Rhythms and Politics of Dwelling in the City: A Model for Collective Housing and Development in Birmingham, Alabama

Abstract

This thesis explores both the theoretical and practical aspects of dwelling in the city using rhythm as a tool to critique politically and socially imposed patterns and the built environments they produce, as well as to propose more equitable and emancipatory possibilities. A housing development in Titusville, a representative neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, is used to test the results of this analysis. Through both a collective development proposal and housing design, the project seeks to explore the interrelationships of natural, biological, social, and political rhythms at the intersection of urban systems and the phenomenological ground of everyday life. This project explores the dialectical relationships of individual and collective; project and city; and human and nature.