A research proposal on race, ethnicity and residential architecture in the United States of America Edward L Ryerson Fellowship In Architecture | 2018 Illinois School of Architecture
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If we could point out one similarity between an extremely underdeveloped country and one developed country that would be, the racial ethnical cultural diversity that each encompasses within its boundaries. Yet, both remain unexplored in terms of the impact of these diverse groups of people on architecture. Therefore, as two graduate students from Sudan, one of the most diverse countries in Africa with more than thousand different tribes and ethnic groups, we are proposing to explore one of the most diverse countries in the world. Throughout the United States of America, ethnicity is more than a historical phenomena, it constructs a vital part that forms social customs and cultures of different communities. Contextualized Architecture is a proposal to study the impact of the great ethnic diversity on the residential architecture in the United States of America. We believe that ethnic architecture is more than the folk architecture built by immigrant groups, ethnic or cultural groups. It can have a broader definition to include how is the built architecture can be defined by patterns of users. How are these minorities of different backgrounds are able to transform the urban environment or even small spaces to fit their own needs and respond to their own customs and cultural values. Here differences are placed between a Native American home, an African-American home, a Chines-American family home, a muslim Pakistani-american home, a white-mormon home, a Swedish-american family home and so forth. We are planning a road trip starting from New York city taking the I-80 route heading west to San Francisco and then North to Seattle. Our selection of eleven cities is based on a research of racial demographics within these cities along with searching the small towns that would lead to these cities.
Mahdi Saeed and Solara Saad
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7. Santa Fe, NM [Native American, Spanish, and Strong Hispanic communities]
1. New York City, NY [African-American, Irish, Italian, Liberian, Philippines, Chinese, Yemeni, Syrian, Palestinian and other communities]
8. Navajo, UT [Native American community] 9. Los Angeles, CA [Native-American, Ethiopian, Japanese, Armenian, Arabian, Turkish, Bangladeshi, Thai, Afghani, Caribbean and Strong Hispanic communities] 10. San Francisco, CA [Japanese, Russian, Serbian, Kurdish, Strong Asian communities] 11. Seattle, WA [Vietnamese, Afghani, Scandinavian, Australian and Pacific Islanders]
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2. Columbus, OH [Irish-German Community]
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3. Detroit, MI [Iraqi, French-Canadian, Greek, Irish, NativeAmericans and Strong African-American community] 4. Chicago, IL [African-American, Hispanic, Polish, Italian, Swedish, Greek, Ukrainian, Persian, Korean, Indians, Pakistani, and other communities] 5. St. Louis, MO [Strong African-American community] 6. Osage, OK [Native American community]
Mahdi Saeed and Solara Saad
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Our idea is to simply reflect on what a home is. We are planning to study different types of houses and or housing projects to produce an exhibition as a series of: 1. Sketches analyzing the context of where a home is placed within various ethnic communities, enclaves and etc. 2. Photographs, showing the impact of different cultures on a single space that will be selected based on further research. For example, if we decide to select the kitchen and dinning room, we will study and photograph how different cultures use kitchen and plan their dinning spaces in different ways. 3. Monochrome silhouette symbols exploring different possibilities of what a multicultural home can be further than the typical triangle over a square symbol. Mahdi Saeed and Solara Saad
itinerary June 30
Urbana, Illinois
June 30
New York city, New York
July 5
Columbus, Ohio
July 6
Detroit, Michigan
July 9
Chicago, Illinois
July 13
St. Louis, Illinois
July 16
Osage Reservation, Oklahoma
July 17
Santa Fe, New Mexico
July 20
Navajo, Utal
July 22
Los Angeles, California
July 26
San Francisco, California
July 30
Seattle, Washington
Aug 5
Urbana, Illinois
[One way flights from Champaign, IL to New York, NY] + Car Rental
Gas estimates are according to
[One way flights from Seattle, WA to Champaign, IL]
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Risks and Challenges: We have talked to several professors about this proposal and asked for their advice. Racial profiling seems to be one risk to keep in mind. During our research we made sure to choose a variety of housing options both in good and poor neighborhoods yet keeping safety in selecting all of the places. Resources: - America’s Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups that Built America (Building Watchers Series) 1st by Dell Upton. - Ethnic America by Thomas Sowell - Estimating Flight Tickets: American A i r l i n e h t t p s : / / w w w. a a . c o m / homePage.do - Estimating Car Rental: Enterprise RentA-Car rates and reservations https:// www.enterprise.com/en/home.html - Estimating Gas prices from the official U.S government source for fuel economy information https:// www.fueleconomy.gov/trip/ - Estimating lodging: Hotels, Airbnb and Cabins for rent. Mahdi Saeed and Solara Saad
Samples from previous photography projects:
Nairobi: Urbanism Between Christianity And Islam | June 2015, Kenya
Dubai: A city with an Identity Crisis | Jan 2016, U.A.E Page !5 of !6
Illegal Photography of Bajraweya: The forgotten faces and places | May 2016, Sudan
We believe one of the purposes of successful architecture is to solve problems creatively. Solutions are the development of ideas that are formed of different aspects. One of these driven aspects is Culture. Diverse cultures create diverse solutions and diverse communities. Hence, diverse Architecture. The United States of America is one of the biggest diverse communities in the world and we can not wait to explore the resulted diverse architecture. We are aiming to thoroughly understand how different backgrounds shape the residential architecture and the built environment. We want to explore how common persons find solutions to adapt their needs with no previous structured knowledge of architecture. This is how we learn and this is how we develop as architects. It will change the way we perceive spatial problems and it will assist towards developing our own diverse communities in our country.
Thank you Mahdi Saeed and Solara Saad
Mahdi Saeed and Solara Saad
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