HumanE Habitat

Abstract

The 2008 financial crisis and housing market downturn shook the United States in such a profound way that many have drawn comparisons to the great depression of the 1930’s. Although statistically not as bad, socially this economic downturn has had many of the same effects. In a time characterized by government bail outs, many American are starting to ask questions and face realizations they never thought they would. Questions about employment, housing, and health care have dominated the newspaper headlines and family diner table conversations across the nation. Widespread concern about the affordability of family homes, transportation, education, healthcare, and even basic necessities like food, water, and heating have just recently exploded in to the greater American consciousness. However, here locally in Michigan and Detroit, as well as hundreds of other Midwestern manufacturing towns and cities, these concerns arose many years prior to this recession. The dependence of our economy on the success of the automobile industry was never fully appreciated until we saw the decrease of national and global market share percentages and record lost prophets of the Big Three. Their failures greatly affected all of their supporting markets like, steel, carpeting, insulation, and product suppliers all across the nation. As plants began to close and jobs began being shipped oversees, it came as no surprise that surrounding neighborhoods saw the first signs of a recessions. Moving signs, foreclosure notices, and abandoned houses began to dot the urban neighborhood landscape. Once booming and economically powerful cities, like Detroit and Flint, have already seen these effects beginning in the early 1990’s, it was just a matter of time until other manufacturing areas caught up. Ultimately, however, this problem is more then just about statistics and social commentary. Manufacturing cities and towns across the United States have real issues to deal with. These issues have manifested themselves in the form of urban blight, shrinking cities, and a general loss of social structure and standing. Although many people view this as a governmental problem, these issues are very real architectural problems with real architectural solutions. Most people stop here. They view the solution to urban blight, shrinking cities, and loss of social structure as merely an architectonic solution of infill. What is forgotten? The human element. We can not forget as architects, and aspiring architects, that what we practice is a wholly humane profession. Architecture is more then just sculpture, idealism, and theory; it address human needs like habitat, identity and safety to name a few. A growing number of architects and architectural students are beginning to reanalyze the social role architecture has as it address the need for habitat, identity, and safety of the marginalized of society. Increasingly in this time, the marginalized are no longer across international borders in countries far away; they are in our states, our cities, and even our backyards. As manufacturing cities have shut down across America a whole new segment of people, once part of the prosperous majority, are largely beginning to be ignored. As these people lose their jobs, in sever cases lose their homes, and eventually leave their neighborhoods, they leave behind a landscape dotted in abandonment and disrepair. As these manufacturing cities and towns restructure and regain economic stability people will once again move back into their abandoned urban neighborhoods. My thesis attempts to address what role architecture will play as these once largely abandoned urban neighborhoods get repopulated. How does architecture provide habitat for these largely low income neighborhoods? How does architecture create or preserve an identity for these neighborhoods? How does architecture address the general well being of these neighborhoods?