Thesis Yasmine McBride

Thesis: Yasmine McBride

“The American Dream” is a constructed image of what it means to be successful in America.  Sometimes the dream has taken root in the suburbs, encouraging consumerism and white flight.  Today it may be presenting as luxurious city living, but it is still about isolation, status, and class.  We have been handed this imagery through advertising, and now these images proliferate even our urban, affordable housing.  The mythology and effects of this construction run through every facet of our lives. Some alternative models to these images can be called “post American dream futures”. Whether they are resistance movements, radical democracies, co-living strategies, or even architectural modes, these futures provide us with different ways to think about how we live.

How do we want to live?  What do we want our surroundings to look like? How do we want our daily lives to function? What do we want our homes to look like?  And how may it be played out on the site in Orange, New Jersey?  The only way to arrive at an honest answer is to ask the experts, or the community of people that it is directly affecting.