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Culturally responsive architecture : a community center and housing for Latinos in Roxbury

This thesis will provide an example of how architecture can be an expression of a particular culture and still be generally contextual in relation to the site as well as responsive to unmet social needs. It will also explore the influence of culture on architecture by considering two "cultural models," Anglo-American and Latino. The vehicle I will use is a community center, housing, and public outdoor space for the Latino community in Roxbury, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. From the total Roxbury population, which comprises blacks, Latinos, Cape Verdeans and whites, I will focus on the Latino community. With this focus, I am by no means intending to isolate or favor this particular group. My main objective, instead, is to help strengthen and develop the Latino community and hopefully in the process build bridges to the other cultural elements of the community. The single overwhelming need that is shared by all the groups is the need for self-affirmation in cultural terms in a polycultural society that otherwise demeans its members. I believe that architectural design should seek to reinforce the major attributes of a given culture, adapting them as necessary to fit present conditions, while maintaining recognition of the original forms. The proposed design attempts to make conscious links and associations that recall the Hispanic heritage of the Latino inhabitants. When architectural form is inconsistent with the culture of its inhabitants, it becomes alienating. This alienation has the potential to affect the relationships among its inhabitants and could even challenge the collective social structure. The goals which I would like to achieve in the architectural design are the following: promote continuity of Latino culture by preserving the indigenous values, orientations, and ways of life of the Latino community give the Latinos greater control over the decisions that affect their lives and reduce the control of external forces over Latino institutions, services, and people promote cultural pluralism in which all cultural groups (Latinos, blacks, whites, and Cape Verdeans) can live and work as equals, sharing information, resources, ideas, and experiences. Thesis Advisor: William Lyman Porter Title: Professor of Architecture and Planning