Date of Submission

Spring 5-9-2023

Degree Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Architecture

Department

Architecture

Committee Chair/First Advisor

Professor Michael Carroll

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to inform on the materials, technologies, spaces and structure needed to architecturally and sustainably achieve human comfort and create a mother nature-proof safe haven in the becoming harsh climate of the USA. All the while implementing minimum HVAC, using primarily passive and active systems towards a net zero home. Studies have shown there is a real threat with the rate in which the climate is changing. Temperatures are rising worldwide which is causing droughts, more frequent fires, glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise, more severe hurricanes and storms, etc. Sustainability is a way of life, a way of coexisting with the earth and not damaging it more than we already have. To be self-sufficient is to be able to stand on your own and produce everything you need to live without having to go out of your way to get it. Survival is what is needed to be done now that our earth has been through so much with pollution, deforestation, the exhaustion of resources, global warming, climate change, etc. At the rate we’re going, we are moving toward an uninhabitable planet. In the United States, Arizona is one of the most affected states as its temperature is rising so much that people can not comfortably live there. The change is happening now, all over. It’s up to us as humans to adapt and make a living for ourselves in this new harsh desert-like world we are creating. I will be researching ways in which I can design a prototype home that can be placed in the desert of Arizona to be self sufficient, sustainable and can allow humans to co-exist in the harsh environment comfortably.

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