Unencumbered

Unencumbered

Unencumbered features the work of 6 Architects: Yohannes Baynes, Begum Baysan, Erin Horahan, Casey Hughes, Ryan Martinez, and Cody Miner. All of the ideas/projects have been derived in response to the project brief below.

UNENCUMBERED
Adjective
1. not having any burden or impediment. a. “he needed to travel light and unencumbered”
2. Free of debt or other financial liability, having few or no burdens or obligations

HOMELESS
Adjective
1. without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets
2. no fixed address, without a roof over one’s head, on the streets, vagrant, displaced, dispossessed, destitute, down-and-out

The homeless population in Los Angeles is now well over 46,000 people and rising. That is 2,000 more than the entire population of Palm Springs. But this “problem” seems to be much larger in Los Angeles than other cities in America and the world over. Is it the weather? Or is Los Angeles the city of broken dreams? Or is this just the edge of western civilization and there is nowhere else to go? Many cultures in the world throughout history and presently live without permanent homes. Some of the Native Americans were nomadic: they traveled throughout the land and set up camp where they were safe and food was near. They did not believe in property ownership and lived in balance with the earth. India has 5 nomadic groups that have been identified by today’s anthropologists that survive on such skills as basket-making, juggling, acrobatics and snake charming, to name a few. The Aborigines would take a walkabout to graduate into manhood: a long walk where they relied on no one but themselves. But here in Los Angeles we have no recognized nomadic tribes; we have no cultural rites of passage that involve the shedding of possessions and living on our own. We believe in the ownership of property and the burden of a mortgage viewed as the highest form of accomplishment. Do we view homelessness as a threat to our “American Dream”? Have homeless people already become a nomadic tribe that is just not yet recognized by today’s anthropologists? It is time to rethink urban life and homelessness. Can there be a way of life that is without a home but not without dignity? Can the homeless population be recognized as a vibrant culture that is voluntarily UNENCUMBERED by the “American Dream”? Can they be allowed to live in an uninhabited part of the city with the freedom to roam from one part of the city to another without the fear of being torn from their home by armed guards at any time of the day?

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