Architecture for the Underserved

"Architecture for the Underserved" is an ethnographic film on design-build architecture programs around the United States that I documented during 8 months of participant observation fieldwork on the Rural Studio of Auburn University in Alabama, the Alley Flat Initiative of the University of Texas, Studio 804 of the University of Kansas and others (as part of my undergraduate sociology thesis at Marlboro College, Vermont).


Architecture for the Underserved from Kenton Card on Vimeo.

The video was edited with Douglas Adams and a team of transcribers. The film would not have been possible without the open doors of the architects, students, clients, and community members.

Following the traditions of sociological mosaic by the Chicago school of sociology and of Walter Benjamin's belief in constructing history as montage, I believe such a collection of interviews and observations can present an alternative glimpse into the process where "I needn't say anything. Merely show."