Social Justice in Architecture: Building of a New Research Model

Abstract

Architecture’s historic search to create social justice is a source of much contention. The inherent broadness in the definition of social justice and the diverse architecture methods to create it lead to the notion that a research framework to properly address social justice in architecture does not exist. Although an architect’s ability to act within professional practice is based on knowledge of a repertoire of cases - a Case Study Model - this generalized contemporary research model does not provide a specific framework for investigators to properly understand and analyze social justice in architecture. Thus, in order to create a new research model with specificity to social justice in architecture, a critical analysis of existing knowledge on social justice and its link to the architecture profession is necessary. A critique of diverse methods stemming from the design or planning of architecture, as well as an analysis of the Case Study Model and its application to four case studies, are conducted in this dissertation. The consequent observations that result from research directly inform a new research framework, the Social Justice in Architecture Model. The architectural implications of this new framework compose a cohesive research model to understand and analyze social justice in architecture.