2024 WITDA ESSAY AWARD WINNER


I became interested in my topic of houselessness and its relation to architectural theory due to my past education. I attended my freshman year of college studying Architecture History, my sophomore year I studied Architecture. Upon moving to LA, and observing the adverse behaviors and opinions certain individuals hold for the houseless– I felt that it would be interesting to connect Laugier’s principles of architecture, to the structures built today. To me, all structures are architecture, there is no education or degree required to form spaces of living. I wanted to prove that architectural theory is classist, and if we truly analyze the words of individuals like Laugier and apply them to basic structures– any human is capable of ‘good and correct’ architecture.