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Community involvement in zoning and land use decisions is fundamental to equitable urban planning. Since 2011, Philadelphia has supported a system of Registered Community Organizations (RCOs) that enable residents to engage in the zoning variance and special exception process by reviewing cases and providing recommendations. This thesis examines how RCOs function in practice in three neighborhoods, each facing challenges related to neighborhood change: Northern Liberties, Mantua, and Strawberry Mansion. I demonstrate that RCOs create meaningful opportunities for community organizing, opportunities for dialogue with developers, and have given residents a stronger voice in specific types of development decisions. However, structural inequities and a disparity of resources between neighborhoods limit the power and agency of many RCOs. RCOs are an important step toward democratizing urban planning, but further work is necessary to create a truly equitable system. I offer recommendations that address funding and standardization of RCO policies. This research contributes to the field of urban strategy by highlighting how participatory planning can be shaped by systemic inequities and offers policy recommendations for strengthening the RCO system.

Balancing efficacy and utilization of public transit is a complex endeavor urban planners inevitably must study when attempting to create more equitable and sustainable transport systems in any city. As Austin embarks on Project Connect, while simultaneously grappling with extreme real estate costs and displacement, more attention needs to be paid as to how we balance providing adequate transit to those who need it with the need to increase ridership to support the new system. Neighborhoods in Central Austin are at a tipping point in terms of gentrification. Long-time residents are being displaced at an unprecedented rate in favor of the upper-middle class—a phenomenon that typical measures to increase transit ridership often accelerate. Many contemporary solutions that aim to increase ridership are completely reliant on forced stabilization of affordability by policy measures. While policy initiative can in the short-term address the issues at hand, long-term affordability and sustainability across fluctuating political cycles make it unreliable.This report serves as an inquiry into urban dynamics and frameworks of increasing ridership to identify what are viable frameworks that encourage the utilization of transit and respond to the vulnerabilities of urban neighborhoods already experiencing displacement. It argues that investment in well-tailored social and care infrastructures adjacent to transit stops that address urban inequities can advance placemaking and therefore restrain gentrification. This strategic spatial positioning of essential social infrastructure and coordinated care programming encourages trip-chaining and subsequently activates the transit rider base. Outlined here within is a socially-oriented procedural toolbox to increasing public transit ridership while limiting the negative impacts of potential transit-oriented gentrification—to serve as a foundation each community can build from, not as a superimposition.

Romantic connection today is often shaped more by apps than by architecture. But physical space still carries power—it sets the scene, frames the moment, and shapes the way people notice one another. A shared glance across a corridor, the hesitation before sitting nearby, or the brushing of hands at a doorway—these are fleeting but charged interactions made possible by how interiors are designed.To achieve this, Meeting Grounds reclaims shared space as a site of potential intimacy rather than passive background. Third places—like cafés or bookstores—are reimagined not just for utility, but for emotional elasticity. Echoing Ray Oldenburg’s observations, these environments function best when they foster unstructured, obligation-free engagement rather than prioritizing efficiency and turnover.The spatial layout facilitates movement across varying levels of proximity, offering opportunities to observe, retreat, or connect without commitment. This is consistent with what Edward T. Hall describes as the significance of proxemic zones—fluid boundaries between public, social, personal, and intimate space that shape how relationships evolve.Thresholds, ledges, and softened perimeters act as informal holding zones, encouraging stillness and passive engagement. The thinking aligns closely with Jan Gehl’s argument that transitional edges—where people pause, watch, or linger—are often the most socially activated parts of public environments. His work helped inform seating configurations, circulation logic, and visual layering throughout the project.Materiality, acoustics, and lighting are all tuned to regulate emotional tempo, supporting comfort and attentiveness. Rooted in Juhani Pallasmaa’s framework, these sensory cues speak to how texture and atmosphere influence perception, embodiment, and presence within a space.In Meeting Grounds, spatial strategies like intimacy gradients and the inherent third person became tools for interaction. Intimacy gradients allow people to shift between exposure and privacy depending on how they feel in the moment. The inherent third person is the subtle awareness that someone may be watching or nearby, which often heightens performance, attention, and presence. Goffman emphasized how public settings heighten our presentation of self, and that we “perform” more consciously when others are in view. This theory directly informed how visual thresholds and reflection are deployed to sustain a sense of social energy.Taken together, these theories shaped a design methodology that doesn’t impose interaction, but allows it to emerge. It proposes a slower spatial pace—where awareness, attention, and flirtation can happen organically. Through calibrated design, interiors can once again become spaces that don’t just host us—but help us find each other.

This dissertation proposes a modular floating housing system as a climate-resilient response tailored to the lived realities of river-based communities in the Mekong Delta. Confronted by rising sea levels, seasonal flooding, and infrastructural precarity, the project critiques formal resettlement strategies that often dislocate residents and undermine place-based socio-spatial practices. Drawing from field observations in a representative riverine setting, the central design-led contribution is a prefabricated housing system that is environmentally responsive and culturally grounded, enabling incremental growth, spatial adaptability, and continuity of local life.The research adopts a practice-led methodology that integrates theoretical inquiry with iterative, context-sensitive design development. Phase I establishes a conceptual and contextual foundation through the review of climate-resilient architecture, floating housing precedents, modular construction strategies, and regional planning instruments. These strands are synthesized into design principles and spatial strategies that mediate between environmental contingencies, material pragmatism, and traditional domestic practices.Phase II develops and examines the proposed system through a hypothetical site application, exploring how core modules, buoyant structures, and anchoring strategies may adapt to seasonal water levels and vernacular settlement morphology. Scenario-based testing and visual analysis assess the system’s environmental responsiveness, socio-cultural integration, and modular scalability.Beyond physical design, the dissertation reflects on the institutional feasibility of in-situ adaptation by aligning the proposal with national housing policies and Vietnam’s broader climate agenda. It concludes by identifying key implementation challenges and outlining potential directions for refinement, including technical prototyping and community participation. While the project offers a promising conceptual model, its broader applicability will depend on future testing, community engagement, and supportive policy mechanisms.

“Gary, Indiana…” explores how slag, one of the main byproducts of steel production, can be used to connect a city to a waterfront. Rather than closing Gary Works – the largest steel mill in the United States – this thesis imagines a near future where this site will accommodate increased domestic steel production within the pressures of climate change and ecological deterioration. This situation necessitates a new relationship between production, industrial waste and human-environmental experience. By analyzing the history, techniques, and socio-ecological impact of slag use, this project investigates how slag can be expressed as a land-making material and how it can foster a primary successional ecosystem. In doing so, the manufacturing which sustains Northwest Indiana can act as the mechanism which dissipates the barrier between Gary and Lake Michigan, proposing a new typology of public space which allows heavy industry, ecological restoration, and recreation to coexist in the American Rust Belt.

In its most abstract sense, an ecosystem is a biotic community, encompassing its physical environment, and all the interactions possible in the complex of living and nonliving components. Economics has always been about systems that explain differential output and outcomes. However, economics has generally ignored the role of entrepreneurship in economic systems, just as entrepreneurship studies have laigely overlooked the role of systems in explaining the prevalence and performance of entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial ecosystem approach has the promise to correct these shortcomings. Its two dominant lineages are the regional development literature and the strategy literature. Both lineages share common roots in ecological systems thinking, providing fresh insights into the interdependence of actors in a particular community to create new value. But studies of both regional development and strategic management have largely ignored the role of entrepreneurs in new value creation. In this paper, we will outline contributions to the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach and conclude with a promising new line of research to our understanding of the emergence, growth, and context of start-ups that have achieved great impact by developing new platforms.

This thesis investigates the process to encourage compressed earth block (CEB) adoption in Fiambala, Argentina addressing the local government, architects, and community members. The need for introducing CEB stems from shifting the demand for easily accessible masonry units away from import-dependent concrete blocks and fired bricks. Analyzing the town’s cultural and housing conditions provides the considerations to demonstrate a context-responsive CEB incorporation through mixed-use and adaptive single-family housing. Also, the target population is renters and co-habiting married couples requiring a residence in the local community. The thesis asks how to implement CEB through a study that enables Fiambala’s architects to suggest the material to the community and municipal government. The results include a consideration framework and a hypothetical urban, architectural and detail level proposal.

What does the Land of Cedar mean? The Cedars of Lebanon, mentioned in the Bible, refer to aromatic and durable wood that was highly sought after for construction in Iron Age Israel. David used it to build his palace (2 Sam 5:11; 1 Chr 17:1), and Solomon used it in the construction of the temple and his own palace (2 Chr 2:3-8). Cedar is one of the most important Native American ceremonial plants, used by many tribes as an incense and purifying herb. The thesis is based on promoting purified and healthier living for the \"People,\" as cedar is associated with prayer, healing, dreams, and protection against diseases.Architecture has evolved immensely, incorporating great technology, style, and aesthetics. However, a growing emphasis is on creating more liveable, socially conscious, and environmentally progressive spaces. The thesis aims to create a “landmark for the Cincinnati Skyline”. It will have a facade that takes the form of vertical living spaces incorporating residences that are more connected with nature. The goal is to create a space that is more social and interactive.Keeping in mind the concept of cedar. The construction will incorporate a blend of natural materials such as \"Western Red Cedar\" for interior spaces due to its natural beauty and aesthetic appeal and \"CLT\" for the outer core of the structure due to its strength, toughness, lightweight nature, and good performance during an earthquake.Within the contents of the thesis, one will find a living space that integrates with nature amidst the Cincinnati skyline, facing the southern side of the Ohio River. It showcases a combination of materials and provides valuable insight into the necessity of such structures to harmonize with the environment. In this rapidly changing world, the space that comforts us the most is \"home.\" With the onset of Covid-19, working from home has become a global trend. It is now essential to create a healthier and more socially active space for people with the future in mind, especially as vertical apartments tend to have tight spaces. This project aims to provide residents with more space and a vibrant blend of open space, creating a better living community that grows vertically.

This thesis explores the design and implementation of an innovative underground restaurant and integrated greenhouse, situated in the remote and ecologically sensitive environment of Svalbard. The decision to build the main restaurant space underground is central to the project’s sustainability goals. Subterranean construction leverages the Earth’s natural insulation, ensuring a stable internal temperature that significantly reduces the need for artificial heating and cooling. This passive energy strategy is complemented by the use of light wells, which channel natural light into the dining area, creating a unique and aesthetically pleasing environment. The project also embodies the principles of a resourceful neighborhood, emphasizing upcycling and composting to reduce waste and promote a circular economy. The integration of a smart power grid and renewable energy sources, such as solar and geothermal systems, further underscores the project’s commitment to sustainability and energy independence. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that through thoughtful design and innovative resource management, it is possible to create a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive environment that serves both people and nature. The underground restaurant and greenhouse in Svalbard serve as a model for future sustainable development, illustrating the potential for architecture to harmoniously integrate with and enhance its natural and community context.

As stated in the 1996 Declaration on World Food Security, rural areas in any country play a crucial role in securing national and global food supplies, making their sustainable development a priority for all. Achieving sustainable rural development is not an easy task; it relies on the inherent development of many different factors, such as efficient resource management, increased job opportunities, supporting favorable demographic trends, and improving infrastructure, and quality of life (Masot and Gascon, 2021). Closely related to these socioeconomic traits, then, are environmental factors, such as the value and allocation of natural resources and land, which influence the positioning of key agroeconomic activities and additional anthropogenic features that shape rural lifestyles.With about 80 million hectares for agriculture, the Russian Federation is a significant player in the global food market (FAO, 2022). In 2022, Russia harvested 153.8 million tons of grain, including 104.4 million metric tons of wheat. 72 million tons were exported, primarily to China, Turkey, EU nations, Kazakhstan, Belarus, South Korea, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia (AGROEXPORT, 2023). Between 2018 and 2022, Russia accounted for 5.4% of the global output of barley, wheat, and maize, making Russia the world’s largest exporter of wheat (FAO, 2022). Its agricultural revenues, which grew to $91 billion in 2019, further underscore the importance of Russian agriculture (ITA, 2023). However, rural areas in Russia are compromised by constant depopulation (Leksin, 2021).