NDSU Theses & Dissertations

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Research performed to achieve a formal degree from NDSU. Includes theses, dissertations, master's papers, and videos. The Libraries are currently undertaking a scanning project to include all bound student theses, dissertations, and masters papers.

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5
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Codden, Aaron
5 investigates how architecture should respond to tragedy and suggests that thoughtful, poetic architecture with deep seeded meaning is the answer. A history museum in Dublin, Ireland focusing on the five largest tragedies in Irish history serves as the vehicle for this investigation. 5 reclaims this landscape and gives a voice to those forgotten in the five largest tragedies in Irish history. The museum dives underground and focuses on ushering the user through narrow, concrete, and eerie exhibits that erupt into a crescendo with flowing water and pools open to the air that serve as a space to reflect and digest the heavy topics discussed in the exhibits. Finally, the towers shoot to the sky slowly revealing more perforations with warm, welcoming light with one tower facing the past of ancient castles and the other hopefully pointed at Dublin.
Acknowledging the Tides through the Renewable Energy of the Moon
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Wolf, Drew
A restructure of energy generation and architectures ability to transform power plants into a beacon of culture. This project seeks to reawaken a lost perspective of nature through the acknowledgment of the entwined relationship between our planet and the cosmic forces through the creation of a Tidal Lagoon in Seattle, Washington.
ADAPTATION: Leveraging Modern Narratives towards Preservation and Public Uses of Pueblo Bonito's World Heritage Ruins in New Mexico's Central Chaco Canyon
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Reed, Joseph
This study focuses on creating new narratives to cultural heritage sites by comparing concepts of ruins from cultural heritage sites and post-industrial landscapes. Both landscapes share that unifying feature of ruins and the historical and cultural significance that comes with them. Such methodology has been the subject of many recent papers on the complex challenge of reclaiming post-industrial landscapes beyond an environmental engineering approach. In landscape design literature there is an approach to focus on industrial ruins as settings for parks worldwide. We propose a similar attention to cultural heritage ruins as parts of a new genre of parks. To answer our research topic, we reviewed extensive literature about landscape narratives, landscape ruins, and post-industrial design approaches. We also analyzed how post-industrial landscapes evolved into ruins over time, the landscape design approach and challenges, and how their landscape revitalization schemes created a new narrative. This thesis will be applied to the Chaco Canyon world heritage site and national park. Specifically focused on the on the central valley ruins of the three-unit mixed-use complexes. These ruins are representative of Pueblo historical and cultural heritage and will be used as a case study to investigate how the creation of meanings and narratives can enhance the qualities of this emerging genre of parks containing cultural archaeological heritage ruins and how it can be applied to them.
Architectural Sign Language
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Danielson, Anna
American Sign Language is not transparent, one cannot understand it until ones learn is. It takes many years of study and interaction with people who use it to be able to properly learn a language. As a student who studies architecture, I have found the same to be true about the communication of our built environment. This thesis project titled, “Architectural Sign Language” explores the ideas of communication through the built environment. The goal will be to integrate the notion of sign language and architecture into a building that non-verbally communicates to tell a story and can be appreciated by both the deaf and hearing communities.
Architecture and the Literary Imagination: T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land Reinterpreted as Reading and Pedagogical Space
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Lee, Whitney
"And I will show you something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you" (The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot). How can architecture, together with poetic language, challenge approaches to education and learning in an efficient world? How can the realm of architecture and its typical methods of representation and design be tested? This thesis uses poetic and historical fragments to create a new reality of connection between people, place, and history; one that questions what a world beyond immediate information could be like, and instead encourages one to read and learn through imagining. It sets to prove the importance of language in both education and all of life. Existing buildings are transformed into meaningful space. The first, a library dedicated to unpublished work relating to T.S. Eliot in Boston, MA, a place known for its literary tradition. The other a living translation of the poem; pieces of a wasteland in abandoned space of Detroit, MI. Spaces echo and overlap between site and history. One is placed between the pages of a book to celebrate both the individual and collective; an atmosphere created by The Waste Land. Language, drawing, and model unite to challenge even the education of architecture.
Architecture as Prosthesis: A Cultural Reimagination of Disability on Boston Harbor
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Randazzo, Zoe
How does architecture approach disability? Might this play a role in forming our cultural beliefs? Increasingly specialized attitudes of the modern era, critiqued by Hans-Georg Gadamer, move us to approach disability with afterthought accessibility formulas, often displacing these “other” bodies to the margins of cultural life rather than constructing them into it. As the prosthetic extension of our shared cultural body, how can architecture engage bodies of all abilities to reimagine the connections between external environment, self, and others? As Federica Goffi has suggested architecture to be an inventive medium for participating in history, this thesis enlivens cultural memory in order to advance cultural perception of bodies labeled as “other.” Boston’s Museum of Disability History and Prostheses assembles historical fragments of the city’s untold transformation story along with spolia of Boston’s crumbling almshouses into an exquisite corpse on Boston Harbor. Acting as an extension of the user’s body, the museum becomes a prosthesis for the user to reimagine one’s own body image through reinterpretation of the well-known condition of phantom pain. A cubistic encounter of restorative fragments reconstructs conceptions of disability in architecture and in culture, framing a reality for the user to imagine new ways of perceiving self and others through embodied experience.
Architecture that Transforms History: Reframing the Birth Place of the Atomic Bomb for a More Critical Future
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Gefroh, Tyler
Can architecture serve as a critical reminder to our present and future societies of the horrific potential of mass destruction? Throughout history human beings have consistently engaged themselves in the act of destruction. Improvements continue to be made in our destructive methods, and when looking at where are at today, we can see that we exist in a dangerous state of potential mass destruction. If we want to salvage our existence and avoid becoming nothing more than a trace on this planet, we must remember our mishaps and destructive behavior from the past as a collective, continuous species, rather than individual countries or specific groups of people and have a critical perspective of history. Learning from our past has tremendous power to teach us a lot about who we are now and where we might be going in the future. My thesis seeks to explore bringing forth historical references and various destructive elements through metaphors in the architecture to serve as a critical reminder of the past, a sort of warning to the human race, as well as the potential for peace.
Bear Den Landing: Creating Resilient Environments & Tribal Communities through Ecological Planning & Public Participation on Fort Berthold Reservation
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Davis-Kollman, Morgan
Over half of the 135,000 miles of oil and gasoline pipelines in the U.S. were installed before 1969, with implementation of pipes occurring before maturation of steel or coating technology. Leaks and spills are becoming increasingly common within the realm of man-made environmental hazards. North Dakota is the second largest in oil production, suffering from 85 paramount oil spills in last 20 years. North Dakota tribal lands are faced with declining environmental issues as a majority of reservations located in areas of hazard, creating a state of crisis within their livable environment. A broken pipeline burst more than a million gallons of saltwater into Charbonneau Creek, a tributary of the Yellowstone River, causing massive die-off of ﬁsh, plants and the tainting of productive soil and drinkable water sources. Most spill damage directly effects Native Americans, who are most reliant on environmental health and stability. Oil spills are extremely unpredictable, with little available information of when, where and how they occur. Beyond this, there are no remediation or planning strategies to be executed when these spills transpire. While most literature focuses on reports of spills, this study will propose an analytical strategy to mitigate the environmental threat of oil spills to water resources through environmental planning. Geospatial and hydraulic modeling tools will be introduced using National Hydrography Dataset for watershed-based drainage delineations, basin characteristic visualization, and streamﬂow estimation. A variety of case studies will be examined and analyzed to inform environmental intervention. The result will present a landscape conservation and resiliency plan to include hazard identiﬁcation, vulnerability analysis and ecological planning for an endangered watershed area on Fort Berthold Reservation near Mandaree, ND. The goal is to provide new perspectives on possibilities of creating a more resilient and sustainable tribal community. The design of this thesis will focus on the study of the historically rich ecosystem of the river and detrimental effects on Lake Sakakawea and Three Afﬂiated Tribes way of life. Through environmental planning and reclamation, this project seeks to revive the relationship between biological and cultural diversity among natural environments.
Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge Park: Using Private-Public Infill to Create a Destination Waterfront Park in the City of Bismarck, North Dakota
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Schmidt, Austin M.
This study focuses on the preservation of the Bismarck-Mandan rail bridge and surrounding 200-acre site as a catalyst to transform the waterfront of North Dakota’s capital city into a 21st-Century urban park. Announced by the National Historic Trust for Historical Places, the iconic community structure has been listed as one of “America’s 11 most Most Endangered Historic Places” in 2019. With the backing of the Historic Trust, Preservation of North Dakota, community members, and the non-profit group, Friends of the Rail Bridge, the historic truss bridge has gained traction to be repurposed as a pedestrian bridge linking the parks and open spaces of the two cities. Much like the Brooklyn Bridge site, which the rail bridge predates, the city had turned its back on the river. Utilizing a comparative case study methodology to compare successful traits of transformative waterfronts, particularly in an urban context, this study resulted in a best-practices matrix to inform the urban park programming and design. This project expands on the role of a separate entity tasked with the re-purposing, operation, and maintenance of the bridge to include creating an adjacent park suitable enough to become a mixed-use destination and a city-shaping gateway to the West.
Bringing Nature Indoors: Tetris Landscaping
(North Dakota State University, 2021) Borgert, Rachel
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average American spends 93% of their life indoors. Almost 70% of which is at home. By being indoors there is a greater chance of being exposed to higher concentrations of airborne pollutants, commonly found in indoor atmospheres. With an increase in people working from home, homeschooling their kids and spending limited time outdoors throughout the year it has caused a negative impact on their mental and physical well-being. NASA conducted a study on indoor plants and how they eliminate indoor air pollutants called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere. Based off this study calculations were made on the number of plants necessary to filter out and eliminate air pollutants. Utilizing the plants in the study to design an interior landscape modular system that can be a dynamic addition to a residential house. With tetris like modules that can be arranged to create an educational interior landscape for homeschoolers, a work interior landscape for those working from home or a therapeutic interior landscape all year round. Whatever the resident desires. This thesis is a proposal to design a residential interior landscape that will promote physical and mental well-being to those who experience it.
Bringing the Rave out of the Cave
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Bren, Travis
By examing the types of space raves inhabited, from the anarchist grass-root orgins of the urban undergrounds to the vast landscapes of commodified festivals of today, I question: what would the ideal 21st century rave space be? I propose to reinvent the new rave space, to structure the traditions, to reharmonize the powerful connections within body, spirit, culture and place. I aim to reconceptualize the club scene, sythesizing raves past sensibility of place with the innovative technology of today, resulting in an amorphous mixture of space, sound and light. The focus will be acoustically and visually rich environments within architectural forms that include a diverse variety of spatial experiences that enhance the physical, emotional, and spiritual responses of the users. The result of this will be a combination of applied research into the past and present status of EDM/Rave scenes and their spatial implications along with experimenting the ideal acoustical environment and its variables through simulation.
Building Blocks: Re-framing Urban Inestment and Community Health Through Equitable Empowerment
(North Dakota State University, 2021) Djerf, Benjamin
The modern city is failing at embracing the value of difference and common ground is fading. The implicit effects of urban policy are dividing cities and putting their most marginalized communities in an even more vulnerable position. The narrow perspective through which city administration functions has made city policy willfully ignorant to all its implications and oversights. Consequently, these implications lie written between the lines in invisible ink and the fates of whole communities are laid out within them. Diversity is made into segregation and commonality swapped for polarization. And through this the invisible barriers to community relationship, class mobility, property ownership grow bigger. But the city should be a place of confronting and celebrating differences combined with finding common ground through facilitating connections. Cities need urban policy reform that facilitates community investment through empowering ownership for those who have historically been prevented from accessing it. And the urban architecture within needs to encourage community interaction and reflect the needs of all community members while adapting to an evolving model of the city.
Building the Nest: Designing for Veteran Healing
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Noe, Victoria
The Eagle's Healing Nest, located in Sauk Centre, MN, serves as a refuge for veterans and active duty members where they receive the support and assistance they need. Coming from all over the country, veterans migrate to the Nest to heal and restore honor, dignity, and purpose in their lives. Around 30% of the men and women who have spent time in war zones experience post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Many of the residents at the Eagle's Healing Nest also suffer from this condition. Architecture can play an important role in the treatment and healing of these veterans. By providing a restorative and relaxing environment that minimizes perceived threats, architecture can calm the mind of the veteran to allow full focus on therapy and healing practices. An architectural intervention at the Eagle's Nest will address two facets of veteran healing: the transition and re-integration into civilian life and the design of therapeutic spaces for the healing of the mind. This will be achieved through the construction of a new therapy building and the renovation of the existing auditorium built in the 1920s.
Built on the Rock
(North Dakota State University, 2021) Reim, Philip
American church buildings age, deteriorate, and vanish, their congregants dwindling and lacking the financial resources to build or maintain them. Simultaneously, a global pandemic sheds light on shortcomings in emergency readiness, particularly related to emergency treatment capacities. The two problems need not be addressed in isolation. The place where people take refuge in God can easily and logically become the place where they take refuge from disaster. This thesis will seek to address specific issues facing church congregations and emergency care centers through an innovative design solution drawing on the historic association of churches with disaster-related health care. The adaptive church building will be designed as a community asset, used normally by worshipers but converting to function as a sophisticated field hospital in times of increased need. As this mixing of typologies will benefit not only the faithful few but also local populations at large, charitable relief groups and non-government organizations will be incentivized to supplement the churches’ own diminishing means of building and maintaining them.
Caesura: Enhancing the Culture of Fargo-Moorhead
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Eggen, Jennifer
The downtown area of Fargo-Moorhead is growing exponentially, yet the rapid boom in growth may result in a monotonous city center. Downtown needs an attraction — something other than shops, bars, restaurants, and apartments. Since the arts play a vibrant role in the FM community, a performing arts center could be the attraction to fight the mundanity. Currently, the FM Symphony does not have a home. A performing arts center in the hub of Fargo would be able to house the symphony on a more permanent basis. The additional multipurpose theatre would be available for the multitude of smaller community theatre groups when a larger venue is needed. The design would include a proscenium theatre large enough for traveling Broadway shows to be presented in a proper theatre, instead of the Fargodome. This thesis explores the potential of making connections between parallel avenues vying for consumers’ attentions as well as adjacent communities separated by water. The site is situated crossing the railroad tracks between NP and Main Ave. Its proximity to the river creates a relation between the downtown areas of Fargo and Moorhead with hopes of influencing future growth of the dilapidated areas nearby.
Centennial High: A School for Hope and Growth
(North Dakota State University, 2021) Teuber, Augustina
In this paper, high school design is evaluated in order to better support the mental health of its occupants. The alarming rise in anxiety, depression, and violence among youth over the past few decades demonstrates the importance of changing society’s current trajectory. Thus this paper aims to clarify the extent design impacts users and how educational buildings can benefit adolescent mental health. Literature analysis from a diverse range of fields guides these conclusions. Additionally, case study analysis and logical argumentation are employed to identify practical solutions. Ultimately, an example design for a mental health conscious public school is purposed.
Climate Refuge: Thermal Comfort in Urban Micro Climates
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Horvath, Nathaniel
This study addresses two major issues by responding to the significant decline in retail buildings including enclosed shopping malls and improving density, livability and human comfort in communities welcoming climate refugees. Future designs will become more responsive when involving suburban and urban infill landscape to enhance user experiences through thermal comfort. Studies show that Earth’s temperatures are on the rise causing large populations to be displaced by rising sea levels and contributing to extreme weather patterns in the colder hemispheres. Specifically, in the Midwest United States, this means colder temperatures, more snow, and longer months of winter (Cohen 2018). Analyzing microclimates to improve thermal comfort will give designers a better understanding of the link between human thermal comfort and their surrounding infill landscape. Because shopping malls have generalizable locations and footprints and a nearly identical hierarchy of ingress and egress locations, they are ideal for this type of microclimate analysis using climate data. These generalized footprints are becoming dead space in smaller cities leaving large unused parking lots which have the potential to positively serve these communities through various climate events, specifically polar vortexes. This study aims to mitigate extreme cold weather events through microclimate design by examining various site configurations with the use of data collection such as wind speed, temperature, and humidity. A Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) was calculated to determine which configurations are best for thermal comfort (Wong 2015).
Creating a Functional use of City Space Along the St. Croix River in Correlation to Seasonal Flooding
(North Dakota State University, 2021) Valiquet, Sydney
Many locations within the United States have major flooding problems. One of these locations is along the St. Croix River. The St. Croix River is a tributary of the Mississippi River and it is approximately 169 miles long. It is considered a National Scenic Riverway, and it is a divider between the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. It is also a popular recreational location and is under the protection of the National Park Service. The St. Croix river has been home to people for thousands of years and runs through many historical towns and cities. Human residency along the St. Croix River began as early as 10,000 years ago. Historic American Indian sites are present along the river and it was also a favored fur trade route from the Mississippi to Lake Superior. One of the historical communities along the St. Croix that is impacted by seasonal flooding is Stillwater, Minnesota. Stillwater is one of Minnesota’s oldest towns. In 1848 the first territorial convention that began establishing Minnesota as a state was held here, and because of this important meeting, Stillwater is called the birthplace of Minnesota. Because of the St. Croix River’s location, it is often prone to flooding especially during March and early April. Stillwater’s Lowell Park is near the river and consists of park space, sidewalks, the Stillwater Lift Bridge Historical Site, a bike path, restaurants, and a boardwalk with boat ties available to dock. This area floods every year with the boardwalk being most affected. Fifty-four years ago, the river crested to a record of 694.07 feet. A dike had to be built to keep the flood waters from destroying downtown Stillwater. In this study I will use case studies and propose a redesign of Lowell Park to make functional use of the space. Furthermore, the design will allow for the impact of the seasonal rise of the St. Croix River. This plan will incorporate the multiple systems that interface with the park and river and include recreation and historical context.
Design for Well-Being: Architecture to Reduce Health Inequity
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Falk, Paige
As a society, we are faced with ever-changing healthcare costs and quality of care. Unfortunately, not everyone can access, or afford, the care that they need. Throughout the country, many people are facing illness and injury untreated, due to the cost of healthcare. While the issue has been addressed on a national scale, the problems are not always dealt with on a local scale for the needs of the community. Dealing with the factors of health inequity, such as housing, community, food shortage, education, and environment, will lead us to changing the communities where the problem is located and bring about a society where everyone can achieve health and wellbeing. Finding a solution to health inequities is a problem that needs to be solved. This thesis will seek to develop the efficiency of healthcare architecture in a way that makes it more affordable to those it who cannot currently access it. This will be done through cost evaluation, efficiency analyses, and green design, with the goal of creating a community center and clinic for neighborhoods on a local scale. If designed correctly, this design may be implemented as a base model for other neighborhoods with health disparities across the country.
Designing for Humanity
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Thordson, Elizabeth
This thesis aims to explore the idea that a healthy prison design will in turn create a healthy atmosphere. I will work to design a prison that will aid in the inmates’ transition back into society. By designing a structure that provides views to nature, access to natural sunlight, and room to move semi freely, I believe inmates will be healthier and happier. Currently the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world and over half of the people incarcerated will end up back in prison within 5 years of their release. The oppressive nature of prisons create an unhealthy, aggressive attitude, which is reflected in riots, outbursts, and threats. The main goal of all prisons should be to help inmates re-enter society successfully. However, most prisons in the United States run on the idea of retributive justice instead of reformative justice. Retributive justice is defined by Wikipedia as “a theory of justice which holds that the best response to a crime is a suitable punishment, inflicted for its own sake. The only goal in retributive justice is punishment.” This idea is extremely damaging, not only to the inmates themselves but to society as a whole. I cannot change the way inmates are being treated but I can change the way the architecture treats them.

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