Futuring the Fabric of the Neighborhood: Possibilities for the Meaning of Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Abstract

This thesis uses a firm foundation in housing, community action, and geographic theory to imagine the future potential of a site in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Placemaking matters because it is the mechanism at the hyperlocal scale through which solutions to need can start being realized by the very people experiencing them. The designer's role is to be a communicator, facilitator, creative spark, translator. Designers work as accomplices, imagining a future which works towards answering the problems of the present. Even so, much of the process of working in community is, quite necessarily, out of our hands. The suggestions I present here are possible to be adopted by the community, and aim to inspire future organizing work in this site and beyond.