Anchoring Abandonment

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Anchoring Abandonment

Perryman, Nyvey

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10429/2320

Date: 2022-05-13

Abstract:

Neighborhood health disparities are a widespread issue in Detroit and many other cities in the United States. Opportunity indexes mapped in American neighborhoods prove that neighborhood location and design affect the health and socioeconomic success of residents. Typology assessment in the Airport Sub neighborhood explores strategies that can be used to reprogram vacancies and encourage neighborhood health. Interviews with Detroit residents show the need for architectural programming that will enhance community and individual health. City-wide health disparities and injustices largely affect the lives of Black residents on a physical and mental level; thus, this thesis explores a solution that could reverse the harsh effects of unhealthy neighborhood infrastructure. Addressing land use and the quality of the built environment can reduce environmental and lifestyle stressors. Various forms of education within neighborhood communities can combat negative stress perception and lifestyle choices. Land reprogramming solutions found in this research could benefit residents by building generational health and promoting healing through vacancy re-allocation.

Description:

The built environment can enhance, prevent, or disturb living experiences based on the context of its relationship with humanity. The health of a neighborhood is determined by the neighborhood’s history along with social and political climates. Neighborhood conditions affect the lives of its inhabitants and the future generations of people who are born and raised in a certain neighborhood. Poor neighborhood conditions across the city of Detroit have vastly influenced the health statistics amongst its majority African American population. The qualities of the built environment can yield positive health outcomes when addressing the human needs for health and wellness. This research is based to analyze the generational and cyclical nature of neighborhood unhealthiness and livelihood health despair caused by historical discrimination. This health despair includes denial of access to proper health-sustaining elements within a neighborhood. This thesis investigates the capacity of mitigation through neighborhood resource re-allocation and programming that interacts with various forms of education. Background In a University of Dundee and Cambridge investigation of healthy neighborhoods, multiple influences of neighborhood despair were identified. Through studying Dahlgren and Whitehead’s 1991 Rainbow model and Barton and Grant’s 2006 model, factors were used to define neighborhood and personal health metrics. This research, along with various other studies, encompasses the identifying factors of an unhealthy neighborhood and helps to inform the decisions made for better health in communities. In the Vox documentary “Does My neighborhood Determine My Health?” researchers analyze the connection between people’s surroundings and their health using concepts of allostatic load. This proves that an unhealthy neighborhood can have serious long-lasting effects on those who grow, live, and die in those neighborhoods. These findings are purposeful to this research because they show specific interviews and offer objective data from researchers in America. Research Questions Due to the historical context of Detroit’s neighborhood abandonment, the questions guiding the solutions in this thesis are as follows: When and How did the conditions of Detroit become unhealthy? Why has the abandonment in Detroit proved to be a detriment to its residents? In what ways can neighborhoods in Detroit be amplified to encourage the ultimate amount of health? What does it mean to be healthy and have a state of ultimate wellbeing? How does a neighborhood environment affect health and lifestyle outcomes? Can various forms of education improve the allostatic load? This thesis attempts to design a planning solution and process for mitigating allostasis and environmental stressors based on metrics of personal and neighborhood health. The solution addresses the dimensions of health and wellness on a neighborhood level. This includes solutions that reprogram vacancies to interact with determinants of health in specified Detroit neighborhoods. The goal of this thesis is to use parcel reprogramming to enhance the living conditions and livelihood of the people that live in its context. Addressing both the socioeconomic and psychological aspects of health encourages residents to live longer and healthier lives. The methodology in this study uses a mix of historic research, observation, diagramming, and surveying to propose a design solution. The findings of this study required a timeline history of the city and the Airport Sub neighborhood to understand the context of its conditions. This includes an understanding of the socioeconomic, political, and architectural history of the general area. The observations of the Airport Sub neighborhood made through analysis, mapping, observation, documentation, and various quantitative and qualitative methods proved the area to be one of vacancy on a large scale. Neighborhood analysis and observation paired with the neighborhood health determinants defined in this research were used to engage community leaders and residents during the interviewing process. The interviews confirmed a need for neighborhood improvement and education while informing conceptual design solutions in the project. This thesis implies that residents have high rates of allostatic load and desire neighborhood change. Lack of homeownership is one of the leading causes of poverty and debt and the solutions in this study rely on ownership for wealth-building mitigation. Lack of ownership along with other neighborhood elements like food access, transportation, and more was not addressed in this study, but also are factors of allostatic load. The solutions in this thesis are assumed to be a part of a larger plan for neighborhood reprogramming The effectiveness of vacancy reallocation is limited by the likelihood of community desire and usage. The concepts and solutions of this thesis rely on various government-funded models and municipal aid to sustain vacancy re-programming efforts. Funding is a limitation that questions the feasibility of mass land reprogramming in the Airport Sub neighborhood. Additionally, the location of major industrial elements and cemetery space within the neighborhood limit the future development of certain areas in the neighborhood. This thesis is limited by the assumption that residents of the neighborhood will participate in the implemented land and building programs resulting in lowered allostatic load. This thesis is intended to encourage autonomy in healing while providing proper tools that ease daily living. This topic is relevant because neighborhood health disparities are a widespread issue in Detroit and many other cities in the United States. Not only could this research contribute to identifying specific problems within the field, but it could also be beneficial in finding a solution to reverse the harsh effects of unhealthy neighborhood infrastructure caused by systemic racism and unfair policy. Solutions found in this research could benefit residents and build generational health and promote healing. This project is not strictly architectural, it is a multidisciplinary work that strives to be beneficial to the practice of architecture while addressing its role in public health on a socioeconomic and psychological level.

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