Some thoughts

I believe we are living in a critical time, soon to reach a climax point. Something big is going to happen- is already happening all around the world. Breakthroughs, realizations, resistance, friction. It is uncomfortable, it is a great pressure – as if we have reached the bottleneck and are being squeezed.

One of the questions I want to explore in doing a thesis is how architecture can help seed changes that so desperately need to happen. Change in how people are treated, how people treat the environment, how we build and maintain our cities, and how each individual goes about their daily lives. Because whether we like it or not, everything we do sends ripples of effects and reactions into the world. There is no such thing as neutral. Simply living means you have an impact.

I see the Tenderloin as a microcosm of the world. It is rich in cultural influences, because its inhabitants and store-owners include people from all walks of life and all parts of the world. All these influences and lifestyles are brought together in one of the densest neighborhoods in San Francisco.

The Tenderloin is also one of the poorest and most notorious areas in the city and is perhaps “the last frontier in SF’s ever expanding gentrification trend”(1).

In Santos I learned from Rodrigo and Edgard that if you want to make real change happen, you have to tackle the darkest places. Only when you understand the history and complexity of those places, can you move toward building in a way that truly helps people and the planet. Covering up scars doesn’t work- it just creates more scars.

But in an area such as the Tenderloin, which is so dense, what does it mean to build? What do people need the most there, in terms of physical spaces? How can I do a project that is perhaps small, but creates a large impact, or perhaps starts a chain of events?

My most recent influences have been Lebbeus Woods and Samuel Mockby’s Rural Studio. I want to find some way of combining the philosophy and work of both within my thesis. I like the total immersion into community that Rural Studio demonstrates, and at the same time, I find Wood’s writing and speculations about more grand ideas and trends just as critical to our time.