Social Housing in Puerto Rico

My PhD research explored the case of Puerto Rican activism against the destruction of a social housing project, locating enduring, racialised (post)colonial legacies in contemporary practices of social housing design, demolition and resistance. This work highlighted how the subjective realm of contested memory space is a place where past, present and future-oriented thinking about home andd belonging collide. Related writing and activities – featured below –focus on:

• the colonial history of this sector and its relationship to suburbanisation;

• the physical and emotional processes of an urban anti-displacement struggle;

• the lived experience of social housing homes as an alternative logic of urban life and dwelling;

• the architecture of family that gets desgined through social housing; and

• the connections between ‘penthouse’ social housing developments in Puerto Rico, enduring racialisation (blanqueamiento) and financialisation.