Identifier

etd-04122013-203310

Degree

Master of Architecture (MArch)

Department

Architecture

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Any large city faces the challenge of addressing homelessness and poverty. The most common action taken to address such conditions is providing temporary shelter accompanied by assistance through welfare programs; these are not permanent solutions. They do not assist the impoverished in establishing themselves in the community as the shelters are temporary, and ignore the fact that many lack the required education along with job and life skills to ultimately establish independence. Many cities do not offer affordable educational opportunities to this demographic, and they tend to overlook the importance the actual facility may have on the encouraging and promoting experience. Engaging and responsive educational facilities, specifically vocational, hold the power to influence an individual’s educational experience, providing positive outcomes for not only that individual, but the surrounding community as well. This thesis identifies the current state of poverty and homelessness within the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, while also exemplifying the need for vocational education, which has proven to improve similar conditions. Architecturally, it presents a generalized design of a vocational education facility that will reuse an existing site and its buildings to not only benefit the surrounding community, which is in a rebuilding effort, but also the impoverished by providing a means of education, shelter, training, and even work. As an additional benefit, the process of adaptively reusing an existing site addresses the ecological need of living in a more sustainable manner and embodies how this approach has the potential to better the living conditions of the community as a whole.

Date

2013

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Emery McClure, Ursula

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.10

Download

Included in

Architecture Commons

Share

COinS