Date of Award
Spring 5-31-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Jacqueline Shaw
Second Advisor
Stephanie Choi
Abstract
This thesis is centered in Gallup, NM, a border town to the Navajo Nation Reservation. The town exists amidst a growing water crisis in the four corners region, with around 1/3rd of the reservation not having a reliable source of running water within their homes. The entirety of the area relies heavily on stored groundwater in subterranean sandstone aquifers, with little to no surface water sources to replenish the water that gets extracted. Gallup itself sits in a small pocket, landlocked by the reservations checkerboard of ownership. Amidst an overall increase in scarcity and misuse, this thesis proposes approximation as the pivotal method for transforming essential water infrastructures. Rather than dismantling existing systems, approximative methods preserve ritualistic relationships to collection, consumption, and storage, eventually using them as key metrics for revision. As both an analytical tool and architectural approach, this idea of approximation stands in contrast to abstraction, enabling the preservation of contextual limitations within pre-existing infrastructures while still presenting opportunities for spatial intervention.
Recommended Citation
Gonzales, Pateton, "Almost Architecture, Almost [ other ] : Examining Approximative Methods of Design Through the Lens of Hydrologic Structures" (2025). Masters Theses. 1460.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1460
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