Thesis Proposal – Refueling Station of the Future

1) What is the project?

Quoted from the competition flyer
"Gas stations have always been part of American car culture by providing fuel, maintenance, service, directions for lost drivers, restrooms, food, and convenience store items. This relationship between the automobile and the gas station is about to change as new fuel options including electricity, hydrogen, and biofuels come to market. These new fuel options will transform the gas station into a "refueling station." These refueling stations have the opportunity to look and operate in a way that is vastly different from the current gas stations, both on the outside at the pumps as well as inside the convenience store. RDI invites you to develop a new concept that will address these changes and create a new store concept that will provide a better experience for the customers, be friendlier to the environment, and redefine how we view the gas station."

2) Who does it affect?
The gas guzzling citizens of the United States are the primary audience but perhaps we can extend the scope to everyone on the planet. More specifically, the site(s) will be strategically picked in Greensboro, North Carolina (my hometown!). The stratagem will be created through a program analysis.

3) Why is it necessary? What is the significance of this project?
We've made our mistakes as a country. We've allowed corporations and similar entities (U.S. government, American car industry) to control our appetites for oil for too long. We certainly can't place all of the blame on them either, we have to accept responsibility for our daily lives and actions as well. We must change, evolve our way of life in order to survive. With a new president that believes the U.S. can be petroleum free, whom has taken the initiative to fund various projects and give incentives to those who want to make the U.S. a greener, more sustainable country, it will be necessary to provide the infrastructure for this tsunami that cannot and will not be stopped. This refueling station will be a huge part of this infrastructure, just as gas stations today are vital to our ability to travel.

4) What will your design response entail? What do you intend to do?
I will be addressing the criteria listed in the answer to question #1. I will also attempt to simultaneously develop a business model for the refueling station through the design process. Before I am able to start the design process though, a rigorous programming analysis will have to be conducted in order to achieve optimal design. This analysis is still yet to be finalized but it will involve researching the following information:

*note* each major area will include statistical data in the form of graphs and diagrams associated with the research in order to facilitate the scientific part of the design process

*gas station's historical context and development
*oil crisis in the 1970's and its effects on the public
*development of alternative fuel (ethanol, algae, etc)
*development of alternative vehicular travel (hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, electric, etc)
*existing alternative fuel infrastructure (what around that is similar or can be incorporated?)
*existing gas stations through the acquisition of plans from the city of Greensboro (this will help to establish a traditional program that can be manipulated into the refueling station of the future)
*potential use of GIS software to aid in spatial analysis

If someone killed the electric car, then its rising from the dead and so are some of its buddies...

Thesis Rant, open to the public

An excerpt from my letter to Anna:

"...I still, unfortunately, stand by what I said earlier. I feel the professors I have had stressed thinking and designing outside the "box" or the interior. After you left, I made a list of the major projects I've worked on since transferring in as a second year. Of about 10 projects I consider to be of medium or high importance (duration, detail), 4 of them were strictly interiors projects. The rest either were not related to interiors or an interior was only a portion of the project. I also feel like the projects that I have thoroughly enjoyed have included disciplinary areas besides interior design, where we have studied and designed on larger scales then zeroed in and focused on an interior involved in that scheme.

What I'm saying is I don't want to be limited to a shell or a box where I fill it with program and spec out materials and furniture. I would feel ill served as a student of design to be limited to this type of thesis project, a project where one should be allowed to focus on something they are interested in as a designer. Certainly the long list of design professions which the faculty seem to think we can work in once we graduate should apply here too (I'll attach the copy handed out to us in professional practices).

Another item I would like to point out is the mention of us not being architects or architectural students. Interesting questions came to mind after some thought.

1) Is it safe to assume that the faculty assumes the students have an insufficient amount of knowledge of structure, how buildings are built, or how the envelope of a building comes together?

2) What is the purpose of the two materials and methods courses?

3) What does this approach to thesis projects say about the potential lack of technical knowledge the Interior Architecture department is failing to impart on its graduates?

I did not take the above mentioned courses here at UNCG. I have an associates in applied sciences in Architectural Technology from GTCC. We had design projects but they lasted the entire semester and were heavily oriented towards the technical side of building. In my two years of study, I completed several houses and two commercial buildings. Part of the curriculum included studying types of construction and calculating/sizing structural members. Several of my peers went on to get jobs as CAD operators and designers for local architects and engineers (including myself).

The International Building Code with North Carolina amendments, which I became familiar with at my previous school, practically sizes members for you with charts and graphs for wood framed construction. I'd also like to mention that you don't have to be a licensed architect to build a house in North Carolina (under a certain price or size, I can't remember). With that said, if an unlicensed, informally educated North Carolinian can draw up plans for a house with the aid of International Building Code lawfully, we can do it too AND we can do it better.

The only reason I can see for thesis projects being restricted to a shell is that the faculty feel there isn't enough time to complete a project that includes the site, the building, and interior design (along with the programming and analysis).

Would it be too much to ask to let those who wish to pursue other areas, (besides interiors) do so and to create their own sites and shells to a greater extent (more then minor additions for example) then is currently allowed? I'm not talking a a full set of construction documents with the whole shebang (A,M,E,P,S,C) but perhaps at least as much attention to these areas as we've payed in previous studio projects. Does the pursuit of the other areas even have to require technical drawing? Can they be pure design, conceptual manifestations, places we use to catapult into "real" interiors? That situation would be no different then most of the studio projects we've completed thus far.

My final defense of my belief: we were not taught to design in a shell. We were taught to design everything cohesively. The thesis project restriction is at a paradoxical conflict with the pedagogy of the department. Considering this is our capstone experience as seniors, its rather ridiculous to start giving us rules now since we've been able to break and tear them asunder in every other opportunity we've been given.

I don't expect to change anyone's mind. I just wanted to share my perspective on the subject. I am only student among great thinkers and designers, faculty and peers alike. I don't feel as restricted as I did before because I've got ideas that I think can work with the current rules. I'd like to talk about them at some point after I gather my some more information...."

I must be obsessed with bridges

I came across this bridge on one of the blogs I follow (or try to when I have the time). Ever since becoming interested in urban planning and urban design a few years ago, I've been trying to think of ways to mold that into a thesis project for my final studio in Interior Architecture at UNC-Greensboro. My obsession with pedestrian footbridges this semester has gotten the hamster turning in my head! I believe a bridge is a possible pathway because of the scale and its relationship to people, among other things.


I suppose the potential argument is not what Interior Architecture is but what it is not. Does a pedestrian footbridge fall into Interior Architecture? I feel there has been a push, perhaps by some of my professors, for the inclusion of outdoor environments in Interior Architecture. I believe they have a place there, as does almost every other area of design but when it comes to my thesis project I am not the one who decides what "is or is not." The words "Interior" and "Architecture" have a wide range of meaning. This undoubtedly spells trouble for those who try to narrowly define the phrase "Interior Architecture" unless they choose to use and/or display their power, the equivalent of "eminent domain", of which case they are only discouraging the creativity of the student to further a most unnecessary and unrelated cause or policy.


We know that the pedestrian footbridge falls into the category of outdoor environments, more specifically urban environments or [pathways] that people use to traverse potential obstacles or get to important [nodes, districts, landmarks]. I have a tendency to do this, to fortify my base before venturing out. In gaming they call it "turtling" and I realized its found its way into my personality, ha! It is safe within the walls but thats what this is about....

I want to get outside of the prescribed box.

I do have things to post for the retail case study, I'm just trying to narrow the scope. Enjoy the pictures...