in plain sight A study of sex-trafficking in the context of a built, urban environment. American Institute of Architects Seattle Emerging Professionals Travel Scholarship 2019 Proposal by Danielle Barozinsky
personal research I didn’t know studying architecture and community design would lead me to navigating the relationship between our built environment and the sex trade. The journey began with my Masters Thesis project, which I will explain first: In August 2016, I began to look for programs that worked globally to solve social, environmental, health, and economic issues in impoverished communities, primarily through built projects. In the spring of 2017, I was connected with Evan Markiewicz , an architect and the co-founder of Viviendas León, a non-profit organization working in rural communities outside of León, Nicaragua for about 20 years. I expressed my interest in visiting a community for an extended amount of time in order to learn about culture, building techniques, communication, technology, and desires for their community. A year later I was able to visit. The core research for my masters thesis project began with my two-week stay in León, continued with breaking down the interviews and data from Viviendas León given to me throughout this process. This also included the research that followed my trip involving shame, vulnerability, and building community through people and architecture. Little did I know how much the trajectory of my project would change in the course of a few weeks. In January of 2018, I found a woman’s dissertation on the Impacts of Architecture on women in a domestic violence shelter.
Ironically, Florida is the number 3 state in the U.S. for human trafficking, meaning Tampa has a huge sexual exploitation and domestic violence issue. With thousands of people in Tampa and Pinellas County seeking protection and being wait listed to live in a safe shelter, I decided to investigate further into what shelter looks like on Nebraska Avenue. This included weeks of analyzing the urban and domestic characteristics that impact this particular group of women and how security, privacy, and common spaces play a key role during their time of overcoming trauma. Shame, a very human experience, has no demographic. I hope this work will participate in the larger conversation of protecting vulnerable men and women in our community by telling a story influenced by the great efforts of counselors, supporters, non-profits, and educators, and most importantly the victims and survivors. This exploration is just a lens through which we can find ways architecture can save women’s lives. The following pages include a chronological and short version of my project, beginning with my interview with a woman in Goyena, Nicaragua. Her story remained a vital part of the entire project which I believe displays the beautiful impact personal narratives have on our communities and design.
story of the individual MASTERS THESIS Interview with Sylvia Recorded via Voice Memo 8.15.17 Translator: Luclia (VL Staff) Typed by: Danielle
Because Lucila was translating, I typed word-for-word what she said to me, but I’ve separated the responses into quotes and segments between where Lucila was interpreting what Sylvia said and how Lucila translated. What do you like about your community? [She does like the community because here she can find a better way to live. ] “In the city I think it is difficult. I like working in the field, raising pigs and plants, and there is a lot of fruit.” How have the programs changed the way you live? [She just finished third grade, so] “this has enriched my knowledge a lot because I didn’t even finish primary school. They taught me how to improve my life conditions, because we have the training from the family gardens, that way I learned how to make my living through that. Having limited economic resources is not an obstacle for us, through the programs they teach us how to make a living through hard work.”
Sylvia standing with her daughter in front of their home, Goyena, Nicaragua
Sylvia is not a trafficking victim. Her story is important because she is a woman who has been empowered to rise above personal issues caused by intergenerational poverty. Viviendas Leon has been working alongside her as she and her family have grown stronger economically and in relationships. Nicaraguan’s have dealt with extremely aggressive conditions environmentally and politically. Trauma and abuse is a result of inter-generational poverty, which is why it was important to ask Sylvia how her physical and community conditions have improved her life.
What makes your community feel safe or unsafe? “It is safe. I was born here, raised here and I haven’t seen any problems. “ What other places do you feel are safe besides the home? “This is what I enjoy the most, and the place where we get the honey from” [and also when she visits the community center.] What has she enjoyed about the community center? Programs/events? “When they have the trainings” [it’s because of the training].
What do you like most about your home? “My garden. 30 minutes a week” What do you not like about your home? What kind of improvements would you make about your home? “The toilet” (el servicia sanitary) What would make your community better? “Working together” What’s your favorite space in your home? “La salle. It’s a space to rest, and also from there you can see the dining table and you can see the other spaces in the house” How does light in your home make you feel? “It feels good, and it also helps with humidity inside the house.”
What is the most important thing in your home? If you lost everything in your home, besides people, what one thing would you save?
“The water. It’s the most important. “
home, entry, and security MASTERS THESIS Translating my research into the healing process for women who have experienced trauma into a built design includes places of gathering for women to share their experiences as well as places to separate themselves for healthy solitude. Also included are ideas of safety in the heaviness of material choice to provide a sense of stability.
First sketch dealing with entry as a hidden escape for somebody being followed; introduced the idea of having double entries
The models explore framing, security, subtlety, solitude, and perspective. In both models, I considered a double entry into the safe space. That way, if somebody was being followed, the person being followed would know about a safe entrance while the follower may get confused about which door was entered. Design and materiality was kept subtle to emphasize the focus on green spaces when entering into the safe zones.
Sketch model built off of the first sketch including double entry inside.
Sketch models exploring subtlety in the connection of planes, openings of facades, and playing with light.
One of the first ideas of programming space, how interiors circulate around outdoor spaces and how natural light can enter into the spaces
community and healing MASTERS THESIS Once the individual’s needs were understood, three driving concepts were chosen based on their relationship to healing through community. One was the Indian stepped wells. Once primarily used to collect water, they continue to provide a place for gathering, socializing, and meditation in a cooler space amidst a hot climate. In Florida, the pool also creates a similar space for gathering. In this project, water is used to create a space of gathering and nourishment for the women in the shelter. Another was perspective. Perspective creates awareness to place, either physical or environmental.
During the healing process for the women living in the shelter, it is important they are aware of their present state and how far they’ve come. Perspective also draws the eye in a certain direction, which can be used to direct views to gardens, vegetation, or calm waters. Below are a few models created after the collages. It was an opportunity to explore these concepts in a more residential scale of architecture.
The Well: Collage of Indian Stepped Wells, exploring their use of chambers and creating more opportunity to gather.
Water and perspective as a place of gathering and healing
Wall as a fortress
The Perspective: Collage speculating the use of perspective and materiality in Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute
Wall as a source of respite and nourishment
street and neighborhood MASTERS THESIS When it was time to chose a site, I chose a lot on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa. Nebraska Avenue has a reputation for a heavy presence of prostitution, and coincidentally where a few safe homes are nearby. The study included a map of businesses, bus stops, and motels (a likely base for pimps to make money). Photography also helped document the character of the street during the day and night.
project outcome: the architecture of opportunity MASTERS THESIS The final project took into account the personal narratives of women who have struggled with shame related to poverty and sexual exploitation. The power architecture has to heal, the context of the neighborhood and people, and resulted in a safe shelter for 8 women. Throughout my research I’ve learned more about the significance of water and how it’s shaped architecture and community culture in ways that make it stronger. I’ve also learned about the specific ways in which space is used to help women gain self-confidence and skills they had been cut off from before. It’s a home, a shelter, a sanctuary, a place to lay it all down.
in plain sight
topic of investigation “Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery in which someone coerces or deceives another person into commercial sex exploitation for profit. Any child sold for sex is considered a victim of sex trafficking by nature of their age. Simply, it is sexual violence as a business. The nightmare of sex trafficking thrives when law enforcement cannot or does not protect vulnerable children and women.” - International Justice Mission* I am proposing a research project that uses narratives of sex trafficking survivors to create maps that will reveal how a city is experienced through their story.
Original sketches indluenced by narratives involving deception, abandonment, trauma, escape, and rest.
Unfortunately, the US is the largest producer and consumer of child pornography, and the average age for somebody entering into prostitution is 12-14 years old. The Polaris Project and the Human Trafficking Hotline published the largest public data records based on reports in 2017. There were at least 7,255 reports of sex trafficking. Major U.S. cities like Miami, Tampa, New York, L.A, and Seattle become hubs for traffickers because they offer international transportation, hotels, and massive sporting events that attract thousands of people into the city every day, meaning more customers and a higher demand for sex workers. It’s a global issue, it’s corrupt, and it’s hidden in plain sight.
*International Justice Mission Website *The Polaris Project Website
Trafficking requires transportation, for example, private vehicles, rideshare or taxi, buses, RVs, trucks, airplanes, ships, and trains. It happens in ordinary places like hotels, truck stops, massage parlors, online, parks, malls, airports, and homes. It has a very physical connection to our built environment and its commonality of place is what is so mind-boggling to me, my biggest roadblock. I believe there are a few ways to challenge the sex trafficking industry through architecture or community design. As designers continue to advocate for safe neighborhoods or parks, airports or train stops, having this “roadmap” based off of personal experiences in these “hidden/underground” systems could be a major tool in that challenge.
methodS of research
narrative map of the survivor
the under- city for ground protest and street grid prostitution
I’ve realized there are three ways I could address sex trafficking in relationship to the built environment. I believe they are all just as important as the other, and very well would overlap in research. Research in the case of sex trafficking must be very sensitive to the very personal stories from men and women in the trade, before trying to understand any larger picture issue or urban scale, therefore must be conducted with focus primarily on meeting personally with survivors.
How is a city navigated by victims and survivors of sex trafficking?
Where are these hidden networks used by sex traffickers and the safe shelters for survivors?
How are city streets used for or against trafficking?
At the core of this issue are our victims, those who have been deceived into assault and exploitation, and are in need of opportunity to leave. As victims begin to speak out against sex trafficking and abuse globally, we also begin to learn about how common their stories are, and the suffering they experienced. It’s these stories that I believe explore the built environment in a more hidden, unspoken way. How much do we know about our most prostituted streets? Where are these brothels hidden? What areas to people avoid when trying to safely go from work to home to avoid running into a previous pimp? How do women and men perform their work without the risk of being arrested? How does the environment influence pimps to do what they do? Are our streets and routes of transportation allowing people to safely travel?
Where are the safe homes? They’re unmapped, within the confines of homes or motels that blend in with the rest, avoiding risk of danger at their door. They’re like ghost homes. What about the networks in which transportation is used to traffick victims? How does accessibility to major transportation hurt and help victims? Are we activating enough streets in our neighborhoods to keep underage runaways safe at night? There are tons of questions with what I believe can be answered and will also evolve overtime as communities grow and fluctuate.
One of the main issues cities face in regards to sex trafficking is the influx of demand during major sporting events, such as the super bowl, and international events, such as the Olympics or World Cup. It would be interesting to see how streets are used as an opportunity to traffick more men or women during these times where streets are busier, roads are blocked, and hotels are filled.
Once the mental, physical, and emotional effects of sexual exploitation on human beings is better understood, the project can evolve. I explain this evolution in the following paragraphs.
Beginning with the core and human part of this issue will help influence and grow further urban and rural studies.
This type of research I believe is risky to document in terms of the safe shelters, since esentially they are to remain very private,. I remain aprehensive about it, except would be willing to work with organizations if they believed it would be a useful tool.
On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how protests or marches, typicaly events to protect the vulnerable, transform the city. Arch Out Loud held a competition in which students had to fight a societal problem around prostitution and transform a major square in the town of Tenancingo using public landscape and connective media technologies. This approach could be applied or experimented in various US cities during the times where trafficking is at its hightest.
project proposal TRAVEL:
OUTCOME:
Each city is chosen based off of highest rates of sex trafficking, varying urban conditions and culture, differences in law enforement, and accessibility to major transportation or ports. Locations are on the next slide.
The ideal goal is to share the research with people in Seattle, primarily designers of our city, what the built environment looks like through the lens of survivors. This will be done in printed book form, and through an exhibition.
INTERVIEWS: My main interviews will be with survivors of sex trafficking. Each survivor may have a very different understanding of the city grid and the urban fabric. These will become narratives that illustrate how each city is experienced through trafficking. Conducting interviews with other primary resources - designers, law enforcement, and advocates - will heavily influence the physical documentation and mappings, as well. DOCUMENTATION: For each city visited, photos of urban conditions during the day and at night will be collected. Survivors will help me develop maps based off of their relationship with the city, primarily focusing on major routes of transit used to traffick victims, or primary roads for prostitution. Community parks, bus stops, and malls are to be considered as well.
In this age of technology, GIS mapping has been an incredible tool for the health and design fields, and I see potential for these maps becoming a sort of data map to use when addressing the crime of sex trafficking and pimping. I also hope to use my research time to gather sponsors who would host a meal, and essentially host 4 meals during the exhibition period. This would allow me to invite designers, advocates, survivors, and law enforcement of Seattle to share dinner, learn about the findings in other cities, learn from each others experiences, and ultimately begin a new conversation about the opportunity designers have in fighting the sex trafficking industry.
NEW YORK
ATLANTA
stockholm bangkok
TAMPA
Seattle
PROJECT TRAVEL LOCATIONS Locations are chosen based off of variety of city scale, criminal charges for the selling and purchasing of sex labor, international accessibility and transportation, and rates of sex trafficking according to the International Justice Mission and Sex Trafficking Hotline reports.*
NEW YORK
ATLANTA
TAMPA
New York: 206 (5)*
Georgia: 157 (8)*
Florida: 367 (3)*
3 Airports Taxi Bus Train
1 Airport 5+ Port Terminals Taxi Water Taxi
Population: 8.623 million Size: 302.6 square miles
3 Airports 3 Port Terminals Taxi Bus
Subway Rail Tram
Population: 486,290 Size: 134 square miles
Population: 385,430 Size: 175.2 square miles
Streetcar
stockholm bangkok Population: 960,031 Size: 72.6 square miles
Population: 8.21 million Size: 606 square miles
Seattle
1 Airport 3 Port Terminals Buses Underground and Commuter Trains Ferries
2 Airports 1 International Port Terminal Skytrain and Underground Rail Bus and Boat Services Taxi (Cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks)
3 Airports 4+ Port Terminals Taxi Ferries Streetcar
Population: 724,745 Size: 183.78 square miles
Lightrail Monorail Buses
resources and contacts I’ve logged resources who have played a major role in the conversation of fighting sex trafficking, including design firms, law enforcement, and organizations from each city who approaches empowerment through men, women, and children. Survivors will be referred to by the advocates once the project is put into action.
DESIGn + the public
LAW ENFORCEMENT
ADVOCATES + contacts
SURVIVORS
FOSTER + PARTNERS
“I am sitting in the back of an unmarked police car on the small island of Skeppsholmen, to the east of Stockholm’s picturesque old town. Above us is the city’s modern art museum but it’s a dark February night and we’re not here to appreciate culture. “They park up there,” says the detective in the front passenger seat, pointing to a car park at the top of the hill. “We wait a few minutes and then we leap out, run up the hill and pull open the doors.”
SEATTLE: Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST) advocates to help women and men out of the trade Contact: Amanda Hightower
“My story is really about being the girl next door, about still going to school, about all the activities, being a dancer, in the marching band, going to pep rallies,” explained Rose.
NY: Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) empowering women 12-24 who have experienced sexual exploitation
Behind closed doors, Connie Rose was abused by her own father but that was only the beginning of her nightmare. When she was a teenager, Rose’s dad encouraged her to model but really he wanted the pictures so he could show them to potential buyers.
We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking. ARCH OUT LOUD “arch out loud challenged participants to reimagine the town square of tenancingo in mexico in response to the prevalent issues of sex trafficking existing in the area. designers explored the catalytic potentials of architectural intervention, inciting positive change through the introduction of a transformative mediascape.” CSUN URBAN PLANNING “It’s not always what you think it will be,” she said. “We found different results in different areas. In Los Angeles, motel use was the case because the streets were gangmonitored. On Sepulveda Boulevard, we were able to see activity more blatantly.” RESTORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS A campus for trafficked youth in Chiang Rai, Thailand By Kyle Boyd, University of Washington
What happens next is a textbook example of the way Sweden’s law banning the purchase of sex works in practice. The driver of the car, who’s brought a prostituted woman to the island to have sex, is arrested on the spot. He’s given a choice: admit the offence and pay a fine, based on income, or go to court and risk publicity. The woman, who hasn’t broken any law, is offered help from social services if she wants to leave prostitution. Otherwise, she’s allowed to go.” @polblonde Tuesday 26 March 2013 The Independent
ATLANTA: Street Grace fights child sex trafficking TAMPA: CREATED empowers women who have experienced sexual exploitation Contact: Joanna Diebel THAILAND: Nightlight Thailand empowers individuals in the trade to bring opportunity outside of it Contact: Creagon and Joy Muldoon STOCKHOLM: Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) Council of Europe in the field of combating trafficking in human beings
“He would start prostituting me out, basically renting me out by the hour, sometimes by the night,” said Rose. Even though Connie Rose was a victim 40 years ago, she knows what’s happening today because she’s devoted her life to educating others about sex trafficking. She’s actually grateful that the internet and social media weren’t around back in her day because it makes the sex trafficking business that much more accessible to predators. Connie eventually broke free of the sex trafficking chains when she got married right after college. She said years of therapy and self care got her to where she is today. Connie Rose, Tampa, FL
itinerary and budget
TRAVEL AND RESEARCH JULY: SEATTLE > BANKOK BANKOK> SEATTLE FLIGHT: $800 FOOD/HOSTEL PER DAY: $90 8 DAYS: $720 AUGUST: SEATTLE > STOCKHOLM STOCKHOLM > SEATTLE FLIGHT: $850 FOOD/HOSTEL PER DAY: $90 8 DAYS: $720 SEPTEMBER: SEATTLE > TAMPA TAMPA > ATLANTA ATLANTA > NEY YORK CITY NEW YORK CITY > SEATTLE FLIGHT: $550 FOOD: $560
DOCUMENT AND EXHIBITION PRINTED BOOKS: $300 EXHIBITION MATERIALS: $500
TOTAL: $5,000
THE SWEDISH METHOD The Swedish Method is traced to research conducted in Sweden in the 1970s. The following is from an article written by Zeeshan Aleem for the Mic, an online news source. It explains the shift Sweden took in its approach towards the sex trade, and I believe is worth exploring, especially because prostitution is a “taboo” subject in the US.
THE SWEDISH METHOD: CRIMINALIZING THE PURCHASE OF SEX, NOT THE PROSTITUTE WHO SELLS IT NORWAY ICELAND SWEDEN In Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self, Swedish journalist Kasja Ekis Ekman traced the origins of the the law in part to research conducted in Sweden in the 1970s that was guided by a new angle: speaking to sex workers themselves about their lives. The research was groundbreaking in its ambition to move beyond taboo and focus on the actual social dynamics of prostitution. According to a 2014 report by Murphy in Herizons magazine (print only), “Rather than approaching prostitution as an issue of moral deviance, as had been done in the past, researchers, women’s rights activists and social workers shifted the dialogue to focus on social inequality.” One study found that up to 89% of sex workers want to leave the industry but said they didn’t have other options for survival, and that two-thirds fulfill criteria for post-traumatic stress “equal to that of treatment-seeking Vietnam veterans and victims of torture or rape,” as Max Waltman, a PhD candidate at Stockholm University, has noted
WHY is this RELEVANT to aia seattle? According to the 2018 AIA CODE OF ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT Members should uphold the following: E.S. 1.2 Standards of Excellence: Members should continually seek to raise the standards of aesthetic excellence, architectural education, research, training, and practice. E.S. 1.3 Natural and Cultural Heritage: Members should respect and help conserve their natural and cultural heritage while striving to improve the environment and the quality of life within it. E.S. 1.4 Human Rights: Members should uphold human rights in all their professional endeavors. E.S. 1.5 Design for Human Dignity and the Health, Safety, and Welfare of the Public: Members should employ their professional knowledge and skill to design buildings and spaces that will enhance and facilitate human dignity and the health, safety, and welfare of the individual and the public.
Why is this relevant to Seattle? “Washington’s Task Force Against Trafficking of Persons reports our state is a hotbed for the recruitment, transportation and sale of people for labor. The report indicates several factors make Washington prone to human trafficking: International border with Canada Abundance of ports Vast rural areas Dependency on agricultural workers Seattle is part of a trafficking circuit that can include Honolulu, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Portland, Vancouver (Clark County), Yakima and Canada The report also notes that trafficking has occurred in 18 Washington state counties. Victims range from “mail-order” brides to sex workers to domestic workers and children. Local victims have come as far as Russia, the Philippines, China and Mexico. “ *information available through the Washington State Office of the Attorney General website
This project fulfills the commitment AIA members have established to employ knowledge and skill in all design work and uphold human rights throughout professional endeavors in their communities.
CITATIONS https://www.ijm.org/our-work/sex-trafficking/ https://humantraffickinghotline.org/states https://katu.com/news/nation-world/school-bus-campaign-to-raise-awarenessof-child-sex-trafficking https://www.fosterandpartners.com/slavery-and-human-trafficking-statement/ http://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/media-releases/csun-urban-planning-project-takes-on-human-trafficking-in-southern-california/ https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/27356 https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-thegame-s-up-for-swedens-sex-trade-8548854.html https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/story-of-survival-being-sex-traffickedin-tampa/67-484046946 https://iwantrest.com/ https://www.gems-girls.org/ https://www.streetgrace.org/ http://www.createdwomen.com/ https://www.nightlightinternational.com/bangkok/ https://www.coe.int/en/web/anti-human-trafficking https://mic.com/articles/112814/here-s-what-s-happened-in-sweden-16-yearssince-decriminalizing-prostitution#.ny37LbjoX https://www.atg.wa.gov/human-trafficking https://www.aia.org/pages/3296-code-of-ethics-and-professional-conduct ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIELLE BAROZINSKY
Special thanks to my SACD faculty who sought me through 6 years of Architecture School and for the encouragement to work with my community in everything I do. Thank you to everyone at BCJ who sat with me as I thought out my sticky note ideas and has encouraged me in my personal endeavors, especially this project. Mostly, thank you to all of the men and women who have come alongside of me through my research journey in the global fight to bring opportunities to the oppressed. REFERENCES: Robert MacLeod Director of SACD rmacleod@usf.edu (813) 974 - 6015 Taryn Sabia Director of FCCDR tarynsabia@usf.edu (813) 850 - 9736 Josue Robles Faculty of SACD jrobles@usf.edu (813) 334 - 4216 Patreese Martin AIA, LEED AP BD+C Assoc. Principal BCJ pmartin@bcj.com (206) 256 - 0862