Catalina Freixas
Associate Professor, College of Architecture, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
- Email: freixas@nospam.wustl.edu
Segregation can be deconstructed into a progression of causal relationships where actions and policies of the past have over time designed the divided cities of today. The constant reinvention of mechanisms to maintain residential segregation has institutionalized inequality through its ramifications in determining access to education, employment, health care, transportation, and the distribution of political power. Policy produced segregation, but it is only through policy that it can be undone. Because segregation is a complex issue that transcends disciplines, a singular lens of analysis is insufficient to address it. Social, economic, political, and environmental agendas need to work as a system to effect real transformation, achieving restorative justice for African Americans and undoing the scourge that has plagued St. Louis and America. Using a sustainability science framework and transdisciplinary community-based participatory research approaches, my research identifies innovative design solutions for highly distressed neighborhoods. Through SBD a replicable neighborhood engagement model was generated, resulting in then the development of plans for over 15 communities. The work has been supported by a number of grants.