Architectural History and Criticism Commons^™

Indigenous Ontologies And Architecture, Reconstructing Interrelational Relationships, Arlene Garcia Guzman

McNair Summer Research Program

Contemporary architecture faces a growing pressure to respond to the socioecological crises with regard to the consequences of design that so often accept environmental systems as separate from the living. In contrast, many Native systems, often referred to as Traditional Knowledge (TK), comprehend cumulative, place-based bodies of knowledge that are developed through extended histories of interaction with specific environments. In this context, Traditional Knowledge encompasses resource use practices, sustainability, spirituality, and an emphasis on a relational worldview. It is characterized in such a framework that different layers of existence, such as humans, animals, plants, water, climate, and materials, are understood …

Template Housing: A House For The Next 100 Years, Sophia Rico, Jb Barrientos, Armando Munoz

McNair Summer Research Program

This research examines over a century of prefabricated housing to understand how standardized housing production has changed over time and how it continues to influence housing today. By investigating archival records of historical prefabricated housing, alongside contemporary pre-approved housing plans, this study shows how housing has been designed across different time periods.  By comparing historical and modern examples, the research identifies recurring strategies for increasing efficiency, reducing construction time, and expanding access to housing. As communities across the United States continue to face a housing shortage, this research is especially relevant following the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to …

Spaces Of Empowerment: A Study On University Multicultural Spaces & Civil Rights, Keana Balalio

McNair Summer Research Program

Following the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, American universities dedicated offices and centers to multiculturalism. This project questions how identity-centered spaces for empowerment operate in relation to efforts for institutional integration. This study proposes the term space(s) of empowerment to describe identity-based areas at universities [and other institutions] that encourage gathering of historically marginalized communities, their allies, and institutional supervisory support. The concept draws on architectural literature regarding political and economic power dynamics of space. Beginning with the University of San Diego’s United Front Multicultural Commons (UFMC), study includes reproductions of floor plans and memories. Analysis draws from Michel de Certeau’s …

Designing Affordable And Viable Housing Solutions, Jean Jeremie, Juliana Maxim

McNair Summer Research Program

Abstract:

There is a consistent housing crisis that is affecting our society today. Nearly 582,462 are homeless alone in the United States, with San Diego having the 4th highest unhoused population in the country (Hud, 2022). My research this summer seeked to understand the current living conditions of low-income families within our local community, with an emphasis on the El Cajon neighborhood in the Eastern part of San Diego County, and develop new architectural designs for sustainable and affordable housing. Through this lens I was able to see how a class in society just above homelessness lives day to day …

America’S Finest Housing Crisis: Racialized Housing & Suburban Development, Vicenta Martinez Govea

McNair Summer Research Program

U.S. Government operations between 1940-1950 brought unprecedented direct and indirect employment opportunities to San Diego, exacerbating an already growing housing shortage. To accommodate the thousands of new defense workers, the government produced the largest defense housing project to date in the small neighborhood of Linda Vista. However, this opportunity and largesse was extended primarily to a select group of white working-class families who had access to defense jobs and, consequently, subsidized housing. Military presence in San Diego during World War II shaped the design of homes and exclusively allocated housing, as both shelter and financial instrument, to white working-class families …

Guide To The Mother Celeste Thompson Scrapbook, Celeste Thompson

Special Collections

This scrapbook is an architectural notebook compiled by Rev. Mother Celeste Marie Thompson, RSCJ. It includes Thompson's notes on architectural history, newspaper clippings, postcards, and magazine cutouts covering a variety of architectural styles.

Finding Aids are tools used to aid research by describing the materials in a collection. Special Collections Finding Aids include historical and/or biographical information along with a description of the collection and a folder listing of the content.

To view this collection please email University Archives and Special Collections staff at [email protected].

Urban Contacts: Orientalist Urban Planning And Le Corbusier In French Colonial Algiers, Delaney Tax

Copley Library Undergraduate Research Awards

Algiers, the first French colony in Africa, was conquered in 1830 and gained independence in 1962. During this period, Algiers was constructed into an Orientalist acting ground that was shaped through political, social, economic formations in the built environment. The French colonial fascination with Algiers centered around the casbah, and thus the casbah became a laboratory for ethnographic and urban reflections. The French process of urban planning included military intervention, preservation motivated by exoticism and museology, and superstructure master plans dictated by the present benefit of indigenous communities to the colonial regime. Le Corbusier’s contact with Algiers further expresses the …

St. Mary’S Chapel, The Bishop’S School, La Jolla, Molly Mcclain

History: Faculty Scholarship

The article explores the history of St. Mary’s Chapel at The Bishop’s School, a sacred space for students, staff, and alumni at the Episcopal preparatory school in La Jolla, California.