Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Market valuation of certified green homes : a case study of Colorado's Built Green and Energy Star programs(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2009) Purdie, Amy Joanne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Randal R. Rucker.Green building is a rapidly growing industry. The residential sector is responsible for 21.8 percent of the United States' energy consumption so an increased penetration of the green building industry could affect national energy consumption. Previous willingness to pay studies suggest that buyers are willing to pay a premium for green homes. The presence of a green certification is used as an indicator for sustainable attributes in homes built and sold in Colorado between 1999 and 2009. A hedonic price regression model predicts the sale price of the home as a function of home attributes and green certification status. The presence of green attributes fails to statistically affect the sale price indicating that, contrary to survey data, buyers may not have a willingness to pay for green construction attributes.Item Regeneration architecture(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2010) Hudson, Daniel Alexander; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: David Fortin; Christopher Livingston (co-chair)In a world of excess, people rarely stop to realize their impact on their environments. Our built environment is especially feeling the effect of our irresponsibility, and the solution is only a matter of re-wiring our perceptions of energy usage. Many technologies make it possible to have the impossible, but nobody stops to question whether or not these advances are beneficial. A presumably sustainable system turned out to be one of the most energy wasteful ones in existence. In the complex process of getting food from the field to your house, the best solution is to simplify. Nature will do most of the work; we need to learn to work with it. Current building practices can benefit greatly from this concept, to rethink the existing process by simply cutting out the unneeded steps and using the free energy available to us every day. Our values need to change. Because the corporation controls so much of our daily lives, they are the ones that will bring about the change in consciousness we desperately need. By re-designing Sysco headquarters to do everything that the company claims to do (and currently doesn't), and interact with the public in a new and radical way, not only can we make changes to how we think about the built environment, but we can also start to show that a change in awareness is entirely possible. If we can change the values of those that make the biggest differences in our world, then we've effectively changed an entire populations' way of thinking.Item The morphology of space : a wind technology center for Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2008) Ostlind, Jacob Kenneth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Thomas Wood; Bill Rea (co-chair)There is often a logical relationship between what something does and how it is shaped. In biology this is known as morphology-the study of structure or form. The morphology of an organism is a product of environmental conditions and its interaction with that environment. The morphology of space, then, is the study of the relationship between the measurable forces acting on a space and its shape. It is an exploration of the poetic and pragmatic link between environment and design-a search for how a building can be cast by its shadow. The research, observations and images contained in these pages form the foundation for the design of a Wind Technology Center for Montana. Inspired in part by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Wind Technology Center near Boulder, Colorado, this facility will provide research services to private companies involved in Montana's current wind energy boom. Additionally, it will conduct grant-funded research into alternative uses of energy generated by wind-an especially relevant topic in Montana, considering our significant wind resources and our limited transmission infrastructure. The site for this project is in the Yellowstone River Valley northeast of Livingston, Montana, one of the windiest places in the state and possibly the nation. The project's program and design will express the forces present on the site (considered to include both the immediate site and Montana as a whole) through the development of system of analysis inspired by studies of morphology and facilitated by digital design techniques. Importantly, the building will also be an icon for wind energy in Montana and a flagship building for sustainability as our culture transitions to a more carbon neutral fuel economy. Located on a highly visible site along Interstate 90, it is positioned to become an architectural icon as well, a facility for exporting both technology and awareness.Item The in between : an exploration of transition & threshold between interior & exterior space(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2007) Terry, Erin Michael; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ferd JohnsThe intention of this thesis is to explore transitional spaces in an attempt to break the boundary between interior and exterior and regain a connection between architecture and the natural environment. I will address the history leading up to the lack of connection and transition between the built and natural environments, and illustrate the positive effects of associating transitional spaces into living and working environments. The project will use precedents to define strategies for creation of transitional spaces, and will explore these strategies in a medium density housing model.