The Threshold of Economically Disparate Groups

Understanding economically disparate groups through the lens of strip malls informed this semester’s projects. Studying the additive and subtractive nature of their facades encouraged an analysis of a strong datum, followed by analyses of mass conservation and subsequent shadows, resulting in work focusing on these qualities. This study led to the design of a Little Tokyo/Arts District metro station. Metro stations innately target a specific user as strip malls do, and they play with a similar approach to carving out mass. To fully understand a metro station through a strip mall lens, there is a singularity and repetitiveness to the project, yet in its details it adopts the attributes of an entire strip mall catalogue, not to a particular demographic.