imprints of home, Sara Burashed

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Architecture of aging care: a field through architectural innovation, Eve Huining Guo

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Preserving modern architecture & new railway infrastructure in New Delhi, Yash Sahai Gupta

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Manahatta, Nicholas Hinckfuss

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A house on a street: a proposal for the multi-generational house in America, Ian Johnson Kienbaum

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Play & protest, James Kloote

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Breaking the mold: a journey of the brick, Sumanth Krishna

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Balance the conversations, Karen Kuo

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Community Healthcare Clinic - adaptation system to the pandemic and post pandemic periods, Nhu Le

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City of archive: visualize and spatialize archive, Zaiheng Liang

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996 & anti-996, Jinmi Liu

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Live-work autonomy system on Mars: China's collective living onto Mars, Lishunxiang Luo

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An interplay: biomimetic exploration of systems in architecture, Sanjana Masurkar

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In service of _____; an inclusive architectural collage practice, Blair Ramsey

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Sensory bridge, Ouqiao Sun

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Segments of reality: interface / space / movement, Yuan Tao

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Reconstructing property, borders, and sites: nestling the built, Christina Truwit

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Healing through architecture: role of architecture in promoting healing in cancer care settings, Vrindha Vijay

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I think we have some connection difficulty: a review of architectural vocabulary and representation in our condition of remote communication, David Waite

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Dead space: the changing discourse of death: how to design a contemporary and enduring funeral practice, Xin Wang

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Design for the past, Zexi Wang

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Ecotourism in vacationland: shoreline development and economic inclusion on the Southern Maine coastline, Quinn Christopher Wilcox

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The bridge / the stream / the home: interactive social housing typology in Wuxi, Weiyi Xia

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Water inspired places, Jiaqi Zhang

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Translated architecture, Ruiqi Zhang

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Vernacular Future Architecture, Yang Zhao

Theses from 2020

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Water ceremony, Adriana Alva

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Vacancy never vacant, Marina Bibidakis

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Change of plans: the subversive kit in the planned community, Hugo Caldwell

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Revisionist histories : Parallels of monuments and absence in the present, Scott Craft

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Field Notes on Seeing: An Archive of Color, Mirrors, and Light, T. Deutch

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Acoustic signatures: their study, representation, and agency in the experience of architectural spaces, Nathalie d'Hennezel

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In-between through : bordering bodies ; a spatial containment, Aroly Enamorado

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Tolerance : material conversations on life & architecture, Keyan Hansen

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Climate resilience for a neighborhood without privilege: East Boston, Peter Niels Heller

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Project fusion, Tianbao Hu

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Occupying the public : humans, space & identity, Brittany Knowlton

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Un-black boxing mitigation infrastructures : proposing alternative imaginaries for mono-functional and under-utilized urban backstages, Min Jin Kook

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The official showreel companion to framed familiarity in 4 acts : A defamiliarization of the tropes of architectural practice, through an expanded frame of view and frame rate, Julie Kress

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Two-gather / collective living : housing and recreational facilities in suburban Mumbai, Rashi Harshil Lalaji

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Playgrounds : symbiosis of humans, nature, and architecture, Hannah Langmuir

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Transform through architecture : a journey of discovery at the Providence Place Mall, Haoning Li

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About intimacy, Jiamin Lin

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Wrinkle architecture : the public relaxation pavilions for geriatric community in cities of Zhejiang after 1980's, Yi Lu

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Adaptive reuse pattern book : re-evaluating historical capital, Taylor McCabe

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Living together : revisiting the SRO + new forms of collectivity, Elizabeth Parker

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Digital duck, Zach Schumacher

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The story of Market House, Patrick Spence

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Intimacy in infrastructure, Andrew Sponseller

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Adapting home : residential development and domestic comfort in Vermont, Mikéla Sumner

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A city's culture should include birds : to rethink of architecture with birds in mind, Pan Sun

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Blueridgelivin' : environmental development and suburban sprawl, Chris Villalta

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Uncanny genericism, Eamon Wagner

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Possibilities in void, Fangyu Wei

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Specific : and practices in the urban periphery, Sam Wesselman

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Architecture of dreams, Alex Jing-Seng Wong

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Urban village compound : new collectives in Shenzhen, Lu Yu

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Relocation community revival, Zhan Zhang

Theses from 2019

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Slowness in the fray : architecture that orients to nature, Colin Christensen

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Urban acupuncture : can the deliberate use of tactical interventions reinvigorate informal settlements?, Robert Samir Diaz Vicente

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No long urban, can't be rural, definitely not suburban : the experience of Detroit, Karin Jane Hostettler

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Tanzania : a new architectural pedagogy, Cameron Leandri

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In the wake of the atoms+sphaira, Jesús Meléndez Vázquez

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The urban shelf : a hybrid between architecture and infrastructure, William Morales

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Trash as culture : culture as trash, Sara Naja

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Kippee-ki-yay : an energy case study, Madison Blaize Russ

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Can you shut the door? : exploring the personal as political in the domestic bathroom, Hannah Winders

Theses from 2018

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The space in between : liminal space, Wei-Chun Cheng

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Opine : positioning architecture, Kevin Crouse

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Chaos and order, Jie Du

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Archinaut : Archinaut design laboratory office manual, Joseph Echavarria

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Woven curvature, Yuhao Jiang

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Throwing architecture to the sea : discipline out of context, Andrea Kelly

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Transporting eating architecture, Margaret Kiladjian

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The long forgotten city element, Yun Chu King

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Facade of democracy : realizing the architecture of the fourth wall, Johnny Yueh Han Lin