No.12 CARE

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I O W A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE


CARE 20192020

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A WORD FROM THEME EDITORS SAMARTH VACHHRAJANI, BRENNA FRANSEN & MAE MURPHY

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In our current living reality, as we are collectively experiencing a world in shock, deep in the nostalgia of the past and dreaming of a post-pandemic “normal,” the fragility of our existence is laid bare open. Shaking every inch of the globalized world that we have created, it has taken a pandemic for the humankind to realize the importance and the need for investments in accessible and universal healthcare. Meanwhile, we are experiencing a reawakening of a call for racial justice for Black America, where disparity, incarceration, prejudice, and violence has been the living reality of the Black community due to the internalized idea of white national identity. It took a murder of a Black man on the crossroads under bright daylight by a police officer for the world to realize that racism is still a living reality of many marginalized communities of color. It has taken massive fires, melting of glaciers and heavy storms for the world to realize the horrors of climate change, altering the normal the world is dreaming of. As we wake up to these conditions every day, in a post-colonial world, still experiencing the aftermath of the history that is declared as “past,” CARE has become in its every form as essential to our survival. CARE, which is not a temporal practice but that which is enacted regularly against everyday destructive politics to support the vital universe and those who sustain on it and due to it. Care is a vision that is embedded in mundane doings of everyday life rather than moral dispositions. It holds power to imagine different futures, act against the violent realities, and calls for solidarity. Maria Puig De La Bellacasa, in her book “Matters of Care,” writes, “Paying attention to practices of care can be a way of getting involved with glimpses of alternative relationalities, with another possible world in making, ‘alterontologies’ at the heart of dominant configurations”(Soil Times: the pace of ecological care). Thinking of care as a way to imagine different futures also makes it more universal and ungendered. The manner in which care is provided and received has to be rethought in order to consider alterontologies. Care as not just an embodied idea or an inherent quality, but as Bellacasa explains, thinking with care as a practice. Thinking with care invites us to question, hierarchy and systems in place which favors exclusivity. Thinking of care as a practice helps us leverage its potential as a tool that manifests speculative thinking, organizing, and advocating.


Care helps us shift our focus from production to preservation. It asks the architecture diaspora to reexamine the existing systems that measure sustainability and high yielding building production. It directs us to focus on the natural resource systems of soil and other material extractions which need preservation. Thinking with care critically analyses the temporality of production-oriented practices of the late capitalist society at the expense of future generations. It recognizes the systematic ambivalence in the relationship between the present need to produce, extract, and exploit and maintaining the idea of a future. Care reworks the framework of nature as provider/producer and human as the consumer. Care asks us to re-evaluate the plan of putting our collective futures at stake.

“Care asks us to re-evaluate the plan of putting our collective futures at stake.”

We hope you have a very good read.

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Datum No. 12 looks into how might thinking with care take place, through multiple cannons that opens up the possibility of understanding care and the power it holds in turning the radical into reality. Datum members in the year 2020 have engaged in asking, reading, and reflecting as we navigate the pressures of participating in the discipline inherently built against the idea of thinking with care. The contributors, while undergoing various uncertainties caused by the pandemic, have experienced at hand the need for revolutionary love and care that can achieve the dream of reshaping the world at a halt. We have realized the strength in our communities and are building one to care for each other and the earth around us.

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As Bellacasa points out, in her book, “What soil is thought to be is how it is cared for” (Soil Times: the pace of ecological care). How we think about something affects how it is cared for. In times such as now, this becomes an important analogy to understand what gets the priority of being cared for and what doesn’t. Understanding this demystifies that which is not cared for but required. It exposes the power structures that regulate care, and its access and decides who gets to be cared for. Care goes beyond biological interests and manifestations and dwells deeper into a more universal and inclusive idea of access. Who is deemed worthy of care is rooted not in the political framework but in the logic of service to anyone who needs it. Service that is done not for fake altruistic purposes or a sense of duty, but instead service that contests exploitation and puts life and bodily dignity above personal political ideology.


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DATUM is a journal of A/architecture founded and edited by students at Iowa State University.

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The publications seeks to manifest and catalogue DATUM’s community of discussion and act as a platform for further inquiry and critique. It is organized around a central theme that DATUM feels has been misrepresented, neglected, or needs further examinations of the Midwest. DATUM would like to thank Iowa State University Department of Architecture for their continuous support and invigorating enthusiasm for the journal and community.

ADVISOR Firat Erdim C O N TA C T issuu.com/datum_isu instagram: @datum_isu


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Work by Mae Murphy


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Work by Gabriela Robles-Munoz


Killing Us

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Hiba Salih

The Space Required to Care And the Built Environment

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Mae Murphy & Run Lin

Adding To, Subtracting From

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Brenna Fransen

In Discussion with Billy Fleming

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Billy Fleming

Occupiers of Objects (?)

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Oliver Goché

I Think, Therefore I Care

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Yanjiu Bai

Voluntourism and the Commodification of Care

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Aaron Koopal

R E D PA G E S

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Gabriela Robles-Munoz Oliver Goché Aaron Koopal Hiba Salih Brenna Fransen Griffin Lilly Lauren Kilworth

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Run Lin

My Dear Black Girl

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Oluwatobiloba Fagbule

Des Moines Black Lives Matter and The Sudanese Revolution

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Hiba Salih

The Manifestation of Caring Architecture Through Public Spaces

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Gabriela Robles-Munoz

Caring for “The (Non)-Innocent”

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Samarth Vachhrajani

Unless the Water is Safer than the Land

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Liza Walling

¿Cuánto Damos?

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José Alfredo Lopez Villalobos

Against the Modern Measuring Stick of Standardization

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Tomi Laja

The Care by Domestic Labourers and the Care to Domestic Labourers in Taiwan

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Run Lin

Pandemic Field Notes

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Jacob Gasper

COVID-19: The Age of Zoom

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Datum Collective

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Pink Eye Conjunctivitis : 病病毒


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Wo rk by H i ba S al i h


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‫بعشلا رايخ ةروثلا و ةلادعو مالس ةيرح‬ FREEDOM, PEACE AND JUSTICE THE REVOLUTION IS THE CHOICE OF THE PEOPLE


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Wo rk by H i ba S al i h


We were running for the lives of thousands Shots being fired at the dreams and hopes of children Lungs filled with toxic fumes Minds filled with toxic fumes Frantic escape over walls, locked gates and hopes of breathing Fresh air becomes a privilege Seeing, hearing, feeling fear How could they do this to the Kings and Queens of Nuba? CARE 11 DATUM


THE SPACE REQUIRED TO CARE: AND THE TOXIC BUILT ENVIRONMENT

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MAE MURPHY & RUN LIN

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Our process of understanding care began by analyzing spaces through the exploration of Maggie’s Centers providing emotional and social support care to cancer patients in a structure built just outside of major hospitals. The Maggie’s Centers have become quite trendy for well-known architects to design around the world. For example, Zaha Hadid’s center in the Fife Victoria Hospital, Richard Murphy’s center at the Edinburgh Western General Hospital and Frank Gehry’s in the Dundee Ninewells Hospital. Mapping the care spaces is important to understand where these acts of care occur. Yet it can be even more intrinsically important to locate the spaces causing harm-- a factor against care practices. Often the most abundant and affordable building materials such as plastics, metals, and wood are very toxic. What can we use that is better for the environment, cost effective, easily constructed and ethically aware? Every day, buildings are designed to take CARE of people but they are built upon the very materials that cause harm. Carcinogenic building materials are present within almost every space created in the 20th and 21st century. Cancer is caused when two cells divide during mitosis incorrectly due to a mutation. They miscommunicate, replicate uncontrollably, obtain too many messages and/or divide incorrectly. Whatever the case, these bad cells begin to build up without the preventative checks in balances in place. This process is internal. The cell comes from within and outwardly destroy us. 20th century building materials --along with pretty much every manufactured item within consumerism today-- cause forms of cancer such as lung, stomach, pancreatic, bladder, kidney, skin, prostate, nasal passage, breast, testicular, and many more. The very walls we build to shelter ourselves are the ones harming us.

“The very walls we build to shelter ourselves are the ones harming us. This toxic relationship with our beloved materials causes the most harm.” This toxic relationship with our beloved materials causes the most harm. So why don’t we have more PREVENTATIVE measures instead of post diagnosis in terms of cancer treatment? The very research that goes into curing cancer is the


research that goes into creating materials that cause it. The repercussions of consumption. Who will be impacted in this “gamble”? Who will get lucky and win all the chips? Who will lose?

+We spend so much money researching CURES for cancer +We spend so much money developing products and materials that CAUSE cancer +Why don’t we spend time PREVENTING cancer?

The materials we are creating are turning around and harming us in many ways. What can you do?

Consume Consciously - Find approval lists that identify safe alternatives and place your money to support those institutions. Research toxic materials and learn how to avoid them.

Knowledge is Key - Education is critical when discussing topics of harmful building materials. Research products, find credible sources and share the information. Care for oneself and our environment is critical. This is how we can make a change. How do we propose alternatives? Who is responsible to make a change? Education is a key component to prevention, specifically within designers. We hold power to specify the very materials that make up the built environment. With the research gathered, we discovered it is important to understand the political impacts of carcinogenic materials. We hear about banned materials only after thousands of cases have impacted our society. Phthalates, VOCS, formaldehyde, and spray foam building insulation are some of the most toxic examples of mediums that harm our bodies on a daily basis. As the two of us begin our journey of discussing toxic materials we are exposing the very infrastructure built to shelter us. This perpetual cycle instigates the very need to learn about our surroundings and what we are consuming.

Work on following page created by Mae Murphy & Run Lin

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Promote Capitalist Transparency - Support policies and regulations that promote manufacturers to publish the exact information regarding health and the environment with their product.

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Use Your Resources - Research sites that discuss available non-carcinogenic materials such as the Healthy Building Network, Living Product Challenge, International Living Future Institute, Cradle to Cradle Products, Green Seal, and BlueGreen Alliance.


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ADDING TO, SUBTRACTING FROM BRENNA FRANSEN

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“We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we can see land as a community to which we belong we may begin to use it with love and respect.” - Aldo Leopold

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The land exists as a constant subtraction and addition, be it by human or natural forces, with a developmental focus on the additive proportion. By the action of adding material, a subtraction occurs from another point in space. Therefore, all materials exist as an energy in which the form and function is transformed through these patterns of adding to and subtracting from. Once this transformation could be traced from the hands of humanity, the Anthropocene began. The dominant additive nature of the post industrial world masks the negative impacts on the landscapes of which our world is built from.

“The dominant additive nature of the post industrial world masks the negative impacts on the landscapes of which our world is built from.”

Extraction is one of the most recognizable physical transformations by humans, creating industrial pits which are too often discarded and forgotten after their exploitation. These voids in the earth become reverse images of the exact cityscapes they are building. Lucy Lippard, activist and author of Undermining argues that “Mines and quarries are metaphorically cities turned upside down.” Most quarries aren’t located in densely populated cities but are often found in small cities and amongst marginalized communities suffering from the climate crisis disproportionately. Once these sites are depleted from their profitable resources, these weathered pits often become abandoned and cease to bring growth and development to that area. Since harvested materials are relocated from their origin, quarries are depleted from continuous economic stability and quite often go bankrupt. Once abandoned, quarries often fill with water and can become sites for landfills. This unproductive means of continuing weathering post extraction is detrimental to the cities which once worked from these sites. Even though federal order was put into place to maintain that these sites remain safe and non toxic, due to The Surface


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Wo rk by Brenn a Fran se n Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, many abandoned pits closed long before permits and bonds were required. These particular quarries remain in the hands of private owners who often went bankrupt, leaving most sites untouched. While a modern sensibility towards environmental reuse and restoration for abandoned quarries has grown recently, it should be noted that quarries have been reused, mainly for utilitarian purposes, since the Roman era. Catacombs were one of the most common historical reuses of quarries,

even the word “catacomb” derives from the meaning “at the cavity” referencing funeral complexes located inside ancient stone quarries. The catacombs became a common place for burial, religious celebration, and escape from persecution and stand out as the most significant historical use of extracted spaces. Prior to the catacombs, the ancient Greek introduced the Latomie which were originally ancient stone quarries used for building roads and temples. Some of these extractions were later used for the imprisonment of slaves


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and criminals, and eventually became dwellings for the humble class. Fast forward to the 1900’s, extracted quarries were still being used for exploitative practices. During World War I, pits were being converted to concentration camps such as the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria that was also in operation during World War II. So when did the shift for quarry reuse move from utilitarian and exploitative practices to sustainable care practices?

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Historically, old quarries were only allocated for reuse based on the urgency and need for the land. Even when quarry reuse shifted towards an aesthetic recreation during the renaissance age in Florence, the full potential of quarry reuse as a form of care for the environment was not fully recognized. Progressive land use has received attention recently, now looking towards nearly half a million abandoned quarries in the US alone that should be analyzed for future architectural and environmental value. Progressive land use advocates promote recycling, reclamation and remediation. Recently projects have been completed utilizing sustainable redevelopment as a solution such as using these sites for research, education, aquaculture, recreational activities, and housing. By utilizing Gray Infrastructure Typologies such as quarries and mines, green strategies are more easily implemented and should encourage the utilization of natural capital that is readily available for environmental solutions.

we are doing to our continent when greed and inequity triumph. The care required to respond to such actions may seem irreconcilable. Abandoned quarries now present new solutions to climate change such as water storage for fire emergencies, flooding buffers, and irrigation systems and industrial sites abandoned throughout the US are in need of imaginative reuses and require attention to reverse the anthropogenic and discriminatory land use policies in which these pits emerged. Citations: Corner, James, and David Leatherbarrow. Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Theory (171-183: Leveling the Land). Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. Leatherbarrow, David.; Mohsen Mostafavi. On Weathering: the Life of Buildings in Time. MIT Press, 2001. Lippard, Lucy R. Undermining: a Wild Ride through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West. The New Press, 2014. Talento, K.; Amado, M.; Kullberg, J.C. Quarries: From Abandoned to Renewed Places. Land 2020 Zraick, Karen. “Old Mines Are Full of Dangers (and Possibilities).” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Dec. 2018.

From Lippards observations, pits and shafts reflect culture, alter irreplaceable ecosystems, and generate new structures; undermining what (Rig ht) Work by Brenna Fransen


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A DISCUSSION WITH BILLY FLEMING

DESIGN AND THE GREEN NEW DEAL

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BILLY FLEMING

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Datum had the opportunity to contribute to a panel discussion with Billy Fleming along with NOMAS ISU chapter, and some ISU Department of Architecture faculty members, after his lecture on Design and the Green New Deal. This is a transcription from the panel discussion 2.28.20. Datum: In your lecture and your essay on “Design and the Green New Deal”, you mention that since the Green New Deal is a good opportunity for designers to participate in addressing the climate crisis and become practitioners of care. One of the questions that came around in our discussion was, if at all, do you find the green new deal insufficient in any way, and if so how? And what is the best way to communicate this in order for us as designers to engage in the practice of caring for the ecosystem? Billy Fleming: Yeah, that is a great question. There are all kinds of ways in which I think the Green New Deal is insufficient or at least there are things about it that worry me. The two big ones are that The Green New Deal, HR109 and every other document within GND-world that you can find, have nothing to say about international affairs and foreign policy. And yet, all of the technology

that is higher explicitly or implicitly called out in HR 109—PVs, electric cars, turbines, etc.—that are supposed to be part of electrifying everything in our lives through clean energy, require various minerals and all kinds of other materials that must be mined or extracted from places that we [the US and Global North] have a very long history of treating like Shit! All we do is extract things from them and transfer wealth to ourselves. And when I ask this question within the broader GND-world that I work, I’m always told “oh yes that’s a big problem, but someone else will take care of that.” And so, I remain very nervous that the Green New Deal will become coopted as a weapon for a form of green imperialism... I also worry about its eco-modernist orientation—operating from the position that technology is going to solve most of the climate crisis for us. And I just think, in many ways, this view is hopelessly naive. Technology is NOT going to solve the problems at the core of the Green New Deal for us. And in fact, technology can and probably will make much of this worse, at least in the short-term. This is also where you start to see people leaning into discussions or ideas about geoengineering, as potential solutions to the problem of planetary climate


Dat um, NO MAS an d I S U facu l t y m e m be rs in c onv ersation with Bill y Fl emi ng.

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people on the right who recognize that climate change is something they cannot ignore forever, and that they will find ways to outflank us and peel people away behind some kind of nationalist, blood and soil climate program. Some of them are already imagining what an eco-fascist program and alternative to the Green New Deal could look like. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s autocratic President who’s been leading a genocidal regime, and Bjarke Ingels are at the very least discussing how BIG and his regime could work together on a kind of eco-apartheid plan. Bjarke calls this a kind of radical moderation, but most of the rest of the world considers it radical nationalism. And in Congress, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley are floating these ideas in the united states around a right-wing program that basically looks like building a bunch of walls, keeping people out, and taking care of ourselves—a very particular kind of climate action for a very particular set

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change. The meme version of this is something like “you can just turn down the sun,” but it is a bit more complicated than that—even if some conceptions of geoengineering are doing exactly that. Many of these approaches require us to ignore or set aside all the uncertainty surrounding geoengineering, things like the rapid rate of acidification in our oceans. You don’t have to look deep into the scientific literature to see that we are probably heading towards a world, perhaps beyond most of our lifetimes but not by much, in which there are no functioning fisheries left on the planet. , Geoengineering is not going to help with that—or any other question beyond regulating temperature—and the more it’s studied the more it seems it will make all of these other issues worse. So these are the things that worry me the most: the tilt towards eco-modernism, the tilt towards green new imperialism, and I also just worry in general, there are a lot of smart


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of communities. Unfortunately, this is popular in many parts of this country, and it’s quite dangerous, if only because the right is very well-practiced in stoking white nationalism under the guise of populism. And finally, I worry that the perception of the Green New Deal is being shaped most strongly by the perception a very sophisticated right-wing propaganda machine that’s 50+ years in the making— something the left does not have in the US. The right has been framing it as a ban on planes or hamburgers, while the left has yet to convincingly frame it in public as a an investmentforward program of public luxury and egalitarian communities. NOMAS: So, you mentioned, something during your presentation about the new deal, and it is basically setting up power structures, that in the end still implemented racial and gender inequalities. The question I have with this and the Green New Deal is that many minority communities are often overlooked and greatly neglected by government policies and often they don’t get the funding necessary for climate change resilience plans. How can we as designers, being as you said, instruments of power, coming from privileges and inflated sense of saviorism, allow resilience design plans to be implemented in these communities, without simply implementing, large overscale designs, that create issues of gentrification. Billy Fleming: If you look at the picture behind us (image on the next page), this is a press conference announcing HR 109, one of the things AOC talks about is that people should view H.R. 109 as a request for

proposals. Ultimately, H.R. 109 is a framework and people should think creatively about its translation and implementation—about adding depth and layers and other things to the package of ideas that aren’t present in the resolution. It’s easy to forget that this resolution was introduced in February 2019, two months after she was sworn in the office. And if you know anything about the composition of a house office in congress, you have like 6 permanent staff and a couple of interns doing an insane amount of work. And so they did it pretty quickly, and they left things out, some probably out of necessity and some probably by accident. So one of the things the new deal teaches us is that if we don’t anticipate this question about how and where capital power is directed, then the people in the best position to continue wielding power and managing those resources will then be the ones positioned to express their values in the landscape.

“So one of the things the new deal teaches us is that if we don’t anticipate this question about how and where capital power is directed, then the people in the best position to continue wielding power


A nno unc ement o f t he G re e n N e w D e al , I n si de Clim ate Ne ws.

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One of the things I think the Green New Deal, to come all the way around to answer your actual question, demands of us to think about those local power structures and how the projects we try to assemble either reproduce or restructure power relations. If you’re in a giant firm, like AECOM, like HOK, you are often just either chasing for RFPs (Request for Proposals), or projects are brought to you by partners who you have worked with forever. But some of the smaller or medium-sized offices are often more entrepreneurial in the way that they assemble projects and teams, going after weird pots of money, grants, and coming from other kinds of non-profit sources and some of which might involve working with organizations which are not a part of the ruling power structures in a city. Thinking creatively about how you assemble those teams is one of the most important things we can do—and that requires investing significant time in building trust

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One of the things a massive, investment forward plan like the New Deal or the Green New Deal offers is to do more than simply transform the built environment—it’s a chance to transform power relations. And while the New Deal largely failed to do that—it basically reproduced them, including Jim Crow—the Green New Deal can only work if it learns from the mistakes of its predecessor. Which I think should make all of us look more critically at the Green New Deal, and to remember that her (AOC) most important work on this topic is coming from the perspective of the ability of elites and people with power and capital to continue to accumulate

and express their will in the physical landscape.

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and managing those resources will then be the ones positioned to express their values in the landscape”


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and relationships with people and communities and organizations that aren’t often at the center of design work. Because left to its own devices, the sort of huge infusion of capital that the Green New Deal would bring would simply reproduce the kind of inequality that we already have. So again, I think thinking through what kind of power structures we want will tell us which of those groups, which of those communities, which of those people have to be a part of our work going forward. And I think for us anyway, at the center too, at a university, we have an opportunity to operate outside of market forces, like the University of Pennsylvania, has an endowment of 14.5 billion dollars. It does not need to compete with firms working in New York, San Francisco or Chicago. Or develop a bunch of weird speculative proposals for cities that are wholly disconnected from the more material concerns of most people. It has an obligation, or rather I feel an obligation to use the prestige and resources available in ways that subvert those power structures—the kind that have allowed universities like Penn to accumulate this money. Iowa State does not have that kind of money, but it has enough power and prestige to do some of these things here too.

About Billy Fleming Billy Fleming is the Wilks Family Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center in the Weitzman School of Design, and a senior fellow with Data for Progress. In his role at the McHarg Center, Billy is coeditor of the forthcoming book An Adaptation Blueprint (Island Press, 2020), co-editor and co-curator of the book and now internationallytraveling exhibit Design With Nature Now (Lincoln, 2019), and author of the forthcoming Drowning America: The Nature and Politics of Adaptation (Penn Press, expected 2021). Billy is also the lead author of the recently published and widely acclaimed “The 2100 Project: An Atlas for the Green New Deal.” He is also a co-author of the Indivisible Guide (2016). His writing on climate, disaster, and design has also been published in The Guardian, The Atlantic, CityLab, Dissent Magazine, Houston Chronicle, Jacobin, Places Journal, and Science for the People Magazine, and he’s frequently asked to weigh in on the infrastructure and built environment implications of climate change, as well as candidate and congressional climate plans, by major climate reporters and congressional staff. (mcharg.upenn.edu, Billy Fleming) Datum sincerely thanks all the participating members, for their contribution to the discussion, We also extend our gratitude to the Public programs committee and ISU Department of Architecture to conduct and invite Datum to the panel discussion. (Rig ht) Work by A aron Koopal


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OCCUPIERS OF OBJECTS (?)

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OLIVER GOCHÉ

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When working in the studio this semester, I have thought a lot about simple, personal objects and the importance that they can hold. My studio partner is Aaron Koopal, and the project we are working on addresses the decontextualization of objects and drawings. The idea was initially rooted in the way certain drawings were presented to us and then through material models. The ideas brought some thoughts to the forefront that were always at the back of my mind. The notion of how we view objects and how the idea of caring for them is a nuanced and subtle thing from one person to the next. On a grand scale, a museum holds items that the citizens find culturally significant. At the same time, and on a much smaller size, there are personal artifacts that we as individuals hold dear. The ideas and stories carried by these objects may be profound and important, or not. The importance of an object is subjective based on how we attach a related and likely personal experience to it. Ultimately, it is these artifacts, a fabulous image, or a simple love note from someone that we are fond of, that makes us, us. To some degree, from an onlooker’s standpoint, these items that we accumulate don’t matter. A shitty note or a ring that seems uninteresting or unadorned are representations of us, and only us.

“To some degree, from an onlooker’s standpoint, these items that we accumulate don’t matter. A shitty note or a ring that seems uninteresting or unadorned are representations of us, and only us.” They may make up the exterior image that others see of us, but the meaning that they hold for the owner may never be fully understood by the onlooker. We hold these items dear to us because they remind us of ideas, experiences, or perhaps, people. My items like these are hidden away in my apartment in a small filing cabinet or a drawer. No one but me knows they are there. Mostly they are hiding in plain sight; however, this is where things that matter most to me exist: Notes from my girlfriend; mementos that my father brought me back from any number of his trips.


A whole slew of items like this hide, while others don’t. To remind me of my grandmother, I wear a ring on my left pinky finger that she owned. I use a lead holder that my father brought me from Prague in the Czech Republic. I’ve left it in various places before, and in a panic, I would realize it was gone. I’ve rushed back to places that I’ve left it, and sometimes people will look at me funny. I’m sure that many reading this have a place for important items. Maybe they are locked away or hidden. It’s interesting that we hold these perhaps menial items so dear. They aren’t necessarily valuable, in a monetary sense anyway, other than the sentiment that they hold. Consider this, for example. You have a kitchen utensil, utterly mundane to an onlooker, but it was from your late grandmother. The utensil turns up missing. Sometime later, it is found again. It is not the original. Someone gifts you a replica, unbeknownst to you. You think that you have found the original, and you carry on contently, knowing that you have the ability to remember. CARE

This thought is important because it is the memory that the object holds and gives us, rather than the objects themselves. Fear of forgetting the past, a person or experience is real for most people. These items offer us mementos to have and remember in the present. The loss we might feel if we didn’t have these items, could symbolize the loss of our memory.

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Wo rk (abo v e + o n fo l l o w i n g pa g e ) by O l i v e r G oché


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I THINK, THEREFORE I CARE YANJIU BAI

Design It is a response.

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We need not only to focus on the methods and results but the process of ourselves as well.

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We understand ourselves through design. We design through our understanding. Drawing It is the interaction between different media through visual language. It is not just expression, experience, feeling, communicating, recording, and so forth. It is beyond itself and ourselves. In the drawing process, we flow into ourselves. We wake ourselves; meanwhile, find ourselves. Thus, we care about ourselves.

(Rig ht) Work by Yanjiu Bai


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设计 是一种回应 不只是关注方法和结果,也要关注我们自身参与其中的过程 我们通过设计明白自己,我们设计通过我们所明白的 CARE

绘画 一种通过视觉语言在不同媒介之间的互动 他不仅是表达、体验、感受、交流、记录等等

在绘画的过程中,我们流淌于我们自身中 我们意识到自己,同时发现自己

因此,我们在意我们自己

(Left ) Wo rk by Yanj i u B ai

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他超越他自身,也是我们的彼岸

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VOLUNTOURISM AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF CARE AARON KOOPAL

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Can you sell people the experience of changing the world without actually changing a damn thing?

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Voluntourism carries a heavy connotation. There is no denying that. It’s an evergrowing multi-billion-dollar industry that represents one of capitalism’s many haphazard solutions to global poverty. It single-handedly hinges on people’s desire to make the world a better place while painting itself as a global role model motivated by nothing more than altruism. The idea is simple: there is an increasing demand for volunteering opportunities across the world, so why not start a company capitalizing on it. A surprising amount of people will pay top dollar to spend their vacation building schools for a village in Sri Lanka rather than sitting on a beach in the Bahamas. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea, but lying underneath this idyllic facade, as many know, is a repetitive history of exploitative and neocolonial practices. Unsurprisingly, most people have a genuine desire to travel overseas and help out in meaningful ways, regardless of how ignorant they truly are. The problem lies not within people themselves, but rather an industry that is more concerned with creating a “life-changing” experience on behalf of the voluntourists rather than focusing on the communities in need. Voluntourism has, in large part, turned the act of caring into a commodity, thus creating a market of experiences that can be bought and sold. With this market comes competition, and to stay competitive in this market means pandering to those with the money. A recent 2014 study by the International Journal of Communication and Health explored the nuances of how internet advertising is used for marketing and promoting these voluntourist organizations. When looking into these many websites, the study found “several pervasive trends,” stating that the voluntourism industry places an “emphasis on personal gains to the voluntourist that overshadows the community.” These websites often appeal to potential and positive experiences to be had by volunteering through various phrases and imagery. Likewise, the study also found that “information about the host community was markedly less pronounced.” (14) Within these websites, common phrases such as, make an impact, be the change, or build relationships were used as a way to appeal to potential customers. The key here is the specific verbiage of these phrases: impact, change, build. All of these words carry a strong connotation


associated with acts of creation. These words carry a strong implication that are deeply ingrained in people’s desire to create something meaningful. It is these intrinsic desires that seamlessly translate into the many business models used in voluntourism. They’re used specifically to target our desire to make the world a better place. But there is a caveat. Within the voluntourism industry, there exists a vast canyon between actual change and the perception of change. Many of the business models used by these organizations stem from the latter. Voluntourism doesn’t seek to trick its volunteers into helping in problematic ways, but rather, to feed and reinforce the existing perceptions of what volunteering looks like. As long as the volunteers perceive themselves as leaving a lasting and positive impact on the communities they volunteered in, the money will continue to roll in. Nothing more matters.

Unfortunately, many of the necessary solutions for developing regions are invisible to the eye, either because they lack the “pizazz” needed to generate capital or because the issues they address are too complex for any single person to comprehend. As Teju Cole writes in his 2012 essay titled, White-Savior Industrial Complex, “there are serious problems of governance, of infrastructure, of democracy, and of law and order,” going on to state that, “these problems are neither simple in themselves nor are they reducible to slogans.” In its place exists shallow solutions that do little to elevate the problems, sometimes going as far as making them worse. The voluntourism industry knows this reality perfectly well,

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These same principles extend into much of the physical work that is done within the industry. Often, organizations offer their volunteers pre-packaged trips involving the construction of schools or wells in impoverished communities. In these trips, it doesn’t matter how ethical or practical the construction is, or whether their western ideals are congruent with the cultural norms of whatever community they’re in. What matters is that the act of building these structures fulfills the same desire that drove them to volunteer in the first place. It’s easy for people to see their perceived impact when that impact can be physically measured. In reality, many of these structures end up unused, often neglected, and or abandoned, either because the spaces are poorly built by people who lack the qualification or because the spaces are duplicates of resources already present within the community. Moreover, these practices often displace workers in impoverished communities, thereby creating local dependencies on the industry itself. (Kushner)

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“As long as the volunteers perceive themselves as leaving a lasting and positive impact on the communities they volunteered in, the money will continue to roll in. Nothing more matters.”


but they don’t care. They’re willing to pander to flawed perceptions as long as it makes them money.

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This is what makes the industry so perverse in the first place. Voluntourism exploits care and turns it into a commodity. It does little more than profit off of those who care and exploits those who receive it.

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References: Cole, Teju. “The White-Savior Industrial Complex.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 11 Jan. 2013,www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-saviorindustrial-compl ex/254843/. Kushner, Jacob. “The Voluntourist’s Dilemma.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/magazine/the-voluntouristsdilemma.html. Wilkinson, Ben, et al. Voluntourism: an Analysis of the Online Marketing of a FastGrowing Industry. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION AND HEALTH , 2014, communicationandhealth.ro/upload/number4/

(Rig ht) Work by A aron Koopa l


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INTERNAL CARE

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Internal care exists as a facet of everyoneĘźs life; something that can often fall by the wayside in our day to day lives. ItĘźs ironic to think that in trying to talk about this idea, we have probably given up part of our own internal care in order to bring it up. That is to say we feel it so valuable to bring up that we are willing to take part in that irony.As college students, we exist in a constant state of flux. Classes during the day, homework we have to do during the evening, work to fit in between, and social gatherings on top of all that. We can sometimes forget ourselves. We are at the very least trying to remind those reading this of something that is more important than all of that: you. Take a little bit of time out of your day to focus on your mental state of being, how relationships might be impacting that mental state, your physical well-being, and perhaps reflect on all of these ideas.


PINK EYE AKA CONJUNCTIVITIS : 病病毒 RUN LIN Lyrics in English / Mandarin versions are below. 各位朋友們,大家好,

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在美國,警察暴力執法與種族歧視問題已歷史悠久事實。這是一部上街遊 行錄的影片搭配自己錄製的音樂,想要透過音樂的方式來述說故事,歌詞 較於抽象,請見諒。如果有任何人對於美國現況有任何疑問,歡迎私訊 我,我很樂意用客觀的角度回答。至於在美國的華人朋友們,如果有興趣 上街遊行,也歡迎私訊我。

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Lyrics (Mandarin) : 這是一種 病病毒 不是全新 的那種 首例 感染者 出現在上百年前 病病毒 持續擴散 持續破壞 持續拉開 人與人間的距離 而時間來到 2020 倖存物種不多 幸虧解藥 研發 有了成果 科學家大力推薦 向大眾表達承諾 這是人類的文明奇異點 當然過程沒那麼容易 這帖藥不能痊癒所有人的情緒 有些人病得太深 自以為活得太真 里共後哇聽 哇就尷尬 笑死攏ㄟ啦 我詞 寫到這裡 有些 感到躁鬱 我歌 唱到這裡 你或許聽不會太懂 那我用白話文 正面精神 提供你的翻譯文 希望你們 打開 心靈 用心 聆聽 或許你們也能被痊癒 Lyrics (English): This is a virus, not a new one. The first infected case appeared hundreds of years ago. The virus continues to spread, continues to destroy, continues to enlarge the distance between people. When time comes to 2020, not many have survived. Fortunately, the research and development of antidote has achieved progress.


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Scientists strongly recommend the antidote. There’s a commitment and there’s a hope. This is the singular point of human civilization. Of course, the process is not so easy. This medicine can’t heal everyone. Some are too ill, and think they are living in a peaceful truth. So far writing these lyrics, I feel depressed but angry. However, you still might not understand what this song is about. Don’t worry, I will use simple text with positive spirit to provide the translation. I hope you will open your heart and listen carefully, maybe you will be healed too. #blm #blacklivesmatter #policebrutality #desmoines #desmoinespolice #desmoinesprotests #defundthepolice

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“M o t he r’s Lo v e ” (A bov e) Work by Run Lin


Afterword: 這是爸媽提醒我的一些話,可見爸媽非常在乎、擔心在外生活我們。: “苦口婆心一堆,不為別人,只因為你是我的兒子。” “你和弟弟好好照顧自己的身體健康。” “我只在乎你和弟弟。” “把你們兩個在這個很敏感的timing 放在美加,是我們始料未及的, 所以希望你及弟弟能夠注意在注意安全、身體健康的問題, 避免出入人群處。”

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“現在不管是只有針對黑人,連亞裔 韓國人等等也有抗爭的行動,真的 得小心。”

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這是我和爸媽談論 BLM 議題時,擷取的談話內容。: “黑鬼 黑鬼 黑鬼” “你誰啊? 你教育我?” “你不要和黑人在一起,你們生出來的小孩會被歧視。” “你不要和她在一起,那個黑人女生的氣質和你不同。” “我不太喜歡他的穿著 嘻哈的風格” “我就是想說 為什麼不行? 我也可以說黑鬼 紅人,這裡是台灣,台灣人 並不種族歧視,沒有人care。” “M o t he r’s Monday”(Belo w) Work by Run Lin


Afterword: These are some reminders from my parents. They show how much my parents care and worry about my brother and I living in foreign countries : “All these talks from us are not for anyone, but for you and Jacky (my younger brother) because you are my sons.” “You and Jacky should take care of your own health.” “I only care about you and your brother.” “It was unexpected for us to allow you and Jacky to travel to North America by yourselves. I hope you guys can stay healthy and safe, and try to avoid being outside.”

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“Now there are not only Black American protesters, there are Asian Americans participating in the protests as well. Please be careful, stay away from them.” *I purposely hide the fact of my participation in protests from my parents. They assume protests are violent and do not support my joining them.* These were the comments my parents made, while we were having BLM related conversations :

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“[n word, n word, n word.]”

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“Who are you? You are my son, you don’t have the right to educate me.” “Do not date a black woman! Your kid will be racially ambiguous and will receive racist attacks from people.” “I do not allow you to date her. You have a different aesthetic than her.” “I do not like how she dresses, I do not like the ‘hip hop’ style.” “I just want to say it, why can’t I? I can use the [n word] or ‘red people’ (referring to Native Americans) however I like in Taiwan. No one cares. Taiwan is not racist like the Western world.” Having conversations with those individuals is hard, especially when they are your loved ones. However, changes have to be made from continuously having conversations and educating the other while educating yourselves. We are living in tough times and some are going through more than others. For those of you who are allies like I am, let’s continue this fight together. Our goals haven’t been met yet, but changes are slowly happening. “It is a marathon not a sprint.”


Blac

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Black Girl, You are impo Your life matt It may feel lik Is against you It will all make

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Black Girl, You just want You just want You just want The way you Stay Optimist

Black Girl, Your motivati It’s been reall But trust me, It’ll be worth None of this

Black Girl, You go throug And look at y You are still h You are a wor You are an ins

Black Girl, You are beati Things will be You will be tr Until then, Stay true to y


Black Girl

Black Girl, You are important. Your life matters. It may feel like the whole world. Is against you, but it’s not. It will all make sense in the end.

Black Girl, You go through so much. And look at you, You are still here, Thriving. You are a work of art. You are an inspiration. Black Girl, You are beautiful. Things will be okay. You will be truly happy, Until then, Stay true to yourself, Queen! Illustration by Oluwatobiloba Fagbule. Poem by Courtney Opoku.

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Black Girl, Your motivation has been waning. It’s been really difficult, But trust me, It’ll be worth it. None of this work is for nothing.

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Black Girl, You just want to be appreciated. You just want to be cared for. You just want someone to love you, The way you would love them. Stay Optimistic, its coming.


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CARE 57 DATUM ( C u r re n t an d fo l l o wing pa g e) Work by Hiba Salih


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SOVIET WORKER’S CLUBS

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GABRIELA ROBLES-MUNOZ

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Soviet worker’s clubs, gathering spaces for the working class and their families, were a unique class of building pioneered by Soviet modernist architects in the 1920’s and 30’s. The worker’s clubs (mainly centered in and around Moscow) served as flexible community spaces that provided resources for Russia’s working class to rest and enjoy leisurely activities. They were also a part of a larger mission to create a more unified culture within the Marxist society of Soviet Russia by striking down Bolshevik propaganda. However, the means of doing so was left open to interpretation, thus creating a diverse group of structures scattered across Moscow. Architects of each club were free to explore form and function as they saw fit; the interpretation of leisure as it related to the surrounding community the clubs would serve was freely decided by the designers. This freedom created what some people deem to be among the most important structures to reference when discussing the evolution of Soviet architecture; The ability of the architectural avant-garde to be made available to the masses fostered a design climate that was truly unique. Each club was completely different from the next. Some clubs explored principles of modernism and its offshoots; they sowed seeds of

ideas from Konstantin Melnikov’s experiments in modulation that were consistent though never stale. Others observed El Lissitzky’s prominent contributions to the Constructivist movement and its applications to modernist architecture, and yet others fit more clearly into the mold of the brutalist scheme that many consider to be the calling card of Soviet architectural design. Separate from the discussion of the significance of worker’s clubs to the development of an architectural identity that was unique to Soviet Russia, there remains the topic of the clubs themselves: How did they function? What was their goal? Ultimately, the answer to these questions depends on who you ask. El Lissitzky argues that the worker’s clubs intended to liberate the community from the oppression of the church and state. This thought holds validity, as the clubs served as a free space for people to gather and spend free time watching theatre, playing games, reading, etc.; a space where they could forget responsibilities that they owed their government. In contrast to Lissitzky, Marxist theorist (and founder of the subsequent Trotskyism) Leon Trotsky referred to worker’s clubs as institutions for the “culturalization of the masses”; factories of propaganda


Zauchuk Fac t o r y C l u b, Ko n st an t i n M e l n i k o v

The workers clubs were but a patch in the prodigious quilt that is Soviet architecture, but the role that they played was one that was deeply personal and interconnected with their occupants; the clubs were moments for people to connect with one another, instances of humanism in the sterile environment that was Soviet Russia. The capacity in which

All these factors considered, it is not a stretch of the imagination to consider worker’s clubs as a form of caring architecture. Regardless of the club’s intentions, it is clear that their role in the lives of the citizens of Russia was a positive one. The fact that government-subsidized, legitimate public space existed and was available to the masses in abundance is a feat that has seldom been replicated. Now, especially in capitalist societies like the U.S., nearly all “public spaces” are not actually such. Plazas in city centers are usually privately owned and closely monitored. Parks and other environments, while freer, can become scarce as a result of underfunding,

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In Moscow today, very few of the worker’s clubs that remain standing are still active as public space; it can be argued that their decline is due to their role as a symbol of Marxist Ideologies represented through architecture. They embody the radical agenda for community-empowering public space, an ideal that was prevalent in Marxism, but is controversial to current-day Russia.

Soviet architecture was able to explore the convergence of many architectural styles (e.g., brutalism, classicism, modernism) but still remain distinctly Soviet speaks volumes about the attempts of the Union to ingrain its propaganda into the literal building blocks of its society.

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shrouded in the guise of a glimpse of freedom. These two ideas are two extremes among many possible viewpoints, but in reality, either could be true.


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Z u e v Work ers C lub, Il ya G olosov

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and can still be gatekept if occupants are considered “undesirable� or act in ways that do not conform to the social norms of these spaces. With these limitations come many questions: Is it possible to create community-empowering public space without referencing the politically charged-design of Soviet Russia? If so, how can we implement the central concepts of caring architecture to a capitalist system that is inherently uncaring? In doing so, how do we overcome the limitations that capitalism and bureaucracy impose on architecture? Such questions have no direct answers, but can prompt us to examine if we are truly weighing the importance of historical implications on our design decisions, test our limits in finding ways of valuing the human condition over efficiency and capital, and daring us to remain designers with prominent, individual voices within a system that seeks to push its own agenda.


References Chatel, Marie. “Melnikov and Moscow Workers’ Clubs: Translating Soviet Political Ideals into Architecture.” ArchDaily, June 13, 2016. https://www. archdaily.com/789374/melnikov-and-moscow-workers-clubs-translating-sovietpolitical-ideals-into-architecture. Jardine, Bradley. “Welcome to the Club: How Soviet Avant-Garde Architects Reimagined Labour and Leisure.” The Calvert Journal, August 14, 2017. https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/8735/welcome-to-the-clubsoviet-avant-garde-architects-labour-leisure-workers. Landes, Nora. “The Icons of Communist Architecture.” Artsy, November 20, 2016. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-the-icons-of-communistarchitecture.

“Workers’ Clubs.” Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, January 29, 2016. http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1924-2/workers-clubs/.

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Siegelbaum, Lewis H. “The Shaping of Soviet Workers Leisure: Workers Clubs and Palaces of Culture in the 1930s.” International Labor and Working-Class History 56 (1999): 78–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0147547999002859.

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Wo rk by Gabrie l a R o bl e s-M u n oz


CARING FOR “THE (NON)-INNOCENT” SAMARTH VACHHRAJANI

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Ideology has always been at the center of operation of the architecture discipline. Political ideologies have always motivated architects to work and act in certain way. Yet the discipline today is totally obliterated to this fact. It functions under the myth of “pure innocence” to mask itself from the political realities of the discipline. How does the discipline so inherently focused on the idea of building and helping the “innocent” figure forget that the figure of innocence is a produced idea?

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In 1990s, France passed a legislation where they, looked at politics of immigration from the lenses of humanitarianism. This legislation, which was called Humanitarian exception, allowed for sick bodies to reside in France and receive papers to do so. Here the sick body is the innocent figure in suffering. Miriam Ticktin, in her conversation with Leopold Lambert on the podcast Archipelago, recognizes that this focus of the French state on the innocent is based on the logic of humanitarianism where it is used to find the next innocent body in order to be complacent from the political framework. But in the course of this, other forms of immigration even economic migration became very hard to get approval for. Hence more people turned to this clause. There were instances, as documented by Ticktin, where bodies were biologically compromising such as exposing themselves to diseases such as HIV AIDS, for political recognition. But getting papers was highly dependent if the sick body seeking immigration, matched the colonial script of “the innocent”, that the French authorities and doctors assessing the sick bodies had. For example, Ticktin explains, an Algerian woman, was more likely to receive papers because she is stereotyped as the one on who violence is inflicted upon by an Algerian man. And this is also how the immigrants seeking papers would perform, to embody the script. This would make it extremely difficult for people who would not fit the ideal figure of innocence, and hence not receive papers. The inability to receive papers and stay in France have medical consequences on the “non-innocent” bodies. The myth on which nation-states operate to define “humanitarian” efforts or extend “humanity”, is the existence of absolute innocence. To care for the innocent requires the state to define who the innocent is and what are the parameters to qualify.


“To care for the innocent requires the state to define who the innocent is and what are the parameters to qualify.” There is a constant search for the “figure of innocence,” because somehow, we always fail to find “pure innocence”. (Ticktin, Archipelagos Podcast).

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The qualifiers applicable to the figure of innocence go beyond humans and expand to non-humans. Subsequently, so do the “humane” efforts. The search for pure innocence or absolute innocence is often determined through biology. Biological claim is embedded in humanitarianism, because suffering is manifested as a common universal denominator, worthy of care. Yet, care is only received, when biological claims, embodied in performances are recognizable to those who have developed a script, as understood from Mariam Ticktin’s field work in France. (Ticktin, from human to the planetary, 140) The defining of pure innocence, connects to the histories of colonialism and extraction. And it is within these discourses, the parameters of care are defined for the human and non-human.

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Wo rk by Brenn a Fran se n


Ticktin, in her essay From Human to the Planetary, equates humanitarian care with biology. She beautifully compares the histories of biology, that of immune systems, to our collective histories which force people to embody a specific scripture to qualify as innocent. But raises a very important speculative question: “Immunity can be understood as the memories of previous encounters between an organism and its environment and can be used to measure the distance between species crossed by the same pathogens (Keck and Ticktin 2015). This model evokes a different human-nonhuman collective, one created across time and space, between species and microbes, histories and encounters. Could we follow this model as a new way to measure our connectedness and our history, and as a way to produce new forms of care?” (Ticktin, from human to the planetary, 150)

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If collective histories of biology and geopolitics can be used to speculate forms of care, then it becomes essential to remind ourselves that these connections operate on multiple complex scales.

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“If collective histories of biology and geopolitics can be used to speculate forms of care, then it becomes essential to remind ourselves that these connections operate on multiple complex scales.” Albeit as Ticktin suggests, we can learn from the processes that occur in sciences such as immunology to potentially understand complex political occurrences. From Ticktin’s work, biology as a model of comparison might be useful to understand occurrences due to the political systems in place. But it does not necessarily prepare us to understand its consequences. By the defining of the innocent and using colonial or other such historical scripts, the state might be becoming immune to one singular ideal of “the figure of innocent”. This model does not help us explain, what the consequence of this immunization can be on bodies who do not fit into the narratives of “the innocent”. Her speculation involves studying CDC’s One Health Initiative, which recognizes connections between the health of people, animals and the environment from an interdisciplinary and multisectoral approach, specially set up to study zoonotic diseases such as H5N1, Ebola and the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. It is an exemplary approach to study models such as One health to theorize new forms of care. While this model is successful in hypothesizing alternate imaginaries, it does not talk about finding relationships between lack of/ or control of care with biology. From Ticktin’s study in France, as the parameters for receiving care are generated, parallelly produced illegality for the figures who do not qualify to be innocent and hence do not receive papers. As G.F Sandoval (G.F Sandoval is a researcher and professor studying neighborhood planning, immigration and community change)


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Work by Mae Murphy

The question to ask is, what does care look like within a practice, which has participated in political agendas, yet has distanced itself from political frameworks. The profession uses the same “humanitarian logic” which the French legislation did, in order to be complacent of political framework. It is under the same myth that architects design, which is the existence of the pure innocent. It has become more important, now more than ever, to recognize the existence of the noninnocent, in order to CARE.

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recognizes in his paper on shadow transnationalism, illegality is produced by the “caring” entities such as the state where the apparatus of “care” is the very action of defining “the innocent”. With the definition itself, creates another category, that of the non-innocent, unauthorized, or illegal. It is the production of illegality that produces measures initiated by the state to control a community of “illegal aliens”. Eventually, this illegality is perpetuated through palpable architectural objects such as walls, made of metal panels, electric wires, with technologies to trap (similar to that of trapping animals such as crabs, lobsters and chickens) which are designed to dehumanize.

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UNLESS THE WATER IS SAFER THAN LAND LIZA WALLING

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An overview of a report by the Centre for Research Architecture conducted in 2017-2018

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Operation Sovereign Borders was an Australian border security strategy that commenced in September 2013 and ended in February 2017. The scale of the operation was huge, mobilizing an estimated $A9.6 billion dollars into a military and naval operation and propaganda campaign to deter asylum boat arrivals to Australia. The policies and associated propaganda (figure 0) of Operation Sovereign Borders served to secure the “border� outside, while promoting exclusive national identity inside. The Centre for Research Architecture, after receiving a communique and guidance from the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), began research documenting the sheer scale of the operation through fragmentary media reports, witness testimonies, GIS data, and official Senate hearing and court documents. The CRA complied research on over 60 cases of naval operations,

Fi g ure 0 | A sc re e n sho t f ro m an O pe rat i o n S o v e reig n Borders adv ertisem ent nar rat i ng by t he co m m an de r o f t he o pe rat i o n , A ng us C am pbell.


Fi g ure 1 | T he l i fe bo at s u se d by O S B t o ‘ tur n-back ’ asylum seek ers, equi pped w i t h l i m i t e d f u e l an d fo o d t o re st ri ct n av ig ation. and focused on a series of incidents which best illustrated the different tactics and architectures of Operation Sovereign Borders.

The final report detailsvessels cut-loose in high seas with inadequate fuel, (figure 1) a prison ship towed for 22 days off Australia’s east coast, (figure 2) the procurement of increasingly covert vessel types to mislead the international community, (figure 3) the denial of the most basic assessment of refugee claims (figure 4) the subsequent imprisonment, torture and in some cases, disappearance of individuals in their returned to countries (figure 5)And adds to the indictment of the architects of Operation Sovereign Borders and a government that continues to conflate a humanitarian refugee crisis with a political people smuggling epidemic, as a way of justifying their ongoing violation of the human rights of a vulnerable population at sea. “you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.” -Warsan Shire, Home

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The research which followed the compiling of this list began to focus on several specific cases and developed a set of spatial and forensic methodologies to crossreference available media sources and overcome the lack of publicly available information.

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What emerged from these studies was a pattern of systematic human rights abuses on the waters between Vietnam and Indonesia: the violation of the law of non-refoulement, illegal detention-inmovement, denial of adequate asylum procedure, deprivation of basic human rights, violence and criminal abetting of people smugglers.


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Fi gure 2 | T he pat h o f t he H M AS C ho u l e s as i t ci rcl e s the c oast of Ne w So ut h Wal es w hi l e det ai n i n g _ _ asy l u m se e k e rs.


Fi gure 3 | T he c o v ert ‘Fi shi n g Ve sse l s’ u se d Fi g u re 5 | A protest led by detainees on by O SB t o ‘ t ur n- back’ asy l u m se e k e rs abo ard M an u s I sland Re g ional Proc essing C entre, A B FC O c ean Shi el d. an o f f shore d etention fac ility which is part of O S B ’s deter renc e schem e.

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Fi g ure 4 | A c op y o f an ‘ E n han ce d S cre e n i n g ’ for m , a c ontrov ersial proc ess w hi ch ra pi dl y de t e r m i n e s t he v al i di t y o f a re f u g ee claim .


¿CUÁNTO DAMOS?

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JOSÉ ALFREDO LOPEZ VILLALOBOS

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En 100 x 35, Con 3.2 millones de habitantes... Tantos kilómetros de brea; Tantos kilómetros de costa; Tantos metros cuadrados de bosque. Tanta cultura, Pero, ¿cuánta responsabilidad? ¿cuánto valor? ¿cuánta importancia le damos? A lo que nos queda. A lo que tuvimos. A lo que tendremos. Tanta industria; Con tanto que importamos. Tanto negocio; Con tanto de códigos y reglamentos, Pero, ¿cuánto apoyo? ¿cuánto aprecio? por lo que tenemos. por lo que tuvimos. por lo que tendremos. ¿Cuánto damos por la oportunidad? ¿Cuánto, por el desarrollo? ¿Cuánto, por la mejoría? ¿Cuánto, por actuar? Tanto por lo que queremos. Tanto por lo que quisimos. Tanto por lo que luchamos. Tanto por lo que lucharemos. Tanto por hacer algo. Pero, ¿Cuánto nos falta para hacerlo?

( R i g ht ) Work by Jose A lfred o Lopez Villalobos


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AGAINST THE MODERN MEASURING STICK OF STANDARDIZATION TOMI LAJA

rule (n.): c. 1200, “principle or maxim governing conduct, formula to which conduct must be conformed” from Old French riule, Norman reule “rule, custom, from Vulgar Latin *regula, from Latin regula “straight stick, bar, ruler;”

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rule (v.): c. 1200, “to control, guide, direct,” from Old French riuler “impose rule,” from Latin regulare “to control by rule, direct,”

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Utilizing Michel Foucault’s theories in Discipline and Punishment: the Birth of the Prison on social and governmental executions of power through public punishment; plague and partitioning; and correction through panoptic observation and surveillance, this essay argues standardization as a means of exerting oppressive power and control within constructed spaces. The case studies of Pruitt-Igoe, The Grand Paris Express, and Unite D’Habitation adhere to these concepts

M o dul ar M an, Le C o rbu si e r

of punishment with their foundational use of standardization alongside surveillance. The Jeanne Hachette Complex, located in the French commune Ivry-sur-Seine, resists standardization, the measuring stick for modern compartmentalization and classification of the “Other.” These studies are located both in the United States and France, allowing for an examination of the countering approaches of segregation and assimilation, both sharing the agenda


of preserving oppression. In context to the strategies of the two western powers, the Jeanne Hachette Complex is one of dignity through its defiance of standardization, an upheld and expected norm within western design. PART I : The Modern Measuring Stick : Standardization

U n i t e D ’Habitation, Le C orbusier

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Unité D’habitation in Marseille France by Swiss architect Le Corbusier, a canonical figure in the dream of modernism and the author of the modular man, was completed in 1952. The work is noted for its exemplary organization and efficiency designed for 1,600 inhabitants with its modular arrangement of units connected with a single dark and narrow corridor at each entrance floor. Every inch of space is planned for, even the “social spaces.” Every interaction is predicted, calculated, manipulated. There is no room for improvisation, new programming, or spontaneous interaction. Humans become objects

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“This set of measurements derived from and results in a world order that has colonial features. The assessment of the validity of architecture and its histories is based on certain notions, paradigms, figures, forms, texts, buildings, and styles. This mechanism of evaluation regulates the understanding and interpretation of architecture, as well as the inclusion and exclusion of its histories and theories. It also promotes and privileges certain cultural and intellectual aspects over others. Consequently, these criteria play a crucial role in institutionalizing architectural histories and theories.”2

to be categorized and objectified through the planning of one singular man. This is the expectation and the measuring stick towards “good” modern design. In the project, there is no reference to life outside of the modern box. Rather, the decisions are based on the effectiveness of movement and the compactness of space and square footage. The ideals of modernization are regarded as the basis of logic in architecture within the western world. Yet, as researcher Samia Henni remarks in Colonial Ramifications: “The adherence of this type of ideology to categorize bodies in space singularly excludes many while promoting ‘certain privileges.’”2 The home, the dwelling, the private space now becomes an institution: a societal space towards conformance and correcting through partitioning. Regarding the able-bodied man as not only the ruler—the measuring stick—but as the most valid creator further excludes women and non— binary genders, while re—generating


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PART II : Standardization and Its Adherence : Segregation and Classification

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the idea that spaces can and should be designed through abelist, white, male assumption. This conception of space disregards non—western social normatives of collectivity, of gathering, of care. Inherently, migrant dwellers are taken out of the coastal context and excluded in pursuit of the modernist dream. Marseille is an important port which allows for trade and has played a large part in the industrialization of the geography while connecting immigrants from northern Africa into France. The ideology of standardization begins to regulate the relations, behaviors, and environments of those who do not fit the criteria of the modular man. Standardization becomes violent, and these spaces become controlled instruments within a larger system of control.

“The invention of the ‘Other’— racial, religious, or gender— corresponds to the commencement and the commandment of modern human exploitation and research extraction, which long hid behind the mask of the ‘civilizing mission.’ It was a mission that European colonial regimes self— assigned themselves in order to intervene in the way that existing communities, kingdoms, tribes, and societies governed themselves, lived, and built. This dogmatic and authoritative ‘civilizing mission’ consisted of destabilizing and discounting prevailing codes and spreading, instead, European beliefs, principles, and languages in compliance with a colonial

ideology dubbed ‘assimilation.’2 The colonial western consciousness has validated and normalized constructing dehumanized spaces for the “Othered” through the acceptance of standardization. During the mid 20th century, Saint Louis planned for the city to “develop.” The plan for modernization was argued as a prominent reason for the low—income Black demographic, the “Other,” to move into the Pruitt—Igoe Housing Complex (1954—1976) in order for the city to gain more space downtown and expand for the renewal.3 This was the vision executed by city planners and designers which resulted in the segregation of the African American community in order to modernize the city. While Saint Louis had resources, especially in transportation and trade, these resources were isolated away from those who live in Pruitt—Igoe because of the out—of—the—way positioning from the rest of the city, physically punishing those of the African diaspora. The formal and conceptual relationship of the complex to the city is one of clear isolation;3 the space itself creates the stage for public punishment and panoptic observation to the city and the world. The “Othered” were not only moved away to make room for modernism and expansion of the city, but also to separate Saint Louis from those in need of “correction.” The Complex, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, is monumental, brutal, and modular. There is no room for ornament, history, or storytelling aside from the one narrated by assumption and prejudice, a spectacle of “failure.” Not only this, but its death is televised and becomes a show for the world, ceremonial entertainment.


Pr ui t t - Ig o e, Sa i n t Lo u i s

A rendering of the future Saint Denis Pleyel Station by Kengo Kuma is an image of architectural representation as an advertisement of power. The Grand Paris project states that the new generation of stations will be “welcoming, accessible, and safe,” as said by the Société du Grand Paris, insinuating that these neighborhoods, outside of the city center and home to a majority of people of color, are in need of correction. The project utilizes methods of gentrification in order to “clean up” these “dangerous” communities. Historically and in contemporary times, neighborhoods such as Saint Denis were labeled and understood as spaces in need of surveillance and security both at a social understanding as well as implemented through policies

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While the United States holds a prominent history regarding racial segregation, France utilizes the method of separation through the dreams of assimilation and conformance. As seen with Pruitt—Igoe, the “Othered” are categorized in compartmentalized spaces: one on top of another and side to side. While this can also be seen within France’s grands ensembles buildings, a strong method of control by the nation is to disassemble the physical and conceptual idea of “community” within stigmatized groups. Consequently, those who are “Othered” are separated through forms of architecture, planning, and gentrification in order to dismantle the possible power of assembly. This can be seen systemically through the execution of the Grand Paris Express. In the United States, there is a romanticized and racialized idea of the suburbs as “safe” and “white,”

while the Parisian attitude towards the suburbs, banlieues, is one of pronounced judgment since the periphery is home to over eight thousand people,4 many identifying as Roma, refugees, or immigrants, usually holding lower statuses of wealth and economy.

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PART III : Standardization and Its Adherence : Assimilation and Correcting


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by the government. During 1989, security plans were put in place to further “secure” the transportation systems outside of Paris to control the spaces which held the “Othered’’ residing within the banlieues. Similarly, heightened security was put in place within Saint Denis on the regional buses and were only in effect while the vehicles were running within the city, not before or after, directly labeling the region as threatening.5

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The racial undertones in designing and labeling, or plaguing, these environments in order to control can be seen in the architectural typologies themselves. With the Grand Paris Project came new rail lines as well as increased development all over the region. A photograph of a 2018 poster advertisement in the banlieue of La Courneuve describes and illustrates the future housing projects in the neighborhood, which are designed quickly and efficiently with very minimal ornament. The scale of these new buildings are minuscule when compared to the

large communal blocks of Cité 4000, controversial housing projects designed between the 1950s and the 1970s. A translation to the board states: “La Courneuve Transforming the 4000 West. Here, welcome the new beautiful homes.” Not only is the language infantile, which is directed to the majority immigrant community of La Courneuve, but the architecture is also generic. The housing attempts to divide and break down, physically in size and space, communities in order to assimilate through separation, resulting in the surveillance of dwellers to create a more integrated vision of Paris. At the outskirts, the peripherique, the plans are to erase the slums—a space where the “Othered” are depicted as criminals in extreme urban poverty— completely and replace them with private developments. Henri Shah, social anthropology academic, states, “The neighborhood junkyard, the primary workplace for many male residents, will be turned into a five-story building with terraces

Sai nt Deni s Ple ye l S t at i o n by K e n g o Ku m a


overlooking Paris from three-bedroom apartments running up to 400,000 euros.” The Grand Paris Project uses a systemic approach to take advantage of oppressed groups in order to further erase them. The project is unequal in its support of people, using the expansion of technology to partition people and promote the idea of plague to mechanize power through discipline. PART III : The Resistance of Standardization

patriarchal profession and world, has been given less focus on the social housing project of Ivry-sur-Seine. She, though, was an instrumental leader in the project as well as the urban renewal of the banlieue. The municipal architect Roland Dubrulle of Ivry— sur—Seine passed on the role as Chief Architect of the municipality in 1969 to Gailhoustet. The social project is a derivative of the compact Soviet block typology while also formally critiquing the rigidity of French urban planning. The design of Ivry—sur—Seine disrupts the Parisian Haussmann planning of the city while also involving the public spaces of the site. Unlike previous case studies such as Pruitt—Igoe, which isolates and alienates itself from the fabric of the city, or Unite D’Habitation, which confines its dwellers within the barrier of the block and lot, the project by Renaudie and Gailhoustet creates its own identity spatially by creating

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The Jeanne Hachette Complex at Ivry-sur-Seine is a social housing project by Jean Renaudie (1925— 1981) and Reneé Gailhoustet (1929— ); the complex houses forty units and stands nine stories tall with included programming of civic spaces, retail, offices, cinemas, and parking.6 Jean Renaudie was a Marxist member of the French Communist Party during his life. As an architect he considered greatly how to design spaces which gave dignity toward a collective, specifically within housing projects.6 He did not identify with the grands ensembles of Paris—massive and mechanical structures attempting to be utopic and spectacular—which maintain design that is modular and compartmentalized. Renaudie instead designed an architecture of “uniqueness” for each inhabitant. Reneé Gailhoustet is an architect and planner who, in the realm of a

Je an n e H achette C om ple x

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“Renaudie considered that urban life could not be activated unilaterally by urban planning unless an act of citizen appropriation also took place.”6


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Jeanne H achett e C o m pl e x space for those living in the dwellings, while also integrating the urban fabric beyond the site and physical lot. The design expands relationships and context, allowing for spontaneous interactions and involvement with city dwellers. Each space is not over— planned, rather agency is given to those who utilize the spaces. The proximity to greenery and terracing—which came as a result of designing each apartment as two stories, doubling the amount of green space possible6—adds to the care of both experience and health to those who live in the complex. The overlapping of space further unites the community: “my terrace, in front of my house, over your’s.”6 This sentiment is an elaborate imagining of space for both the individual as well as the larger collective within the complex.

Each dwelling is a part of the whole project, affecting each other, just as the complex affects the public areas beyond the plot, and so on. The architecture creates a relationship, activating space and involving the citizens. The Jeanne Hachette Complex gives agency to the user through the resistance of standardization. The integration with the urban fabric, while upholding the ideals of the commune, avoids the presentation of the housing project as a spectacle, or a plague, to be segregated. From the integrated public spaces at the street level there is no grand stage. The complexity in the form does not allow for a panoptic viewing or singular narrative to the story of the spaces. The architecture by Gailhoustet and Renaudie is truly dignified with its critique of standardization through the intricate spatial design, intentional relationality to the urban fabric, and open identity for the intimate interior spaces for each unique user.


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References: A+T Research Group.. 10 Stories of Collective Housing: A Graphical Analysis of Inspiring Masterpieces. A+T Architecture Publishers. Vitoria-Gasteiz. Spain. 2013. Benge, Joe. “Street View: A Corrective to the city from above in the Pruitt-Igoe Myth.” Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies (Volume 3) Publisher: Berghahn Books, Inc. Article. 22 June 2013. Enright, Theresa Erin. “Mass Transportation in the Neoliberal City: The Mobilizing Myths of the Grand Paris Express.” Environment And Planning A 45.4 (2013): 797-813. Web. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sherdian, London:Penguin, 1978. “Ruler.” Etymonline. Douglas Harper. 13 August 2020. Henni, Samia, “Colonial Ramifications”, at e-flux architecture <https://www.eflux.com/architecture/history-theory/225180/colonial-ramifications/>, 2017 Scalbert, Irénée. A Right to Difference: The Architecture of Jean Renaudie. AA Publications, 2004. Shah, Henri. “Whose Grand Paris? Roma Exclusion and Urban Expansion in Fortress Europe.” The Funambulist Magazine: Proletarian Fortresses. April 2018 Tuppen, John; Ehrilich, Blake. “Marseille.” Encyclopedia Britannica,inc. 2 November 2017.

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Jeanne H achet t e Fl o o r pl an s


THE CARE BY DOMESTIC LABORERS AND THE CARE TO DOMESTIC LABORERS IN TAIWAN RUN LIN

The Care BY Domestic Labors / Helper & The Care TO Domestic Labors / Helper in Taiwan

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In 1992, Taiwan officially opened up its domestic labor market to immigrants. Domestic labors help with house chores, care taking of the disables and elders. By 2010, the number of foreign domestic labors in Taiwan had risen to around 350,000. The major reasons of the risen number of domestic labors were the economic transition in Taiwan and the aging population due to healthcare advancement. From the 1970s, Taiwan has gradually transformed from an agricultural to industrial society. That leads to a big problem of elderly care. A lot of the elders were left home alone while the young ones went to work. Therefore, they started hiring domestic workers to help taking care of the elders. In terms of nationality, these immigrants mostly arrived from Indonesia (41.2%), the Philippines (19.5%), Thailand (16.9%), and Vietnam (22.5%). Tari is an Indonesian domestic labor who works in Taiwan. They are helping a family with 3-5 members (the two brothers spent most of the time in different countries). Mainly, they are helping the 75-year-old grandma to most of the cleaning such as keeping the floor, windows, bathroom clean, doing laundry, etc. She does housework while her son and daughter-in-law are at work. Prior to the interview, it was hard for me to ask Mr. Lin for the opportunity to talk to Tari. However, after explaining to Mr. Lin the purpose of this interview, he understood it and allowed me to interview Tari. I did the interview with Tari. Tari does not speak any local languages in Taiwan (Mandarin, Taiwanese, English). Since my family invited Tari in our house, it

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Reporter: Run Lin, aged 20 Nationality: Taiwanese Experience: lived in Taiwan until the age of 16th, currently living in the U.S Interviewee: Dwi Vergiyanti Lestari (they go by Tari), from Indonesia, has been working as a domestic worker in Taiwan for about 5 years, and working for the Lin’s family about 2 years. Relationship with the interviewee: My father, Mr. Lin, is Tari’s employer.


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has been a constant challenge for both Tari and the employers. My parents, my brother and I are always nice and patient during the communication with Tari, however, my grandma yells at Tari often when my grandma loses her patience. Therefore, with the help of Google Translate, I tried my best to communicate with her through video chatting and text messaging at the same time. Mr. Lin wanted to be in the same space with Tari during the interview. However, I suggested Mr. Lin to have Tari being in a private space alone during the interview, it would make Tari feel more comfortable during the process. Due to the language barrier, it went much longer than anticipated. The duration of the conversation was 1 hour and 42 minutes. As you can see, communication is extremely hard without knowing our languages. Lastly, I would like to inform my readers that Tari might not be honest with some of the questions. It is not likely for Tari to open up to the son of Tari’s employer. Also, due to the challenge of translation between our languages, this interview cannot be seen as an accurate depiction of her voice, and the given questions were simplified. The content of the interview was documented into two versions. The first version is the Indonesian version which is original. The second version is translated into English.

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Wo rk by R un Li n


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Run Lin: Halo. Ini adalah proyek sekola. Saya ingin mewawancarai pekerja rumah tangga dari Indonesia. Anda dapat menjawab saya dalam Bahasa Indonesia dengan mengetik di telepon. Ini adalah percakapan biasa, silakan santai! Berada di negara asing bisa sulit. Tolong beritahu saya pengalaman Anda di Taiwan. Pengalaman baik dan buruk. Dwi Vergiyanti Lestari (Tari): baik! Run: Kapan kamu meninggalkan indonesia untuk bekerja di luar negeri? Tari: Bulan Mei 2018, saya meninggalkan Indonesia. Run: Bagaimana kehidupan di Indonesia? Apa yang Anda suka dan tidak suka? Tari: Kehidupan di Indonesia sangat baik. Yang saya sukai adalah saya bisa mendapatkan banyak teman, dan yang saya tidak suka mencari pekerjaan adalah sangat sulit. Jadi, ada banyak orang Indonesia yang tidak bekerja. Run: Mencari pekerjaan di Indonesia itu sulit kan? me? Apakah kamu punya teman di taiwan atau kamu punya teman baru di sini? Tari: Iya sangat sulit,banyak warga Indonesia yang mencari pekerjaan ke luar negeri. Iya saya punya teman di Taiwan yang bareng sama saya.sya tidak punya teman baru disini. Run: Seberapa sering Anda menjalani sehari tanpa bekerja di Taiwan? Tari: Tidak sebulan sekali,tidak juga 2 bulan sekali,tidak juga 3 bulan sekali. jadi selama saya ditaiwan saya belum pernah berlibur. Run: Berapa lama kamu bekerja sehari? dari kapan ke kapan? Tari: Dari pagi hingga malam, dari 6 hingga 9 jam. me: Apakah Anda ingin memiliki lebih banyak liburan setiap bulan? Tari: Tidak, saya tidak ingin mengambil cuti hanya sebulan sekali. Tari: Karena jika saya mengambil cuti, saya tidak bisa mendapatkan uang. lebih baik uang yang saya dapat bisa diselamatkan. Saya akan kembali ke Indonesia nanti. Run: Bagaimana perasaan Anda tentang bekerja untuk keluarga ini? Tari: Perasaan saya sangat senang. Run: Jujur? Tari: Iya saya jujur me: Adakah yang tidak Anda sukai dari bekerja di sini? yang kamu harap bisa diubah? Tari: Tidak ada yang diubah Run: Anda berharap kerja dari 6-9 bisa lebih pendek? Tari: Tidak, saya lebih suka bekerja lebih lama untuk menghasilkan lebih banyak uang. Run: Kapan kamu berencana untuk kembali ke indonesia? Berapa tahun lagi? Tari: Saya berencana kembali ke Indonesia 2 tahun lagi. Run: Apakah Anda memiliki anggota keluarga di indonesia? Tari: Iya saya memiliki anggota keluarga di Indonesia Run: ibu? Tari: Bukan ibu, kakak saya dan tante saya. Run: Kakak perempuan? Berapa umur. Tari: Kakak perempuan saya berumur 36 tahun. Ibu dan ayah saya sudah meninggal.


Run: Berapakah umur Anda? Maaf jika ini tidak sopan. Tari: Saya berumur 30 tahun. Run: Bagaimana cara mengeja nama lengkap Anda? Tari: Dwi Vergiyanti lestari Run: Tari? Tari: Iya boleh panggil dwi tidak apa-apa,panggil tari juga tidak masalah. Run: Bagaimana perasaan Anda bekerja di suatu negara tetapi tidak mengetahui bahasa yang kita gunakan? Tari: Perasaan saya bekerja di suatu negara sangat senang,komunikasi saja yang sangat sulit. Run: Apakah kamu merasa bahagia. Tari: Perasaan saya bahagia. Run: Tari, terima kasih atas bantuan untuk keluarga saya. Kami semua sangat menyukaimu! Terima kasih untuk percakapannya! :) Tari: Oke sama -sama. CARE 85 DATUM

Wo rk by R un Li n


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Run: Hello! me: This is a school project. me: I want to interview about domestic workers from Indonesia. You can answer me in Indonesian by typing on the phone. This is a casual conversation, please relax! Being in a foreign country can be difficult. Please tell me your experience in Taiwan. Both good and bad experiences. Tari: No problem! Run: When did you leave Indonesia to work abroad? Tari: In May 2018, I left Indonesia. Run: How is life in Indonesia? What do you like and do not like? Tari: Life in Indonesia is very good. What I like is that I can be with all my friends, and what I don’t like is to look for a job. It is very difficult. There are many Indonesians who cannot find a job. Run: Looking for jobs in Indonesia is difficult right? Do you have friends in Taiwan or do you have new friends here? Tari: Yes, it is very difficult, many Indonesians are looking for work abroad. Yes, I have a friend from Indonesia who is with me. I don’t have any new friends here. Run: How often do you have a day-off working in Taiwan? Tari: Not once a month, not once every two months, not even once every three months. Run: How long do you work a day? From when to when? Tari: I work from morning to night, from 6am to 9pm. Run: Do you want to have more time off every month? Tari: No, I don’t want to take time off every a month. Because if I take time off, I cannot earn money. It’s better for me to save as much money now so I am able to return to Indonesia sooner. Run: How do you feel about working for this family? Tari: I feel very happy. Run: Are you honest? Tari: Yes, I’m honest Run: Is there anything you don’t like working here? Or is there anything you hope to be changed? Tari: Nothing has to be changed. Run: Do you expect work from 6am-9pm to be shorter? Tari: No, I prefer to work longer hours to make more money. Run: When do you plan to return to Indonesia? How many years left? Tari: I plan to return to Indonesia in 2 years. Run: Do you have family members in Indonesia? Tari: Yes, I have family members in Indonesia. Run: parents? Tari: Not my parents, my sister and my aunt. Run: Older sister? How old are they? Tari: My sister is 36 years old. My mother and father are dead. Run: How old are you? Sorry if this is not polite. Tari: I am 30 years old.


Run: How do you spell your full name? Tari: Dwi Vergiyanti Lestari Run: Tari? Tari: Yes, you can call me Lestari. But Tari is better. Run: How do you feel working in a country but don’t know the language people speak? Tari: I feel very lucky to be able to work here, however, communication is very difficult. Run: Do you feel happy. Tari: I feel happy. Run: Tari, thank you for the help for my family. We all like you very much! Thank you for the conversation! :) Tari: Okay, you’re welcome. -

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Wo rk by R un Li n


PANDEMIC FIELD NOTES JACOB GASPER

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* Sel ec t ed fo r pu bl i cat i o n an d pre se n t at i o n at t he AC A DIA 2020 Distributed Prox i mi t i es

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COVID-19: THE AGE OF ZOOM

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On Sunday, March 8th, 2020, the first three presumptive cases of Coronavirus were found in the state of Iowa. Today, as I write, there are a total of 38,724 confirmed cases in Iowa, and more than 143,000 deaths in the United States of America. 143,000 bodies, those of our own species, with flesh, bones and blood, many of them working on the front lines, who died fighting against an unknown infectious respiratory illness. To comment on the political drama and the naĂŻve performance of those participating in it, is beyond our mental capacity. How do we process the world around us, when the constantly increasing numbers have stopped sensitizing us? As a group of students, limited to our laptop screens and navigating the anxiety and fear of the unseen and unknown, we started to ask questions. How do we as a group of designers and architects process? How can we connect socially, participate in our community and feel supported? Datum decided to create group collages online, where we all come up with graphics to make communal artwork. The collage on the next page is a work that represents our collective effort in coming together, while we are apart. The collage is not just an artwork but represents our need for each other, and art that is fundamentally joining us. The final product you see shows the joy of creating something together and is an act of CARE. You, whoever you are, wherever you are reading this, we hope you are safe, supported and Loved. Please wear a mask and show that you CARE!


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Work by the Datum C ollec tiv e


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SP E C I A L THA N KS DATUM is a medium for critical academic discourse through the exchange of bold design and progressive ideas. As a student-run publication, we are grateful to the Iowa State Student Organizations for their continual support. We would also like to thank previous donors for providing the funds to get us to where we are today. Donors have no influence on, or involvement with the work selected for the publication.


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