Abstract
Visualizing Health Equity contributes visions for an equitable future, where everyone in the Portland, Oregon Jade District has the opportunity to lead a healthier life. With Jade District community environmental justice frameworks as a starting point, the studio explored connections between the built environment and racial and socio-economic health inequities, examining the full role that architecture and urban design can play in reducing those inequities. The studio affirms that architecture is never neutral, but rather always communicates cultural values. This paper analyzes simultaneous attempts to produce more equitable architectures and a more just studio pedagogy. The studio combined undergraduate and graduate architecture students and one interior architecture student. We began with three one-week individual exercises investigating environmental and spatial justice concepts. Students then worked in groups of one to three on designs for our site, which sits along a busy corridor and is currently occupied by an auto body shop. Studio prompts emphasized relational visualization skills and empathic design approaches outside of normative architectural practice. Presenting final projects through short videos helped students to focus on the narrative aspects of their proposals and encouraged a synthetic presentation of research and design. The experimental studio produced thoughtful results while also exposing limits of imagination and empathy. Students were asked to design for resident priorities and the community group’s intersectional approach to climate, health, and housing. They developed design proposals centered on affordable housing and community spaces, on a site in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Oregon.
Presenters
Karen KubeyVisiting Associate Professor, Interior Design, Pratt Institute, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Health Equity, Environmental Justice, Housing, Culture, Spatial Justice, Racial Justice
