Transformation of a building type : a study of Back Bay houses in Boston

The objective of this thesis is to explore the transformation of an existing building type and the application of the support/infill concept in a new context. For this purpose, a traditional Back Bay residential form in Boston has been selected. The study has been carried out in two parts: (I) Part One consists of an observational study of the existing context. This involved an analysis on the levels of urban structure, urban tissue and lot unit. The rules of the original Back Bay house type are identified in the last section. (II) The second part comprises a design study based on the observed context by inserting new constraints. To discover possible floor-plan variations within the type, the support/ infill distinction has been applied. Furthermore, the application of the modified type to irregular lot forms is studied. At the end of the thesis unresolved issues are discussed..

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1986

Author dc:creator

• Liu, Ricky Pei-Shen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• N. John Habraken.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75978

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/75978