Please join us as students from the Master of Advanced Architectural Studies (MAAS) program present their research. This event will take place on November 11 and November 18. 

To participate online, please use this link: https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/99897778642?pwd=eUR0WnNock1RclVBRUtMaHZLSDJPQT09

Presenters for November 18: 

Yash Shah

Project: For a Cultural Sake

Statement:   The stereotypical perception of Indian food is a brown “curry” with a protein served with naan or rotis- However, it is far more regionally nuanced and complex. Street food is one of the main factors defining the cultural identity of India. It is the cultural manifestation of the thousand languages and cultures that exist in India. Residing at the heart of every town, city, and village, street food is essential to experiencing India. It is communal, approachable, and societal hierarchies dissolve while standing in line for a simple samosa (an Indian fried dumpling).  This thesis proposes using Indian Street Food as a new lens for examining relationships of the contemporary urban fabric. Clusters of impermanent settlements: plastic tents, push carts, and temporary wood structures form the broad network of street vendors. These settlements can be separated into an architectural ‘kit of parts’ defined by construction typologies and socioeconomics. Following Rahul Mehrotra’s framework on impermanence, while “Mapping the Ephemeral Megacity- Kumbh Mela”. This thesis aims to grant architectural agency to these impermanent settlements in contrast to planned architectural and urban landscapes.

Nicole C. Williams

Project: Architecture: Re-Architected

Personal car ownership is predicted to decline over the next several decades. The increase in ride sharing, cities reducing or omitting parking minimums, advancements in Driverless Vehicles, as well as countries such as the UK proposing private car ownership bans (Symes, 2022) and urban design pushing less car centric design solutions will leave us with an inventory of abandoned and underutilized parking garages in the future.

The obvious solution of tearing down and constructing a new building to maximize density, use and profit on these highly valuable sites is a developer's dream come true. Additional tax revenue will also be generated for the municipalities that these sites reside in. My project aims to show that the social and environmental costs of doing so, outweigh the financial gains and development conveniences of the few.

Furthermore, my project will present adaptive reuse as an alternative solution for these underutilized parking garages. Through over 30 case studies, my project examines the various challenges that come with parking garage adaption and the various intervention methods required. It will explore the opportunities for new adaption design methods. This will include new use types, massing studies, façade studies, phasing approaches, programming, circulation, community and private open space, among other opportunities that have been discovered during my research.