Senescent
A Basketball Court
Lawn
Olympic Library
In Between Legs...
2024
Senescent is a project that is built on field research. It starts with months of in-person fieldwork, research, interviews, and interactions with the residents of the Los Angeles neighborhood, Boyle Heights. By talking to people that have lived there their whole lives, new arrivals, immigrants, first- and second-generation Americans, visitors, workers, families, and more, an almost-comprehensive picture of what life in Boyle Heights is painted. What do the people that live or frequent Boyle Heights need more or less of in their lives? What do they like? What would they change? What is important to them?
That, coupled with online research, points at historic and contemporary problems that have engrained themselves within the fabric of the neighborhood. It is a neighborhood that has been historically forgotten by Los Angeles despite being a hub of political activism, art, and culture for the city. One of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, it has lived countless lives and has shaped the lives of thousands.
This project initiates itself through in-person interviews with residents and workers of the community. Boyle Heights is multi-generational, with many homes housing 2-3 generations of a single family. A USPS mailman says that the aging community of Boyle Heights is not taken care of. There are not enough resources for them. The majority working-class individuals that make up Boyle Heights cannot offer the elderly with the proper physical or mental care that they might need.
Senescent is an answer to those with worries about the quality of life of their eldery family members with neurodegenerative or physically degenerative diseases. An adult daycare with spaces designed with the degenerated mind in mind, facilities are spread out on a plot of land. Rooms are kept small and personal because large crowds or loud noises can be disorienting. Outdoor space becomes deeply integrated as the hallways between rooms take the form of passageways between the buildings. Activity spaces are provided outside for those who want sun. Although designed to be opened during the day so the elderly family members can still live at home, there is an on-site apartment that can be used for short periods of time for when caretakers are unavailable.
It’s situated within residential sectors of the neighborhood, around other facilities that the users may frequent. It’s form mimics the typical house in Boyle Heights of stucco walls and a gable roof. It looks familiar to feel familiar. It’s designed in a way to reduce confusion in the users so that they feel comfortable and unagitated.