Back to Earth

BACK TO EARTH ABSARI SHASHI SHAWAL

BACK TO EARTH MSARCH 2020-2021 ABSARI SHASHI SHAWAL

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BACK TO EARTH by Absari Shashi Shawal

© September 2021 Absari Shashi Shawal

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Architecture School of Architecture Pratt Institute September 2021

Program Introduction Ariane Lourie Harrison

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Personal Disclosure

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THE STORY complexProgression

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onEarth

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createsApproaches

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toDeployment

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THE BLUEPRINT theResearch

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suggestsUnlocking

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newSensibilities

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followingRemediation

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THE MOVE soilFormation

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linkMachines

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THE NEW STORY

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Bibliography

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References & Image Citations

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#Back_to_Earth ‘Back to Earth’ is a strategy of the post-Anthropocene that includes human, non-human, and posthuman in architecture.

This time, “Let’s save the earth by the earth.” (Back to Earth, follow through p83)

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Personal Disclosure

Back to Earth The world needs mediating between the earth and the growth. If there was the equivalent of carbon trading in, could one modernizing nation “pay” another change? Could backwardness become a resource? Can Earth save the earth?

There is little awareness in this growth of mechanization, how different cultures have interpreted permanence, or of the variations in material, climate, and environment, which in themselves.

From a largely cultural concern, preservation has become a political issue, and heritage a right - and like all rights, susceptible to political correctness.

Bestowing an aura of authenticity and loving care, preservation can trigger massive surges in development.

In modernism, the concept of “house-as-machine” is reflected in a set of variations. Initially, it is identified as plain support of the domestic activities by technological means; then, it is extended to the ergonomic design of the house, in response to every possible design issue. Rooms with mechanical requirements favor a more integrated implementation of the machine, whereas rooms such as the living room and the bedroom are more flexible, as these may change in the house’s lifetime. Studies on the house of that era would focus on a special kind of variableness permitting transformations through standardization. The machine offered itself as the main reference to a radical revision of the design principles and a new philosophy about architecture. Compound structural models may offer more complex properties and may better respond to space’s total behavior; in that case, machine’s qualities such as efficiency and performance may be combined with other ones such as openness, flexibility, and adaptability.

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Machine to Shelter: Testing Geo Thermal

In the book, Architecture of the Well-tempered Environment, Reyner Banham starts with a description of environmental management before we had modern systems. Most of the architecture was massive. Thick and weighty structures had thermal advantages; the mass of masonry stores the heat of the fire during the day and keeps one warmer at night. By providing almost total control of the atmospheric variables of temperature, humidity, and purity, it has demolished almost all of the environmental constraints on a design that has survived that other great breakthrough, electric lighting.

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The Centre Pompidou, designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, is a 20th-century architectural marvel, immediately recognizable by its exterior escalators and enormous colored tubing. Francesco Dal Co says, “The building has many things, including inspiration to numerous cultural centers. But most importantly, it’s a paradox. The architects thought the huge public building was a gesture against power.” (Centre Pompidou: Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, p.28) On the other hand, in Lydia Kallipoliti’s ‘The Architecture of Closed Worlds’, prototypes are presented through unique discursive narratives with historical images. Each includes new analysis in the form of a feedback drawing that problematizes the language of environmental representation by illustrating loss, derailment, and the production of new substances and atmospheres.

What do outer space capsules, submarines, and office buildings have in common? Each is conceived as a closed system: a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary that does not allow for the transfer of matter or energy.

The Architecture of Closed Worlds is a genealogy of self-reliant environments. From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, this publication documents a disciplinary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consensus in the form of synthetic naturalism.

Kathryn Yusoff says, “No geology is neutral” (A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, P.3). A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None examines how the grammar of geology is foundational to establishing the extractive economies of subjective life and the earth under colonialism and slavery.

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Yusoff argues that “the Anthropocene is not reducible to anthropogenic climate change or to a carbon or capitalist imaginary” (A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, p. 40). Rather it is merely the latest in a long history of traumatized worlds, beginning most recently with that attendant to the exploitation of (overwhelmingly) black and brown peoples associated with the resource extractions that enriched western European colonizers. Statesponsored geological inquiry originated as a means to discover, describe, and designate Earth materials for extraction. U.S Army expeditions to begin mapping the U.S. commenced in the 19th century, with the topographical engineers accompanied at times by the Cavalry to “pacify” the native Indians. The Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel (1867) was the first to specifically target natural resources across the newly expanded US, and led ultimately to the creation of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Yusoff’s book challenged the idealized vision of geology as a purely scientific quest— an effort, at its most basic level, to read the planet’s history— because in Yusoff’s words “No geology is neutral.” She argues that, as a science that emerged from the need for resources, geology lies entangled inextricably with notions of conquest. Geology identifies and enables resource extraction, but does so without acknowledging the impacts of this activity on human subjects. “Geology is a hinge that joins indigenous genocide, slavery, and settler colonialism through an indifferent structure of extraction” (A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, p. 107).

We are abandoning the reductionist approach of isolating a commodity to study, and instead considering the context of the commodity within the larger system of Earth and its inhabitants. It’s high time, we recognize geology’s insights to Earth as a system, an approach long embraced in the indigenous community and using that power to save—save new species, save new breeds, save new races and, save the earth itself.

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THE STORY This Chapter talks about the historical roots dating back to the earliest days of the Governors Island. In addition to a vision of a new Skyline underground called soil-o-line. ______ ... _______________________

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complexProgression

On the Concept of ‘a’ History.

In New York Harbor, Governors Island is situated approximately 800 yards south of Manhattan Island, and the 400-yard-wide Buttermilk Channel divides it from Brooklyn to the east. There are 72 acres of bedrock on the north side, a national historic district.

Fort Jay (1798), Castle Williams (1811), churches, barracks and a number of stately residences are all situated here, and the oldest structure is the House of Governor (1708). 103 acres of landfill containing material excavated during the building of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is on the south side of the island (1940-50). On this southern side, there are a variety of transitional buildings and operational facilities. Although usually imperceptible to the human eye, the land is constantly changing engaging different events over the period of time.

Governors Island refers to an environment with a land area of 172 acres that has been changed for a drive by human, and also by the land itself. Walking through this land, one can find history, memories and can also seizure some amazing interpretations of New York city. The island shadows its past events and at the same time, the infrastructures of the past also leave an opportunity to welcome new possibilities here.

There are countless sections where this island has increased or decrease in scope, which in turn has significant consequences in the timeline.

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Year 2020: Governors Island is open to the public on a seasonal basis, rejuvenating its own history by becoming a site for solutions to the present challenges. In September 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Trust for Governors Island introduce plans to make this land a dwelling for climate crisis solutions. Arts and culture, open space, and recreation form the three key pillars of Governors Island; together they advance the mission of the Island to be an extraordinary public place that supports expanded, year-round public access, and they create a path towards the Island’s financial self-sufficiency. The Island brings together a cross-disciplinary network of researchers, educators, advocates, innovators and policymakers to create, take a look at and put into consequences.

Year 2017: In October, New Yorkers consider Governors Island a public space for the first time. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) plans to be the first permanent home for artists and a home to a diverse range of arts, cultural and educational programming. With this future focus, Governors Island will be a gathering spot for international specialists, supporters, pioneers, and understudies working on environmental change arrangements while offering important freedoms for public commitment, welcoming involved training, programming, and backing activities around environment and ecological issues.

Year 2001: In January, President Bill Clinton designates 22 acres of the Island, including Fort Jay and Castle Williams and the area that surrounds the structures, as the Governors Island National Monument, to be owned and managed by the National Park Service.

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Year 1965: Governors Island is still an army post and quiet neighborhood for military families. In response to changing military technology and budget constraints, the U.S. Department of Defense announces the pending closure of Governors Island and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Ownership of the Island is soon to be transferred to the United States Coast Guard.

Year 1941: Between the two World Wars, the Island becomes the center of an important Army headquarters for ground and air forces. By World War II, the U.S. First Army uses Governors Island as its headquarters. Formerly established in Europe in 1919, the First Army also initiates their planning efforts for the D-Day invasion on this fairy-tale island.

Year 1917: Every morning, newspapers report that soldiers from the Twenty-Second Infantry Regiment have arrived to be garrisoned on Fort Jay. The War has already been raging for more than two years when, in April, Congress declares war on Germany and the Central Powers.

Year 1878: Governors Island has evolved from a small military outpost to an army headquarters and garrison. The Army moves both offices and officers to the Island, building six new generals' houses, now known as Colonels Row, and enclosing Nolan Park.

Year 1783: At the end of the Revolutionary War, British troops withdraw from the city. On December 4th, the British Royal Navy departs the Island and the Royal Navy surrenders to the Continental Army.

Year 1664: Once and for all, the English capture New Amsterdam, which they rename New York, and Nutten Island from the Dutch. The city and the Island choose to switch hands between the

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complexProgression

What is not mentioned in the mentioned timeline is a series of rolling hills on the Island’s southern tip. Today, these hills provide beautiful views of the New York City skyline while protecting the Island from future storm surges.

“When we came here the first time, we saw the Island flat as a pancake, not more than three and a half feet above sea level… I know, people would build a park here and the park would be lost in the first storm,” says Adriaan Geuze of West 8 on the television channel HBO. What if, elevating the land is considered one additional time to save Governors Island from storms and other anticipated disasters?

Constructions built on this Island, however permanent, whether for shelter, storage, parks, exhibitions, sport, industry, will always be temporary. But adding a ground level or elevating the old one is the fluidity that complements the firmness and fixity of bedrock.

Field of Vison : The challenges of protecting the world’s coastlines will only get harder as climate change continues. This Island has the potential to become a landmark establishment by promoting climate resilience renovations. This Island needs a more resistant design rather than another city skyline.

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Architecture—its crucial form and functions—has also undergone a transformation since the age of mechanization with the pervasive integration of various technologies.

My curiosity suggests that the passage underground can unlock new sensibilities and understandings of our relationship with the ground: as a historically loaded context and as a space of potential remediation and reclamation.

No aspect of our present life occurs without technological interfaces. Machines continually reshape human needs and wants. Cross breeding building, technology and material for more optimal social and environmental outcomes, allows us to imagine new ways that architecture Figure X: Description.and environment interact.

In contrast, Governors Island is a constructed environment, from its layers of landfill to the more recent landscape interventions addressing sea-level rise. Much climate-change works of here celebrate strategies for wind, sun and green surfaces but overlooks the ground, where pollutants and extractive industries are lodged.

Therefore, with an anticipation that perhaps does not provision in the architectural world yet, more a concept of portraying the soil as a movement in itself and sometimes, where all of the mechanical and structural systems were pushed to nature, “not only so that they could be understood but can be a part of the earth without interruptions”- is the pursuit I am looking forward to prepare.

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Physical Modelling: Geo Thermal 44

createsApproaches

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The Weather Underground: Possible Energy at GI 46

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Year 2021, Building 14 Basement minus fifteen, Climate watch: Sunny at Plus zero, CO2 can fluctuate up as high as 500 parts per million, far above the global average of about 413.

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Year 2091, Building 14 Basement minus fifteen, Climate watch: Sunny at Plus zero, CO2 can fluctuate up as high as 2000 parts per million, far above the global average of about 500.

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THE BLUEPRINT This Chapter talks about the compaction, loss of soil structure, nutrient degradation, and soil salinity. With a test of driving heavy machinery on soil that will also be known as soil’s new friend. _____________ ... _____________

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theResearch

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suggetsUnlocking

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followingRemediation

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THE MOVE

This Chapter talks about reinventing relation with earth using multiple interfaces. ___________________ ... __________

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Chakrabarti, Vishaan. A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America, 2013. Print Clog. Data Space, 2012. Print Gorman, Michael J. Buckminster Fuller: Designing for Mobility.

Milan: Skira, 2005.Print.

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soilFormation

Every day, architecture surprises the earth gifting a new relative of humans and non-human.?? The earth is undoubtedly more than an organism. It survives its own way and encounters new possibilities.

Sometimes, it opens the door to solve complex progressions, and sometimes, it creates new approaches for functional fabrication.

Someday, practicing architecture can serve as an example of how we can recreate our relationships with the environment. How we can delicately and respectfully, interact with creatures. Creatures, that are old and rare. Creatures, that our current methods of studying and living endanger.

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The Weather Underground: Response of Soil 68

soilFormation

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The Weather Underground: Soil False Lines 70

soilFormation

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Mechanization Territory Bulk A1 72

linkingMachines

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Mechanization Territory Bulk A2 74

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Blueprinting machines at the House 14.

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THE NEW STORY

This Chapter offers a radical new approach to Earth history in this intertwined tale of the planet’s human and nonhuman beings. ___________________________ ... __

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thenewStory

Today, if you completely want to study a living creature, you need to adapt to the creature’s natural state. Even then, your understanding of its ecosystem can be partial. Every particle on/in the earth is more complex than all the carbon in the ecology and the atmosphere combined. What’s more complex, is the relationship between the particles. What’s more dangerous, is to suggest another relationship called architecture.

Let’s save the earth with earth.

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Mechanization Territory: House 14 in Section 88

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‘‘Governors Island is a constructed environment, from its layers of landfill to the more recent landscape interventions addressing sea-level rise. Much climate-change works of here celebrate strategies for wind, sun and green surfaces, but overlooks the ground.

Here are two visulization from diffent dimensinal of the aspect.

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BACK TO EARTH In architecture we learn about many possibilities.

So in many cases, we forget to slow it down.

But this project is more about how do we control ourselves from that.

This project is about the ground itself. Here, the ground decides which flora or fauna to grow.

And that little flaura fauna or fungus will decide which type of shelter it needs to survive.

Zoomed in details to test different taxonomy in the environmnet.

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Zoomed in details to test reactions of the ground in integrating.

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East to West Physical soil boring in a site model of GI. 108

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East to West Physical soil boring in a site model of GI. 110

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These experiments of variable scale of drawings are about how urban spaces should be about a contact.

A contact that welcomes all the different characters of the environment.

A contact that creates a neutral interface that helps you to see the unseen, experience the light breeze, crunching sounds of fallen mushrooms in variable setups, variable lights and change of heights.

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Year 2021, Parade Ground, Climate watch: Sunny at Plus zero, No trace of movement found on the ground.

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Year 2025, Parade Ground, Climate watch: Summer Soltice, Presence of other species and traces of human interactions found on the ground.

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Aguilar, Cristian. “Soil Centre Copenhagen / Christensen & Co.” ArchDaily, 24 Oct. 2019, www.archdaily.com/469885/soil-centre-copenhagen-christensen-and-co.

Hazen, Robert. “The Story of Earth by Robert M. Hazen: 9780143123644 | PenguinRandomHouse.Com: Books.” PenguinRandomhouse.Com, 2017, www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ books/308348/the-story-of-earth-by-robert-m-hazen.

Perez, Adelyn. “AD Classics: AD Classics: Centre Georges Pompidou / Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Richard Rogers.”

ArchDaily, 2 Feb. 2021, www.archdaily.com/64028/ad-classicscentre-georges-pompidou-renzo-piano-richard-rogers.

Mathur, Anuradha, and Dilip Da Cunha. “Soil That New York Rejected and Re-Collects.” Landscape Journal, vol. 17, no. Special Issue, 1998, pp. 31–34., doi:10.3368/lj.17.special_issue.31.

“Natural Resources Conservation Service.” Soil Fungi | NRCS Soils, www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/soils/ health/biology/?cid=nrcs142p2_053864.

Ola. “SOIL - Can We Manipulate Root System Architecture to Control Soil Erosion?” SOIL, 8 Sept. 2015, soil.copernicus.org/ articles/1/603/2015/soil-1-603-2015.html.

Sisson, Patrick. “Centre Pompidou, a Monument to Modernity: 8 Things You Didn’t Know.” Curbed, 24 Jan. 2017, archive.curbed. com/2017/1/23/14365014/centre-pompidou-paris-museumrenzo-piano-richard-rogers.

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References

Soreghan, Lynn. “‘A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None.’” Inhabiting the Anthropocene, 16 Dec. 2020, inhabitingtheanthropocene.com/2020/12/02/a-billion-black-anthropocenes-or-none.

TheNakedTheologian. “Kathryn Yusoff –.” The Naked Theologian, 2018, thenakedtheologian.com/tag/kathryn-yusoff.

“Talks.” ReSITE, 2005, www.resite.org/talks?gclid=Cj0KCQjwp86EBhD7ARIsAFkgakjE56diOvIjJsf9Fz1Wnvq4TxXeKiOyRKE1 1HwtWt9Zb32mOVZE6zwaAj7MEALw_wcB. “The History Of.” Governors Island, 2000, www.govisland.com/history.

Yusoff, Kathryn. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (Forerunners: Ideas First). Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2018.

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BACK TO EARTH Page 04 | Racial Justice | Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Lourie Harrison Page 06-07 | Conjectural GI | Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Lourie Harrison Page 22 | Weather Underground | Fall 2020 | ARCH 981 | Instructor: Cynthia Davidson Page 23 | Soil Boring Sample | Spring 2021 | ARCH 902 | Instructor: Dorothy Tang Page 28 | Mapping Geo in GI | Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Lourie Harrison Page 32 | The Sunflower Shine| Shine Fall 2020 | ARCH 813 | Instructor: Jeffrey Anderson Page 36 | The Shoe Polish | Fall 2020 | ARCH 813 | Instructor: Jeffrey Anderson Page 37 | The Shoe Machine| Machine Fall 2020 | ARCH 813 | Instructor: Jeffrey Anderson Page 40-41 |Post Post Human| Human Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Lourie Harrison Page 42|Speculative Speculative Section| Section Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Lourie-Harrison Page 44-45 |Physical Physical Modelling| Modelling Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Lourie Harrison Page 46-47 |The The Weather Underground| Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Harrison Page 48-51 |The The Basement Timeline| Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Harrison Page 52 | Soil Boring | Spring 2021 | ARCH 902 | Instructor: Dorothy Tang Page 52-53|Geo Geo Thermal Pump| Pump Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Harrison Page 56-61|Artificial Artificial Secretive| Secretive Fall 2020 | ARCH 901 | Instructor: Ariane Lourie-Harrison Page 62| Soil Boring | Spring 2021 | ARCH 902 | Instructor: Dorothy Tang

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Image Citations Page 64 | Soil Boring | Spring 2021 | ARCH 902 | Instructor: Dorothy Tang Page 66-67|Streamlining Streamlining Land| Land Spring 2021| ARCH 902 | Instructor: Angela Huang Page 68-69|Soil Soil Fabrication| Fabrication Spring 2021| ARCH 902 | Instructor: Ferda Kolatan Page 70-71|False False Lines| Lines Spring 2021| ARCH 902 | Instructor: Ferda Kolatan Page 73-79|Linking Linking Machines| Machines Spring 2021| ARCH 902 | Instructor: Ferda Kolatan Page 82-101|Back Back to Earth| Earth Spring 2021| ARCH 902 | Instructor: Ferda Kolatan Page102-103|Site Site Model| Model Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu Page 104-106|2D 2D Details| Details Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu Page107-109|Suburban Suburban| Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu Page 110-111|Site Site Model Photographs| Photographs Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu Page 112-113|Suburban Suburban Activities| Activities Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu Page 114-115|1:50 1:50 Model Photographs| Photographs Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu Page116-117 | Model Photographs| Photographs Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu Page118-119|End End Trace| Trace Summer 2021| ARCH 903 | Instructor: Jing Liu

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