Boston's Villa Victoria: A Space Produced
Location
King Building 343
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-29-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
4-29-2016 2:30 PM
Abstract
My research situates the activism and architectural structures of Villa Victoria, a community-designed public housing project in Boston’s South End, into broader 20th-century discourses of urbanism. In 1968, the city of Boston sought to displace Puerto Rican residents in order to redevelop the neighborhood and was met with organized resistance, which eventually resulted in resident control and design of the housing project. I use archival materials and visual analysis to identify a slippage between the aims of the activists and the resulting architectural image. Relying on the theoretical apparatus from French neo-Marxist sociologist Henri Lefebvre, my research seeks to reconcile the radical activism and architectural schemes by broadening definitions of space beyond the physical.
Recommended Citation
Aquilina, Madeleine, "Boston's Villa Victoria: A Space Produced" (04/29/16). Senior Symposium. 3.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/seniorsymp/2016/presentations/3
Major
Art History
Advisor(s)
Bonnie Cheng, Art History
Project Mentor(s)
Sarah Hamill, Art History
Erik Inglis, Art History
April 2016
Boston's Villa Victoria: A Space Produced
King Building 343
My research situates the activism and architectural structures of Villa Victoria, a community-designed public housing project in Boston’s South End, into broader 20th-century discourses of urbanism. In 1968, the city of Boston sought to displace Puerto Rican residents in order to redevelop the neighborhood and was met with organized resistance, which eventually resulted in resident control and design of the housing project. I use archival materials and visual analysis to identify a slippage between the aims of the activists and the resulting architectural image. Relying on the theoretical apparatus from French neo-Marxist sociologist Henri Lefebvre, my research seeks to reconcile the radical activism and architectural schemes by broadening definitions of space beyond the physical.
Notes
Session I, Panel 6 - The Production of Space: Studies of Ethnicity, Identity, and Place
Moderator: Wendy Kozol, Professor of Comparative American Studies