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A Rethinking of Pruitt-Igoe
Although the failure of Pruitt-Igoe was largely attributed to modern architecture, numerous social, political, and economic factors ultimately led to its destruction. Doomed from the beginning, the architecture used was simply another factor in the demise of the project.
Guidelines given for this task included using critical thinking and creativity to rethink and showcase complexity. Rather than a simple timeline, the project here offers a visual map of the more prominent issues, showcasing the depth of the actual story.
“Why Did Pruitt-Igoe Fail? | HUD USER.” 2014. Huduser.gov. 2014. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr_edge_featd_article_110314.html.
Original Story
The story that was told to the public was simple:
Re-Evaluation
The actual story involves issues such as capitalism, suburban sprawl, white flight, social and design trends, advertising, and racism, all of which involve the overlap of three major factors:
Social
Political
Economic
Through the mapping of issues onto a background of these three factors, a complex web of information is created. This re-evaluation of Pruitt-Igoe thus shows the role that background dynamics have on the built environment, which ultimately affects the people and areas that are near each project.
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