Files
Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture
College
Arts and Sciences
Department
Architecture
Faculty Advisor
Stephen Wischer
Studio Coordinator
Stephen Wischer
Faculty Chair
Susan Kliman
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Rights
NDSU policy 190.6.2
URI
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Abstract
Architects, innovators, and the entire construction industry continue to push the newest, most expensive, high-tech solutions to problems that technology itself has caused. The broader public, however, seems to have little interest or support in investing in such endeavors. From Steel to Sanctuary presents a different solution, one with roots thousands of years in the making. Sustainable design is not a new way of thinking. Our ancestors had subsisted as active participants, rather than simply as a spectator to nature for millennia before the rise of the technological age. Today, we coin the strategies they employed as ‘passive’ architecture; Systems that work with the surrounding landscape and climate to create architecture that both performs well and is distinctly of its place. Steel to Sanctuary offers that living within rather than against nature is what it means to be truly sustainable.
Recommended Citation
O'Neill, Trent, "From Steel to Sanctuary: Rethinking Sustainable Architecture Through Passive Design" (2026). Architecture Theses. 108.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/architecture-theses/108
ThesisPresentation_O'Neill.pdf (9637 kB)
ThesisSupplement_O'Neill.pdf (3191 kB)