In Response: Designing with Vulnerable Populations Seeking or Living in Affordable Housing
My thesis interrogates the affordable housing development process, how ethnographic research methods may be employed to gather pertinent user-centered information, and how to utilize this information to inform design strategies that benefit vulnerable populations. I argue in favor of design as a tool to empower and amplify the voices of its users: residents seeking or living in affordable housing.
Through my thesis, I urge all designers working with vulnerable populations to reevaluate community engagement policies and look to ethnographic research to transform community design from the ground up --both literally and figuratively. Community is not an end product, nor a consideration, it is the raw material from which seeds of invention are planted and can prosper.
Czarecki_Blair_Final (2).mp4How can design alleviate the burdens felt by homeless or inadequately housed individuals?
The Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California, is a unique urban anomaly, home to the highest concentration of youth, seniors, social service agencies, and single room occupancy (SRO’s) within city limits. With 95% of the homes in the Tenderloin being either studios or SRO’s, sidewalks act as an extension of the home and milk crates and suitcases serve as outdoor seating.
My thesis interrogates the affordable housing development process, specifically where, how, and when community engagement should take place within this framework. My research explores how ethnographic methods may be employed to gather pertinent user-centered information, and how this information can be best utilized to inform design strategies that benefit vulnerable populations.
Interiority is an occupant's thoughts, emotions, feelings and reactions to that space
Succinctly quantifying what vulnerable populations need to feel adequately housed and secure is both tedious and predisposed to inaccuracies given limited face-to-face access and the sheer volume of affordable housing inhabitants.
I argue that ethnography can be used to create a new vocabulary that isn't cosmetic, but that is reflective of the community it is intended to serve. There is a clear lack of connection and distinction between how the community understands and relates to what is in popular discourse. A rearticulating of the terms is only possible through a change of hands from developers to community.
Beginning at ground level with a revenue generating space to cover interior construction material costs, and government aided entities to respond to verified community needs, each adaptable floor plan at my site takes advantage of a rental by square foot model that allows families to create their own definition of space/place; to grow and expand, or even downsize without fear of displacement.
Rather than a replicable design, my project aims to illuminate a replicable process -- a system that can organically take shape across urban places everywhere, adapting to the specific needs of the communities that it serves. I argue in favor of design as a tool to empower and amplify the voices of its users.
Czarecki_Blair_Final_5.12.20.pdfBlair Czarecki
Since as early as I can remember, Interior Design has been a vehicle for me to reimagine the world around me: to bend, shape, and manipulate the built environment in new and unforeseen ways. I have used this creative outlet to not only reimagine spaces and arouse curiosity within its users, but to help underrepresented voices be heard, recognized, and valued.
Every day we distinguish ourselves from others through decoration and adornment of the body and home. The built environment, where we statistically spend 90% of our time is our respite from the storm, a place of refuge, a sanctuary of calm from the bustle of day and the streets outside. This has grown even more apparent in light of the current circumstances that have undoubtedly altered our relationship with our interior world. The spaces that we inhabit are unique reflections of self; they are our personal representations of beauty—fully realized, and places where we can let our hair down and embody our true selves.
Contact
Name: Blair Czarecki
Email: czarb755@newschool.edu
PhoneNumber: 908.458.5366