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Date of Graduation
5-2026
Description
This research explores highways and their evolving functions through hybrid programming, from the modern era to the present day. As early as 1916, the federal government began funding state construction of the National Highway System. From this point onward, by design, highways became redundant and homogenized networks of automobile movement, crystallizing their function. Despite this, there are global examples of architecturally utilizing space within, above, or below highway infrastructures that hybridize their function beyond vehicular movement. I am currently studying hybridized-highway infrastructures through a literature review that examines them through the lenses of underutilized space associated with highways, the roles of highways over time, and 20th-century urban planning practices. The literature review further categorizes these hybrid-highway infrastructures, explains what hybridized-highway infrastructures are and where they exist, and draws connections between them. The objective of this study is to highlight idiosyncratic forms of infrastructure-architecture developments that have been speculated to meet the needs of people in urban environments. By embedding hybridized-highway infrastructures in the context of the 20th century, this research aims to reveal historical narratives typically not discussed. Additionally, this study examines how these narratives of architectural and social intervention in highways could be translated into the 21st century. My preliminary research suggest hybrid services in our built environments are more resilient to change and provide more use to people who are most proximately impacted by these services. Investigating hybridized-highway infrastructures will therefore explore if issues in contemporary American life, including cost-of-living concerns, the costs of land development, and continued urban sprawl, can be alleviated by radically reshaping our ideas of how our infrastructure serves us.
Publication Date
2026
Document Type
Book
Degree Name
Bachelor of Architecture
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Art
Advisor/Mentor
Holland, Brian
Disciplines
Architecture
Keywords
Art and Design
Citation
Sutton, W. (2026). Hybridized-Highway Infrastructures. 2026 Research Poster Competition. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/hnrcsturpc26/76
