The Collective Plaza

How can new relationships of wellness and practices for a community care system be fostered in red line neighborhoods to provide ecological, physical, and mental restoration?

Project Description:
The self-care wellness industry dominates the market with 4.2 trillion in investments. Yet, it is often financially inaccessible for populations at risk that can’t afford self-care products and services, and remain in urgent need of improving their well-being.

My thesis addresses this issue by providing an accessible collective wellness system accessible for all, in a public space. This system relies on community care practice, which is more beneficial to solve systemic issues for the widest range of people than individual self-care services. The new plaza will celebrate healthy living as a collective. I learned from and explored strategies from other successful models of community care systems that have provided wellness for physical and mental health for humans and non-humans.

The site of my thesis is a street in Hunts Point, NY, the Bronx. It's a redlined neighborhood with the highest rates of unemployment, food insecurity, crime, environmental pollution, mental health hospitalizations and the lowest rate of access to quality health care than the overall NYC rate. I incorporated civic space guidelines, social determinants of health (SDOH) and systems of care in my thesis project. My design proposal for “A Collective Plaza” will support low income families and non-humans in Hunts Point to improve their overall well-being, through education, job opportunities, community engagement, access to nutritious foods, and physical fitness.