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Access Type
Open Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Architecture
Degree Type
Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
Year Degree Awarded
2011
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
Sustainable Design Industrial Ecology Community Restoration
Abstract
Separation, removal, and relocation are the initial steps in the “clean-up” of a contaminated site. While crucial to safeguarding the public health of adjacent communities and the surrounding environment, conventional remediation is subtractive from the community leaving many psychological wounds untreated. Architecture has the greatest potential to address the social concerns which contribute to the complexities of redeveloping a contaminated site.
Focusing on the 52 acre former General Electric Brownfield site in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I have explored through design alternative approaches for the redevelopment of contaminated sites. My design research focuses on the ways in which architecture can be used as a tool to desensitize the legacy of post-industrial contaminated sites within our communities and create spaces of sustainable coexistence between for our greater economic, environmental, and communal interests.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/2003987
First Advisor
Ray K. Mann
Second Advisor
Kathleen R. Lugosch
Included in
Architectural Engineering Commons, Art and Design Commons, Environmental Design Commons, Landscape Architecture Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons