House on the Hill
I am a storyteller; I enjoy documenting personal narratives. Specifically the narratives of my family. And seeing how my documentation of my unique family background can add to the ever changing concept of the black experience.
Growing up with a mother and grandfather, who are both architects, I was constantly surrounded by their work, ideas, and conceptual opinions regarding architecture. I was able to see their work on drafting paper transformed into a final built product. I was always fascinated by how architecture served as a time capsule, a cultural vessel, a foundational idea personal expression. So I took all of these ideas and applied them to documenting the house that my grandfather designed that would serve as our family home.
House on the Hill is my exploration of my grandfather’s standing architectural expression. From examining the design characteristics of the house, to showing the generational impact that the house embedded in its inhabitants.
This project stemmed from a multi-generational desire to see myself reflected in spaces of residence, community, and socialization. It was easy for me to find imagery of the black body in spaces of impoverished and oppressive living environments, and it was easy to find images of the black upper class living experience. But I am neither of those. I saw the importance of contributing to a contemporary conversation of architectural reclamation in relation to the black experience. This project birthed the need to analyze and address how the black experience in residential spaces has progressed and stagnated over decades.