Date of Submission

Spring 5-9-2023

Degree Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Architecture

Department

Architecture

Committee Chair/First Advisor

Trace Gainey

Abstract

The homestead is the frontier of exploration. It is the place that shows people can take care of themselves through self-sufficient means. This place also looks at making a more sustainable population. That is partly due to the individual needing to take care of the environment around themselves so that the environment can provide for them.

My thesis project will look to create a technological and sustainable residential module that can be replicated and modified to create community based on self-sufficiency by means of sustainability. To achieve this goal, my thesis will look at combining the architectural elements of the homestead into a singular structure that will capitalize on both the dwelling element needed for people and the shed element or the basic protective structure. In addition, the structure will look at implementing technologies that will help provide for the individual like aquaponics.

The project will explore taking a suburban/rural landscape and converting it into a rural utopia based on the ideas of the Garden City by Ebenezer Howard in addition to the ideas Frank Llyod Wright had with Broad Acre. The result of the project is to make a community that combats the collectivist narrative by giving people the means to not only provide for themselves but to also create a community that can sustain itself, for now and for future generations.

Designs like this are not without their challenges. Many homestead designs go without a lot of elements like constant running water and as a result push people away. My thesis will look to counter these difficulties by implementing new and emerging technologies to Redefine the Homestead design in correlation with the ideas of a rural utopia to make them more palpable to a mainstream audience.

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