Sketching the Housing Crisis

Abstract

A pandemic sketchbook becomes a prompt to design activism, author says. Sketching as a form of activism, the documentation of societal injustices through the pen, has a long and rich history. Many landscape architects excel at sketching, as the sketch crawls at ASLA conferences confirm, but few seem to use it to document the social conditions of their time. A notable exception is the Skid Road Community, a book by Laurie Olin. It is a powerful anthropological anthropological. What I saw were deserted streets, businesses closing overnight, and a dramatic increase of homeless encampments.