MSARP I Consortium of Research Practices - Current Research Projects

MSARP I Consortium of Research Practices

The impact of design in healthcare simulation environments

With this project we hope to help future designers create better health education simulation centers. To achieve this, looking closely into the various spatial elements that might be adding to anxiety and stress and examining how we can include those findings into design is important and this cannot be achieved without understanding the student’s perceptions of these spaces. The ulitmate goal of this research is to help students feel safe, and facilitate learning in the simulation environment.

Accessibility of Architectural Data Collection Methods

This study highlights the need to improve architectural data collection practices to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities. Such adaptations could lead to a significant shift in how designers collect input from diverse stakeholders, ensuring more inclusive design processes. By addressing accessibility gaps in current practices, the research can contribute to equal participation and representation of people with disabilities, ultimately fostering more inclusive architectural outcomes.

Tracing Community Engagement Methods

Integrating Community Engagement into a project is both time-consuming and nuanced. By examining the R.C.P. through two distinct approaches, this research highlights the pros and cons of intentional and integrated community engagement. Noting which methods of C.E. were maintained and which were not, the importance of meaningful engagement becomes evident. This works aims to reinforce why this work is not only necessary but also highly valuable.

Resident Perspectives: A Resident-Centric Evaluation of Architecture and Design Strategies in Affordable Housing

By emphasizing the link between design decisions and resident experience, this research aims to equip architects with evidence-based insights to inform design strategies. This research also advocates for policies that center resident perspectives as incentives in funding guidelines and building standards.

Reuse of Structural Building Materials

Reusing structural building materials reduces embodied carbon, minimizes waste, and encourages a circular economy. Practical implementation may require advancements in deconstruction, material testing, and design adaptability. Logistical frameworks will need to be developed. Public policy may evolve to further incentivize sustainable practices or mandate reuse.

Glare and Architectural Intent

As digital design tools advance, daylighting metrics such as daylight autonomy and point-in-time illuminance have become increasingly integrated into practice. Metrics are often approached through quantifiable performance, which can oversimplify complex design considerations. This treats glare as a problem to be solved, creating a loss of user autonomy. The project aims to contribute to practice by developing approaches that engage with glare’s complexity and spatial potential.

Designing Health Education Simulation Spaces

With this project, we hope to help future designers create better simulation labs for health education centers. To achieve this, it is important to examine the various spatial characteristics that might increase or reduce anxiety and stress and how we can incorporate those findings into design. This cannot be achieved without involving designers and students.

Architectural Design Decision Insights through Agent-based Simulations [ABS] A Case Study from Professionals' Perspectives

This research aims to explore the potential of ABS within architectural practice by examining various aspects through the lens of current design professionals. The objective is to identify previously unexplored data during the design phase of the building under study, which could be revealed through crowd behavior simulations.

Exploring Material Entanglement. Framing Holistic Material Choices in Architecture

This research aims to understand and create a framework to navigate the processes, barriers, and benefits involved in making holistic material choices for projects to promote social and environmentally well-being. Making mindful material choices is a complex problem with a multitude of variables and decision factors that vary from project to project, thus establishing a framework to understand this nuance and complexity in a meaningful way could prove to be a useful tool for navigating these choices in architectural practice.

Integration of AI and XR in Optimizing Human-Centered Architectural Spaces: A Scoping Review

By synthesizing knowledge from diverse sources, the research seeks to offer a comprehensive understanding of how AI and XR contribute to the evolution of architectural design, fostering environments that not only respond to technological advancements but prioritize the well-being and experiences of their inhabitants.

Cultivating Myco Insulation

The goal of this project is to review the current state of affairs amongst the disciplines using Neri Oxman’s Krebs Cycle of Creativity to create a holistic understanding of mycelium as an insulation product to produce a roadmap to its eventual implementation in building practice.

Modern Slavery: A Framework for Mitigating Forced Labor in the Building Materials Supply Chain

The research aims to raise awareness of the issue, proposing a framework and offering resources as an advocacy tool to empower design professionals in recognizing and mitigating the risk of forced labor within the supply chains of specified building materials.

Exploring the Impact of Inclusive Architecture in Retail Design Beyond ADA Standards

The research project intends to bridge the gap between theory and practice, transforming the way architects and designers approach inclusive design. It strives to offer guidance that fosters an inclusive, diverse, and equitable built environment for everyone, regardless of their abilities, with a particular focus on retail spaces.

Digital Twin

This research aims to analyze the application of digital twins for energy optimization in hybrid offices by leveraging the digital twin process and using Jetson Nano as a tool while proposing strategies for firms to harness its energy-saving potential.

Recycled Carpet’s Life Cycle and Health Impacts

The research seeks to unveil the life cycle of recycled carpet and raise awareness of the health impacts of recycled carpet’s life cycle and components on workers and consumers, to empower design professionals to make well-informed decisions.

Storytelling: A Tool Beyond the Narrative

The research aims to fill the gap between the communities’ want to tell their narrative and feel heard and the traditional community engagement tools that mainly focus on collecting data and providing design solutions. It aims to transform narrative into data and tools of analysis where data is not at the front of the work that is being done but an outcome of connecting with the community.

Prototyping Secondary Lumber Networks

In MN, roughly 20% of C&DW is recycled but the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) estimates the waste stream has far more potential for reuse and recycling. Research into C&DW material reuse can divert more C&DW from landfills which would not only help mitigate harmful environmental impacts but also extend the life of still-valuable material.

Occupant Satisfaction in Buildings, Benchmarks & Beyond (B3) Workplace

The research provides insight and future direction to the green building rating and the current limitation of the available guidelines. Though this research is inconclusive based on the research limitation. It indicates an increased possibility for occupant satisfaction to be improved significantly with the full implementation of sustainability criteria focused on occupant satisfaction. However, implementation must be considered with profit, planet, and other credit categories.

Calculating Carbon: Understanding the Impact of Interior Materials Selection

The results identified the high-impact interior materials such as resilient flooring, acoustic wood panels, and carpet considering their impacts in 75 years. Findings from the research suggest that the environmental impacts of interior materials can be mitigated by specifying low-impact products for high-quantity components and balancing between environmental impact per unit, quantity of materials, and their reference service life.

Pre- and Post-Occupancy Evaluations

The research is an effort to inform the future of architectural and environmental design practice. The literature demonstrates the importance of PPOEs, yet its data collection is most often not included in practice. The research questions the traditional design process and aims to extend the role of the design team beyond the completion of built form through the practice of Pre- and Post-Occupancy Evaluations.

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