Re-institute : realization of unrealized resources
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Date
2009
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Publisher
Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture
Abstract
There are preconceived notions that human beings and built environments have a defined life-span. Both the homeless population and the abandoned infrastructure of cities are seen as existent until their place in society has been tapered, suspended or given up on completely. Once the individual or building reaches a point of societal condemnation it is neglected and eventually forgotten, slipped into the archives of non-existence. What once was an element of a functioning whole becomes a void that is commonly overlooked. Many forgotten people within the homeless population and buildings within abandoned infrastructure have an immense amount of potential energy that may be utilized to further their existence as a function of society. At a human level the homeless person flows through the social construct with little more acknowledgement than a shrug of the shoulder and a minor donation. In the built environment resources sit stagnant amongst constantly advancing infrastructure. In both circumstances the subject is left to exist as a non-participating part of a society that does not acknowledge their presence and lacks the mutual interaction that makes the vagrant or abandoned infrastructure an integral part of the social system. The Re-Institute program identifies contributing factors of social exclusion at both human and infrastructural levels. These factors will be counteracted by reversing the primary concepts of social exclusion into a catalyst to solve the issue. The mechanisms used to combat the problems of social exclusion will exist in a sociological, environmental and programmatic realm within the Re-Institute project. Through the architectural and programmatic development of the program, these mechanisms will re-institute neglected resources back into a constructive part of society.