As Built: Maintaining Domestic Imaginations
Far from an exhaustive understanding of the nuances of maintenance labor that fueled the American suburb of the 1950’s and today, this project contributes to the conversation around architecture as a form of upkeep of the built environment, and the images it sustains. While I focused here on domesticity and the suburban home, the same methods could be applied to a wide array of existing drawings, from the gothic facades of Yale’s campus and the image of scholastic quality they uphold to the neoclassical civic projects that sustain the ideals of American governance. These projects require careful stewardship to continue their legacies, and through recognition of the maintenance labor behind the scenes, this work continues questioning the role of architecture and image making, the role of images themselves is up for critique. The way we understand buildings is entwined with the power structures that brought them into existence, and ultimately, recognizing labor that has historically been marginalized and made invisible is a method of subverting these power structures.