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To The Next Seven Generations

Part 1 Dissertation 2021
Thea Boorman
Central Saint Martins, UAL | UK
When considering our most imperative task today — the mitigation of further global damage from climate change — the importance of social sustainability becomes abundantly clear. This essay looks at the prioritisation and integration of people who are essential to the future of architectural design.

Architectural projects which include community participation can be rather limited, due to practical or economic constraints. This essay explores firstly, how effectively we can measure social sustainability using participation as an indicator and secondly, how low impact building practices can activate social sustainability in the non-western context.

Case studies are selected from the rural, low-middle income context of Pakistan and India; these include the works of two leading South Asian architects Yasmeen Lari and Anupama Kundoo, as well as the indigenous Khasi tribe, whose building practices in the east Indian territory of Meghalaya has sustained a way of life for centuries.

Due to my physical and cultural distance from the case studies, I will evaluate what can be measured from afar: to what extent can we learn from practice, while situated in another context?

The essay seeks to reify those processes in design that focus on not only low impact design solutions, but also allow for communal adaptation, strengthening socio-economic dimensions of vulnerable populations.

Thea Boorman

Tutor(s)
Shumi Bose
2021
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