harvard gsd thesis project

Thesis project / Project Thesis

As the culminating effort for the Master of Architecture degree, a “Thesis” entails multiple expectations. It is a demonstration, not only of competency and expertise but of originality and relevance. It requires the ability to conceive and execute work that is both a specific project (delimited in scope, a specific set of deliverables) as well as the indication of a wider “Project”(possessing disciplinary value, contributing to the larger discourse). This class will address both valances of both “Thesis” and “Project.” In a series of seminars, students will study the theory and practice of the architectural thesis by examining its institutional history and disciplinary development to understand the conventions and possibilities of the format. In workshop sessions, as preparation for their own theses, students will produce definitive statements (“what is the topic?”), relevant research (“what is the position?”), and studies of implementation (“what is the method?”). With these efforts, students will be equipped to undertake a thesis project in every sense.

This course will be taught online through Friday, February 4th.

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• Harvard Graduate School of Design - Frances Loeb Library

Special Collections: Theses at the Frances Loeb Library

• Submitting your Thesis
• Searching and Accessing Theses
• Writing your Thesis

GSD Masters Thesis Submissions

Gsd dissertation submissions.

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As of the Fall 2020 all GSD master theses and doctoral dissertations are being submitted through ProQuest , an ETD tool that Harvard University has subscribed to. Submission of theses is now be managed through this tool.

Start your Submission

To start the submission process, please go to this website , where you will see the GSD logo in the top right section. Once there, you will see the "Welcome to the ETD Administrator @ Harvard Graduate School of Design" banner, where you can start the process of submitting your thesis.

The "My ETDs" tab will guide you through the submission (you will basically navigate the left navigation menu step by step). You will log in using your GSD email address.

• Please read the instructions included in the Instructions page.
• A PDF copy of your dissertation/thesis.  This must be a single file. If your manuscript is in Word or RTF format, you must convert it into a PDF.
• Optional Supplementary files (images, data, etc.)  that are an integral part of the dissertation/thesis, but not part of the full text.
• Advisor and other Committee Members' Names
• Subject Categories: 1-3 that best describe your dissertation/thesis' subject area . These categories are fixed subject categories.
• Keywords: You will have the option to then add additional tags that you think would enhance discovery and access to your thesis.
• It includes information about a cover sheet (for master theses) and/or dissertation acceptance certificate (for doctoral dissertations) that you will need to include with your PDF. The academic department administrators and/or coordinators will provide guidelines for that.
• You can start your submission, save, and come back later to finish. When finished, remember to hit the Submit button.
• Questions about the submission process? Ask your academic department administrator/coordinator.

You will be presented with two ProQuest publishing options. Harvard University recommends that you choose Traditional Publishing. Choosing this option, theses will be available online as open-access publication through Harvard’s institutional repository (IR), DASH . You also have the option of putting an embargo (delaying the access to your full theses). We do not recommend this unless you have patents or other significant reasons to deny public access to your theses (e.g., personal safety of individuals described or mentioned in your thesis). The attached document explains the reasoning behind this recommendation.

You will be presented with the option of registering your copyright. After uploading your thesis/dissertation and submitting information about it, you will be presented with the option of having ProQuest register it with the US Copyright Office . Harvard University does not recommend this option. You already hold the copyright by having authored your thesis and putting it in tangible form, and you will avoid paying a fee to ProQuest for that service.

• Questions about these options? Ask the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication: [email protected]

Guidelines can be found on the GSD website .

In terms of submission process e verything under Master's Thesis Submissions is true for Doctor of Design Dissertation.

Please follow policies and procedures established by Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), which can be found on the FAS website .

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• Last Updated: Nov 30, 2022 11:37 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/gsd/thesis

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

THESIS & FINAL RESEARCH

Francisco brown-ortega, mdes cc 2020, independent study: culture, power and place: generic specificity in coworking spaces, weiyi cao, mdes cc 2020, th esis: the state and the market: measuring the (in)equity of social rented housing in chongqing, elena clarke, mdes cc 2020, th esis: untitled, linda just, mdes cc 2020, the sis : plot excavations: on the potential of narratives to reinvent place in the post-industrial aftermath, corine morain, mdes cc 2020, the sis: unpacking the maison louis vuitton: power, beauty & heritage, karan saharya, mdes cc 2020, the sis: in the name of heritage: conservation as an agent of elite development, spatial cleansing & social exclusion in mehrauli, delhi, alexandra indira sanyal, mdes cc 2020, th esis: power in/and preservation: understanding loss in a (post) colonial calcutta, lei song, mdes cc 2020, th esis: the biopolitics of architectural conservation in postcolonial taiwan: body, space, and media, zhongnan yang, mdes cc 2020, th esis: spatial differentiation: the resident retention mode in the pingjiang road district of suzhou old city, jingxuan zhang, mdes cc 2020, th esis: power and imaginary: airbnb in the former french concession of shanghai, francisco colom, mdes cc 2019, thesis: beauty killed the beast modernist dreams, maisons tropicales, and the ecology of knowledges, carrie gammell, mdes cc 2019, thesis: a real face-washing for all downtown: the revitalization of cleveland, ohio, izzy kornblatt, mdes cc 2019, thesis: architecture for a new world: louis kahn and philadelphia, enrique aureng silva, mdes cc 2018, the sis: critical intervention: the liminality of earthquakes as alternative to preservation in mexico, luisa brando, mdes cc 2018, th esis : an aquatic sense of place, yonghui chen, mdes cc 2018, th esis: aggravating social exclusion how internet-based participation affects historic conservation in the dashilar district of beijing old city, esesua ikpefan, mdes cc 2018, th esis: pako butter: a “floating slum’s” place in a globally competitive city, prathima muniyappa, mdes cc 2018, th esis: sylvan synesthesia , jacqueline palavicino, mdes cc 2018, th esis: the subsequent effects of the power behind the identity of place, ranjani srinivasan, mdes cc 2018, th esis: gold & cyanide: family, caste and the post extractive landscape at kolar gold fields, hao ding, mdes cc 2017, th esis: critical conservation of chinese-american culture – the story of los angeles’s five chinese neighbourhoods  , boya guo , mdes cc 2017, open project : critical chinese copying — authenticity and originality in the built environment of contemporary china , ana mayoral moratilla, mdes cc 2017, th esis: archegemony: the universal architecture or the architecture of the universal, michail papavarnavas, mdes cc 2017, guan min, mdes cc 2017, th esis: towards a new geography: rural tourism in china, javier ors ausín, mdes cc 2017, th esis: gateway of india: an (un)desirable fragment of imperial architecture, longyun ren, mdes cc 2017, th esis : how the mask became the face: crypto-colonization in the architectural design of the campus of ginling college, francesca romana forlini, mdes cc 2017, th esis: field of objects: the preservation of the domestic condition, roseann tariq sijeeni, mdes cc 2017, th esis: (dis)oriented identities in the representation of historic jeddah, noor a. boushehri, mdes cc 2016, th esis: (re)membering failaka: the perils of selective remembrance and the reconstruction of a historical narrative, maria letizia garzoli, mdes cc 2016, the sis : conservation by design, elad horn , mdes cc 2016, th esis : the capital paradox of postmodern tel aviv, josselyn f ivanov, mdes cc 2016, the sis: un-greening golden gate park, yunjie li, mdes cc 2016, the sis : in search of authenticity, a case study of san francisco chinatown, julie paul brown, mdes cc 2014, the sis: (re)considering energy and existing multi-wythe brick, rosabella alvarez-calderon, mdes cc 2013, th esis: the negotiated urban landscape: archaeological sites and the multilayered city in lima, peru, ryn burns, mdes cc 2013, thes is: transformative reuse of the built environment & preservation as hoarding, somayeh chitchian, mdes cc 2013, thes is : other[ed] city: (re)presentations of muslim identities in contemporary urban west (the case of the city of boston), chris cosper, mdes cc 2012, thes is: time-honored versus bigger and better: critical and strategic conservation in post-katrina mississippi .