Beyond Multiculturalism by patricia_kusumadjaja

BEYOND MULTICULTURALISM REVITALIZING B U F O R D H I G H W A Y FOR A PROMISING FUTURE

Beyond Multiculturalism This Final Project is presented to The Faculty of the School of Architecture by Patricia Kusumadjaja In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Architecture Southern Polytechnic State University, Marietta, Georgia Spring Semester 2015

Department of Architecture School of Architecture and Construction Management Southern Polytechnic State University Patricia Kusumadjaja Beyond Multiculturalism Thesis Summary:

Student Signature ________________________________Date___________

Approved by: Internal Advisor 1 ________________________________Date___________ Professor Elizabeth Martin-Malikian Internal Advisor 2 ________________________________Date___________ Professor Michael Carroll Internal Advisor 2 ________________________________Date___________ Dr. Garett Smith

Thesis Coordinator ________________________________Date___________ Professor Elizabeth Martin-Malikian

This thesis study is dedicated to those who were brave enough to leave their comfort zones in search of the possibility of a better future. In the words of Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter series, “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”

Section I: Theorem Chapter 1.0 Design Theorem 1.1. Design Hypothesis 1.2. Relevance of the Design Hypothesis in Literature: Case Studies 1 2 3 4

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1.3. Proposed Project Nature, Context and Rationale 1.4. Underlying Principles of the Design Hypothesis to the Proposed Project [or Type]

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1.5. Relevance of the Precedent Analysis to the Proposed Project 1 2 3

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Chapter 2.0 Design Analysis

C O N T E N T S Section II: Practicum Chapter 3.0 Design Process

2.1. Site Context 2.1.1. Site Selection and Significance to the Proposed Project 2.1.2. Documentation of Existing Site Conditions 2.1.3. Topological Survey(s) and Applicable Zoning 2.1.4. Geographical, Natural and Historical Patterns 2.1.5. Physical and Socio-spatial Patterns 2.1.6. Pedestrian and Vehicular Patterns and Connections 2.1.7: Site Potentials and Constraints to the Proposed Project

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2.2. Site Analysis 2.2.1. Site Plan: Physical Character Studies 2.2.2. Contextual Analysis 2.2.3. Figure-Ground Relationship and Usage Patterns 2.2.4. Boundaries, Connections, Relations and Emerging Patterns

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2.3: Program and Spatial Explorations 2.3.1. Spatial Program Organization and Specific Space Sizes 2.3.2. Spatial Adjacencies, Connections, Constraints and Juxtapositions 2.3.4. Spatial Patterns relative to Site and its Context 2.3.5. Spatial Explorations and Three dimensional Consequences

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3.1. Site: Context and Contextuality 3.2. Program: Space and Spatiality 3.3. Sustainable Strategies: Materials and Materiality 3.4. Environmental Systems: Technique and Tectonics 3.5. Systems Integration: Skin & Bones and Service Core 3.6. Comprehensive Design Integration Chapter 4.0 Design Synthesis 4.1. Preliminary Documentation 4.2 Final Documentation

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Chapter 5.0 Critical Response to Design Theorem 5.1 Reflections by Student/Author 5.2 Summary

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Bibliography

Appendices

TABLES

FIGURES

chapter 1

design theorem

1.1 design hypothesis

1.1 D E S I G N

H Y P OT H E S I S

After a thorough exploration of the site, Buford Highway, this thesis will attempt

to create a mixed-use program to revitalize the underperforming areas or blocks of the site. The program will consist of low-income, multi-generational housing to shelter the undocumented, low-income families or groups of workers. The secondary and tertiary program can potentially include retail shops, a child-care service, and leisure public spaces for the community to congregate.

Today, social housing is focused on providing shelter, not necessarily to rehabilitate or to celebrate the values of a community. The imagery that social housing generates is negative, associated with words such as “ghetto” and “dangerous.” We forget that the intention of social housing is to create a healthy environment for people to live, to restore/create community value(s) and maintain it, and to do as such in a cost-effective manner.

In our society today, there is a stigma associated with the phrases low-income housing and undocumented migrant workers. Ironically, communal/social housing thrived and promoted the welfare of the community in the late 1910s -1930s to address the need for housing in a shattered Germany post World War I. Single women with father-less children as well as wounded soldiers were rehabilitated and housed in these Siedlungs, intended to restore the value of the community.

The negative image of social housing reflects upon its inhabitants, which in turn, creates a barrier that casts them out of society. The city sees this community as troublesome, the public sees them as dangerous, and investors see them as unappealing. As a result, there is a lack of economical and social growth within the community.

This thesis will research ways to change the negative, false image of social housing into a positive, true image. Specifically to the site, how can the rich, multi-cultural identity of Buford Highway reveal an accurate image of its hard-working, family-oriented residents? Using multiculturalism as a catalyst, my thesis will find ways to celebrate the underrated Buford Highway and to create a healthy environment for its residents.

chapter one: design theorem

n our ever-connected world today, migration is nothing new. Metropolitan cities continue to grow and migration is one of the main causes of that phenomenon. In the case of Atlanta, the same situation occurs. However, there is an outlier to the equation as it pertains to Atlantaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s migrant population. Located just northeast of the city, lies Buford Highway.

1.2 relevance of design hypothesis in literature: case studies

1.2 Literary Case Study 01.: Urban Geographies of Multiculturalism by Armando Montilla, Clemson University

Multiculturalism is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “of, relating to, reflecting, or adapted to diverse cultures” and by Encyclopedia Britannica as “the principle of not only tolerating but also respecting different religions and cultures and encouraging them to coexist harmoniously.” Colin Rowe’s formal logic dictates that “fragmentation, and collision, of diverse ideas are imposed by successive generations, each with its own idea of the city” explains the meaning of multiculturalism. The amalgamation of different cultures and the attempt of homogenizing them into the urban landscape to create a union of global culture, however, is a conundrum. Urban migration contributes to the creation of ethnospace, although it does not necessarily cause ethnospace. Urban migration also contributes in the creation of ethnic enclaves – a major portion of the origin of urban history. From 15th century European Jewish Ghettos to Moroccan Mellahs, ethnic enclaves can be perceived as the patches of urban space where foreigners or migrants “flock” to create a community where cultural identity is not compromised regardless of physical site. Can a society be classified as multi-cultural and globalized simultaneously? Contradictorily, visual examples of multiculturalism, such as signage on streets in other foreign languages, fusions of different ethnic foods and music, suppress the actual reality of multiculturalism and its origin. The hardships of migration, the human needs of establishing a sense of community (which has to exist in order for the kaleidoscope of fusions to exist), are hidden. As a result of these hidden aspects of multiculturalism, ethnospace manifests. Ethnospace, characterized by “transnational dynamics and fluid occupancy with the capacity for rapid change to the urban landscape,” occupies and re-appropriates the leftover urban spaces, which later results in overcrowding in dwelling units.

chapter one: design theorem

1.2 Literary Case Study 02.: Geographies of identity: multiculturalism unplugged by Katharyne Mitchell, University of Washington

“...multiculturalism as the philosophy and policies related to a particular mode of immigrant incorporation as well as to the rights of minority groups in society to state recognition and protection. Multiculturalism in this sense is not just about inclusion, nor is it merely an acceptance of difference; rather it actively ‘achieves’ diversity, it ‘expands the range of imagined life experiences for the members of society’s core groups’ (Alexander, 2001: 246; for a discussion of the role of citizenship in this, see also Kymlicka, 2003a).” Katharyne Mitchell discusses the process of assimilation of migrants and questions it’s borderline nationalistic approach. She claims that assimilation today forces migrants to lose their sense of identities and trade them for new ones. Differences brought upon by migrants, such as differences in language, is often looked down by citizens, in the sense of personal encounters, academically, and politically. The push of assimilation is continually increasing from society, through governmental policies and the end of certain programs which retreats “state-sponsored multiculturalism,” such as the end of the closing of “remedial” programs by state universities in states such as New York and Tennessee (programs such as ESL, which acknowledges and embraces differences in students). While many of these movements made by states are not necessarily required, there is still the invisible result of individuals being excluded from society for not participating in civic life, which entails this retreat from state-sponsored multicultural programs.

1.2 relevance of design hypothesis in literature: case studies

1.2 Literary Case Study 03.: “Invisible Child”

by Andrea Elliot, New York Times, 2013

“One in five American children is now living in poverty . . . Decades of research have shown the staggering social costs of children in poverty. They grow up with less education and lower earning power. They are more likely to have drug addiction, psychological trauma and disease, or wind up in prison . . . While nearly one-third of New York’s homeless children are supported by a working adult” Andrea Elliott’s narrative of an 11-year-old girl named Dasani and her family exposes the harsh reality of overcrowding, homelessness, substance abuse, and the result of that combination in the upbringing of children. The run-down shelter where government agencies placed Dasani’s family caused severe health, monetary, and psychological issues. The shelter, Auburn Family Residence, is located in Brooklyn, a few blocks away from glass skyscrapers where penthouses sold for millions of dollars. Although the circumstances of Dasani’s living situation is not caused by migration, the effects of her family’s poverty are similar to the effects of the impoverished state of many immigrants ‘living situation. It appears as a vicious cycle, when a parent fails to provide the basic needs of living (food, shelter, clothing); the children tend to be more at-risk to fall into the same issues of homelessness, health issues, and/or substance abuse, among many others.

chapter one: design theorem

1.2 Literary Case Study 04.: The Migrant Image by TJ Demos

TJ Demos uses Agamben’s theory of “bare life” — those “stripped of political identity and exposed to the state’s unmediated application of power” — as a thematic point in The Migrant Image, which studies the artistic representations of migration and refuge. Demos’s artists of interest are not necessarily well-known and neither are the sites glamorous; rather he chooses the nomad, the exile, the displaced, the occupied areas., where the concept of “bare life” (meaning to exist only biologically without a political tie) is critically explored and engages the audience in developing his/her own position of “bare life” and the concept of migration during global crisis itself. Demos identifies a that today’s migrants are seen by neo-liberals as “the useful and adaptable worker” and by humanitarians as subjects of “paternalistic interventionism.” This is not necessarily the case, as Demos argues. Demos introduces, through critical analysis of photographs, films, documentaries, and other mediums of art, the possibilities of social justice, historical and environmental consciousness, and equality amongst the human race. His three points of departure subsequently becomes the three parts of the book, questioning the process of inventing a new artistic strategy of portraying mobility and mobilizing the portrayals, the possibility of representing life that has been cut off political representation, such as when photographing people whose rights of citizenship have been denied and therefore is losing national identity, and lastly, the connection that the creative configuration of art with politics, which makes up “an oppositional force directed against the disenfranchising division of human life from political identity, which defines the status of refuge” (Demos).

1.2 relevance of design hypothesis in literature: case studies

1.2 Literary Case Study 05.: The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall

Proxemics, meaning the study of space and how we, as humans use it, and how the variation in usages can generate certain feelings - is coined by Edward T. Hall in The Hidden Dimension. Hall states early that the theme of the book was “social and personal space and man’s perception of it” (Hall 1). Beginning with language and communication as the building blocks of culture, Hall stresses that communication makes up the hearth of culture and of life itself, and that language, in and of itself, is merely a systematic tool for the formulation and expression of thought, and the spoken is a symbol of a sensory world. Differences in languages brings upon selective screening, which is the acceptance and/or filtration of data as perceived by a person. This acceptance and filtration depends largely on language and the culture in which one has been raised, creating a sense of experience. Since people are made of different cultures and tongues, experience is not a shared commodity, therefore, experience is not a stable point of reference. Hall furthers his explanation of culture and communication through the analogy of extensions, which distinguishes man as a race from animals. Examples of man’s extension are such as the computer as the extension of the brain and the wheel as the extension of legs and arms, and writing as the extension of thoughts through language. In this sense, then, man shapes his environment and simultaneously, the environment shapes the man, because man builds his environment according to how he wants to live and who he wants to be.

chapter one: design theorem

1.3 proposed project nature, context, and rationale

Taking a cue from TJ Demos’s second point of departure in The Migrant Image, “How is it possible to represent artistically life severed from representation politically, as when it comes to photographing the stateless who are denied the rights of citizenship and the legal protections of national identity?” (Demos XV), the nature, context, and rationale of this project sets out to portray the lost identity of migrants in the area of Buford Highway. In context, the area of Buford Highway is known for its multicultural retail and residents. Outsiders view it as Atlanta’s international corridor, while local government takes pride in said status. To the residents, however, Buford Highway is their settlement, where they can identify with those who also migrated into this country, perhaps even from the same motherland. Buford Highway is ethnospace, a term coined by Armando Montilla to describe space where migrants tend to “flock” to, to create a community that resembles home. Nevertheless, the portrayals of the residents of Buford Highway does not only lie in the mirage of colorful ethnic foods or shops. It also lies in the picture of a young mother pushing a stroller while crossing a six-lane highway. It lies in the picture of men and youths trolling the streets early in the morning in hopes of employment for the day. It lies in the picture of a family of six that is crowded into a two-bedroom apartment. Buford Highway belongs to the shopowners who have settled into the area, yet live outside of Buford Highway after his/her shop has generated enough income. Buford Highway belongs to the local government, who frequently patrols the area to catch illegal immigrants at random. Buford Highway belongs to developers who continues to buy land or vacant buildings only to introduce big box stores into the area. There is no safe, active, and exciting public space in the Buford Highway area for young migrant families. There is little to no job training available for youths, and very few inexpensive day cares or after school program for children in the area. Cheaply built apartments are slowly deterioraring and are costly in terms of utility bills. There is no housing program that promotes healthy and sustainable living that is affordable to the residents. For those reasons, I propose a mix-use program that consists of affordable, smart housing for migrant families surrounded by public spaces for recreation, offices for administrative assistance to the community, and retail shops that are well designed that it helps foster the idea of a sustainable economy and evoke a stronger sense of community.

chapter one: design theorem