Whether in the physical transition from one cultural district to another or the emotional transition of immigration from one culture to another, there is a period of uncertainty and a sense of not belonging. This is the edge between two cultures. What then, happens if we create a habitable edge, a place for finding, instead of losing, our identity in the transition?

Sunday, May 1, 2011

110430 . Thesis Evolution


MASKING ARCHITECTURE & IDENTITY


Boston Is a city of neighborhoods, specifically ethnic niches that gather in the host society and share in the idyllic view of a homeland left behind.

At the edges of these cultural neighborhoods the boundaries are blurred. Cultures share and adapt their traditions. Identities are called into question and, sometimes, lost in translation.

The West Indian community in Boston has had an exceptionally hard time defining their identity in a society that casts them as ‘African American’, ‘Caribbean’ or, simply, ‘Black’. This group of English-speaking, Afro-Caribbean people inherited their enclave on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester from the declining Jewish population, and they struggled to mask the established buildings with their unique identity, different from that of their African-American or the Spanish-speaking Caribbean counterparts.

Dudley Station is the hub for many ethnic groups in Dorchester, Roxbury and South Boston. Dudley Station is the edge, the threshold and the link between cultures. The edge is a transitional space between cultures; a space to celebrate both heritage and assimilation as we simultaneously seek to fit in and stand out.

The New Immigrant Transitional Housing and Media Center acts as this transitional space, allowing new immigrants to assimilate into Boston while preserving their heritage roots, and second generation citizens to reclaim their heritage past.  The mask, it seems is the tool for this assimilation, allowing us to simultaneously project an assumed identity and protect an inherent identity. Unlike the condition on Blue Hill Ave, which applies a static mask to a flat plane, this project allows the mask to be what it wants to be - a dynamic habitable space. Through mask-like architecture we find that we can belong to two worlds and negotiate our identities based on who we are, and who we want to be.