architecture studio | spring 2020 | instructor: karen kubey | team: vayle khalaf, danielle valdez, david deussen | site: portland, oregon

Project Brief

“Visualizing Health Equity” studio contributes visions for an equitable future, where everyone in the Portland Jade District has the opportunity to lead a healthier life. With Jade District community environmental justice frameworks as a starting point, the studio explored connections between the built environment and racial and socio-economic health inequities, examining the full role that architecture and urban design can play in reducing those inequities.

We developed design proposals centered on affordable housing and community spaces, on a site in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Oregon, synthesizing lessons from APANO, a local Asian American environmental justice group; the UO Institute for Health in the Built Environment; and spatial justice theorists. We were asked to design for resident priorities and APANO’s intersectional approach to climate, health, and housing.