Where Main Street Ends: Visions for the future of Small Town U.S.A. _ 2018
This project was a Masters Final Thesis Project for the University of Minnesota MArch program.
Abstract:
The project is a study of the dynamics of the rural pastoral landscape and the resultant decay of small-town America. This study is actualized in the prairie of Southwest Minnesota in an environment of massive population decline and industrial instability across 62 towns in 11 counties. Complex intersections of existing rural typologies and shifting economic forces leave many of these small towns in somewhat of an existential crisis, fueling further decay. The project pushes narrative representation as a method of investigation into rural decay and aims to serve as a critique of current societal trajectories. The goal of the project is to discuss this critique with pragmatic and absurdist narrative responses to the dialogue of rural typologies with new visions for rural living.
