Metropolitan life imposes psychological and health pressures on its residents. Unavoidable crowds, narrow spaces, the pace of life, and air and visual pollution cause a remarkable decline in people's satisfaction and well-being. With rapid urbanization, city dwellers have lost touch with nature. Urban buildings are sealed against the outdoors, resulting in closed internal spaces devoid of quality air, natural light, and green spaces, which all negatively impact human behavior and welfare. Improvement efforts involve creating opportunities for escape and establishing a relationship between humans, nature, and interior spaces in urban landscapes. Incorporating natural ventilation, passive shading, programmatic orientation, shading devices, and features like an evaporative pool and green elements aims to design captivating interiors that encourage reevaluating the connection between urban living and the environment. This thesis seeks to create compelling environments that promote ecological sustainability, support the biophilia hypothesis, and offer social opportunities in urban settings. The ultimate goal is to design livable places that enhance well-being, foster a harmonious coexistence between humans and their urban surroundings, and promote a sustainable and fulfilling urban lifestyle.

Clinical healthcare settings now place an emphasis on restorative and healing environments as a desired mode to curative care. This can be achieved through the incorporation of three foundational principles which promote healing within curative environments. The three foundational principles to achieve this include human connection to nature, place identity, and user-controlled experience. To successfully create curative and healing environments that help supplement conventional approaches to medicine, healing, and human well-being, is the direction I have explored in my Interior Design thesis. My thesis aims to define the opportunities behind creating a patient centric and patient controlled environment that promotes holistic approaches to medicine by bridging the gap between conventional medicine and alternative therapies. This investigation seeks to promote a curated and self-guided journey for both the patient and their support teams while carefully considering the treatment paths that each patient experiences. It is my goal to embrace the human connection to nature and the utilization of patient-controlled experiences to create a positive journey to healing.

Historic places are visual narratives with natural scenic appeal. Art plays an integral role in highlighting such places that define cultural and social values. This applies to installation art that emerged from integrating the notions of space-making and storytelling to spark curiosity, intrigue, and public engagement. My thesis project focuses on methods of developing an immersive experience where inhabitants are compelled to lose their sense of self and become utterly involved with a constructed cosmology of visual stories. The site selected for the project is the historic city of Al-'Ula in Saudi Arabia known for its complex tapestry of archaeological formation, and offers a great potential of hosting an inhabitable art installation. By allowing a subtle invasion of the place’s history through a modern lens, I believe that a strong sense of place can emerge and a form of imagination will meet reality.

As society gradually emerges into a post-pandemic world, the significance of third places and their absence within communities has become increasingly evident. These spaces, separate from the first place of home and the second place of work, play a vital role in providing sociability and a sense of security for individuals seeking respite from their daily routines. The demand for spaces that cater to creative professionals or foster simple hobbies has risen, as they have been proven to have positive impacts on people's overall well-being. Moving forward, how can we adapt cities and bring back the valued third places that may have closed during the pandemic? Can this be achieved through the inclusion of accessible creative spaces, such as rehearsal studios or music rooms? Or is there a way to bridge the gap between creatives and the surrounding community through residency programs that provide safe environments to foster collaboration and mutual growth? Conceptualizing these spaces and implementing them on various scales throughout the city, showcasing the diversity from towering skyscrapers to initiate rowhomes, can help reflect on the distinct characteristics and needs of different neighborhoods within the urban landscape. By embracing these approaches, cities can revitalize third places, promote community connections, and nurture a thriving creative ecosystem that benefits individuals and the city as a whole.

Empathy is the action of understanding and being aware of others' experiences. The word empathy directly translates from German as "in feeling." This definition of empathy is the process of projecting into another person to understand them fully. This is the starting point for empathetic design. Empathetic design is a design strategy that aims to understand the lives and experiences of users through immersion and then apply that understanding of the user throughout the design process.

This thesis employs empathetic design practices and strategies for well-being by focusing on spaces that enhance feelings of connection, comfort, and belonging. The Nest is a community center for mothers that utilizes these concepts. It is a nurturing environment for mothers that aims to bring mothers together in a healing environment that gives them space to focus on their well-being.

Throughout our lifetime we encounter and participate in a variety of different communities. As children, we often formed our relationships through where we lived and went to school. Young adults, in their choices about college and early career, often for the first time are faced with questions about how to find meaningful communities. These choices are challenging, especially if they involve moving to a new city, working remotely, or otherwise stepping out of familiar situations. I am interested in bridging the connection to community between childhood and adulthood. Roger Hart said, “When children have the freedom in space and time to play with one another, they find ways to pass on their culture to peers through games, song, and dance, but also to transform it…Play with peers is extremely important to social, moral and emotional development. In free play, children learn to understand others and to develop skills of cooperation, sharing and caring.” This suggests that play is an important component in building community even as we grow older. My thesis aims to reimagine the meaning of play in a community that values hybrid work, through the exploration and implementation of third places inspired by the culture in Philadelphia, for Generation Z within a vertical community. The spaces strive to support the new and unique lifestyle while considering how it might be facilitated to aid young people in learning the interactions that shape community.

At some point in our lives we have all experienced a live performance in some capacity, whether this means musical or theatrical. The thing that we don’t always notice is what made a performance memorable besides the artists. This tends to be because most people only take notice to the visuals of the interior, but not always do they notice how the acoustics of the space have been curated because the results do not take on a physical form. My thesis will be concentrated on how to curate an acoustically focused space through sound manipulation and materiality, while working in conjunction with the concept of immersive experiences of the interior and how the building itself can be an aspect of the overall performance.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” Generally, adults grow out of playing. Why? Play is inherently human, fulfilling a need for expression resulting in mental and physical health benefits. Play releases endorphins – the body’s natural feel-good chemical. Play is contained, curated, and only acceptable in specific spaces. However, it is a necessary component for our everyday happiness. Should we have to seek playgrounds or parks to fulfill our playful desires? Imagine if we encountered playful design in our daily, everyday spaces? What would these architectural details and elements look like? The focus of my thesis is to figure out how to design playful elements into our everyday spaces to promote and provide more opportunities for adults to play.

Accompaniment is a way of being with people and nature that fosters joy and interdependence. It is a reminder that people and nature are not separated, and people are part of nature, where people and nature continuously interact and promote one another. My thesis focuses on the ways to achieve this concept in a built environment by addressing nature as a member of our community. In this community, cultural diversity and biodiversity is valued and associated with the place’s distinctive identity. What makes this Nature-Human Community Center special is the unique integration of culture with nature. The space encourages nurturing the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature through continuous exposure to self-education and activities involving art and nature in the ecological and sensory rich environment. This is to promote a close human-nature connection for a better understanding of sustainable culture and community. This holistic design focuses on the community space enriching the interdependent relationship between humanity and nature.

The existential crisis of individual, community, and environment that was accelerated post-2020 created a need to mitigate the transformation of current industry infrastructure into human infrastructure. This thesis explores the role of interiors as a narrative device within speculative future design methodology, utilizing interior design as a tool for decoupling design from consumerism. It does so in two parts.“ First, in the initial phase, a new academic process is introduced to bridge the gap between contemporary research and practical design applications. The process proposes an equation that generates functional future fictions. The second phase applies the proposed process into present-day design application, through the lens of the contemporary housing crisis.Thus, through multiple speculative scenarios, this thesis initiates a dialogue to shift values within the field of design.

Our physical environment affects our ability to function on a cognitive level. From sensory stimulation to light levels to a space’s ability to support a sense of community, our physical environment can either support our cognitive wellness or cause it to deteriorate. As we continue to scientifically advance as a species, or face more challenges of severe climate change, the rate at which we explore and encounter these extreme environments will continue to increase. This increase highlights the importance of understanding how to build and design environments that support people at the highest possible level. Whether it be space, the ocean floor, severely changed climates or, in the case of my thesis, the harshest land climate on our planet, the Antarctic, I believe designers have a unique opportunity to create spaces that allow people to not just simply survive, but to thrive. My thesis will explore how design can utilize research to create physical habitations that support cognitive function in one of the most extreme environments on our planet, Antarctica.

Is a life without anxiety possible? Many of us have grown accustomed to waking, working, and sleeping amidst anxiety. How can we shift from a constant state of anxiety to one where we occasionally experience anxiety but are mostly happy? Achieving a life without anxiety is possible when we liberate ourselves from the compulsive pursuit of specific goals and the sense of belonging they offer. It is important to understand who we are, cultivate a consistent sense of peace, and build genuine self-confidence. Nature plays a therapeutic role in promoting mental health by reducing activation in the amygdala, the stress-related brain area, and preventing mental disorders like anxiety and depression. My thesis will explore the possibility of a less anxious life by leveraging the therapeutic effects of natural environments and practices such as yoga and meditation. It will delve into how architecture, when embedded in the natural environment, can foster a closer bond between individuals and nature. This bond, supplemented by mindfulness practices, can alleviate anxiety, improve psychological well-being, enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy, and ultimately increase our happiness index, leading to a peaceful return to daily life.

Modern hospice care design is currently made up of four building typologies, including a wing within a hospital, a building connected to a hospital, an independent facility, and at home care. These current typology designs are deficient in the care of both their patients and their patients’ families and caregivers. There is a current culture of silence around death that can be read in these typologies and instead of making people feel at home, they produce undue stress, anxiety, and isolation. My thesis project challenges the current hospice care building environments by using architecture and design to improve end of life care experiences. My design will seek to enable and allow patients to live their life to the fullest through the engagement of the senses, creating a sense of home and community, and creating spaces that metaphorically and physically assist and guide patients and their families through this final journey.

Humans have an innate biological response to nature. Elements within nature have helped our species survive and evolve to where we are today. Our need to affiliate with nature is ingrained in our genetic makeup. Nature, being as complex as it is, is made up of more elements than we may initially realize. There are 26 elements in biophilia that have been studied and proven to create physical, psychological, and physiological responses for humans. In our modern world, humans spend over 90% of their lifetime indoors. The goal of my thesis project is to create an elegant model living environment that incorporates the 26 elements of biophilic design. More specifically, I would like to design a residence that brings the outdoors in to evoke our innate response to nature.

In today’s fast-paced world, stress has become a major concern, especially for people living in urban areas. The hectic pace of life, the constant stimulation and the limited access to nature can all contribute to stress and its negative effects on health and well-being. While urban green spaces have been recognized as potential solutions, access to these much-needed environments is limited due to scarcity of free space. Furthermore, existing green spaces often fall short of providing the needed restoration as they primarily cater to visual stimulation, neglecting other senses.

Building on this need for better restorative environments in cities, my thesis aims to design a space that renders a slow and sensory experience through a gradual progression into the building providing an escape from the fast-paced urban environment. The goal of my thesis is to create a restorative built environment, incorporating biophilic design principles with emphasis on multisensory and contemplative design, that fosters stress relief and supports wellbeing by inviting its occupants to relax, rejuvenate, and unwind.

Light has the potential to have a variety of effects on the spaces that it penetrates, whether it is natural or artificial. As one enters the space that the light is in, what effects do the light have on that individual? How is the individual drawn towards a certain space that grants them their own control in their own procession through an environment? In this particular case, I am focusing on “auras” of light — auras meaning glowing objects or a field of light surrounding a given object. One particular area that I am connecting these studies to are the traits of differentiating anxieties that are present within people prior to getting onto their flights at airports. While being at the airport is stressful enough, the waiting period prior to boarding a flight can be naturally anxiety-inducing on varying levels per individual. The goal of my thesis is to generate a lighting experience within the airport that individuals may go through to alleviate their own personal anxieties. I will be venturing into the realm of auras of lighting in all aspects, such as form, color, and intensity; furthermore, these features will then be correlated with how each of the personas may circulate and process through the experience in accordance with their own anxiety traits.

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unexpected and unprecedented global work experiment that permanently changed how we work, where we work, and the role work plays in our lives. This abrupt transition from a ‘traditional’ on-site work model to a remote work model has had a prolonged effect on people on psychological, emotional, and professional levels. While productivity levels increased, well-being and work/life balance decreased. I saw this as an opportunity to reimagine the hybrid work model in a post-pandemic world. How do we combine the best parts of working on-site, such as socialization, movement, and routine, with the flexibility of working remotely? In my thesis, I have created a coliving and coworking community where groups of friends or colleagues can stay for extended periods of time to work remotely all while exploring the city of Portland, Maine together. Through deliberate space planning of the site, I decentralize ‘work’ and ‘life’ functions to foster socialization and movement and increase well-being and work/life balance.

Underground Transit Station — a liminal space that makes waiting an event. A place of repeated and layered transitions experienced actively or passively, giving unique opportunities to observe physical and social space in the present time, at a present scale and with present people. These daily transitions become an elevated journey through spatial perceptions and interpersonal dynamics.

Urban Frame Station is a space that lives in the future and has memories, experiencing direct interactions with time through the senses.

How does this station remember us waiting?

This thesis proposes a blending of built and natural environments in the urban fabric. The design blends both physical elements and features as well as social relationships between people. Blending is a way of thinking about the shared experience of the city, incorporating people, landscape, and the built environment.

Connecting with nature provides physical and mental health benefits, yet current nursing home design does not make the natural world a priority. By using biophilic design strategies it is possible to incorporate many of the health benefits provided by nature. This thesis reinvents the nursing home interior to create a more holistic and healthy environment for all its residents.