Graduate Thesis

By Chase Masters

                  For this third blog I will be talking about one of the big projects required for grad students, the thesis project.  This is a project that requires a lot of research to fully develop and try to solve a problem.  The project work spans over two semesters and the initial idea and further development starts in the second semester of Grad school.  Diving into the thesis a semester before the actual work goes into the thesis is really nice because the thesis idea or approach might change or become more detailed.

Here at SIU we have the freedom to choose what problem, relating to Architecture, we want to solve; and how we want to go about solving it.  This is a really nice feature that allows us to follow what we are passionate about and want to learn more about.  For my Thesis I want to develop a mid-high-rise building that provides clean water, air, and electricity for the community around it.  This would be achieved by adding more green space than building footprint as well as using the ventilation of the building to clean the air.  In order to provide water the building needs to collect rainwater, reuse gray water, and have a live machine to convert black water to potable water.  There could also be a use of integration from river to green space to help filter out the river or lake nearby.  With the use of natural lighting, double skin walls, and other design techniques limiting the energy cost of the building for lighting as well as heating and cooling,  then using the natural environment: wind, sun, geothermal for collecting energy to provide for the rest of the building cost and also give to surrounding buildings.  This building would be used as a mix used building having residential housing, commercial, parking, bike storage, and possibly a shop for bikes to promote riding bike over driving a car.

Since this thesis is still in development stages some of these ideas would grow stronger over time with research and studies.  The thesis will be tweaked a little when exact site is chosen to better provide assistance to the city and community around the site.  I will hope to give more information about my thesis in future blogs.