“Architecture, as both a field of culture and a discipline of social science, has sustained a growing interest in confronting the underlying heteronormative rules that constrain much of its design.” (Ingram, Bouthilette, and Retter.) In architectures implementation of a heteronormative social construct I wish to explore the capacity for the residual space, public realm to push back. Architecture, as the design of human activity and not simply a function and form has been able to contribute to the creation of safe space and I will be attempting this exploration by looking into how it has underwritten ideas of masculinity in hip-hop culture. I am doing so through visuals to see if and how over the years, environments for expression have offered …show more content…
“The high-rise public housing units designed by Moses in his Cross Bronx Expressway turned out to only deepen the rifts within class and culture already present in New York, but in turn, also encourage a specific group of people to not accept the realities of their living conditions by making the inhospitable hospitable.”( The Fifth Pillar footnote) The social implications and spatial confinement of public complex towers attribute to fear, dissatisfaction, stress, behavior problems, suicide, poor social relations, reduced helpfulness, and hindered child development. Through forms of art and self-expression, this culture, known as hip-hop creates a place for counterculture to thrive off of its inhospitable …show more content…
The implications of organization of space as it reflects social constructs has been demonstrated through hip-hop as most of the activities involved are social gatherings in residual areas like hallways, stair landings, the stoop, and the street corner. This all attributed to an identity. Whilst it projected this masculine image, in the form of music, it consequently invited others to express themselves as well. As a movement, it leads popular culture as the worlds favored genre of music. (research support footnote) While music was/is its primary medium of its cultural dissemination it has come from beneath its tightly class defined home and branched out. Looking into new avenues of space to display itself, Hip-hop’s success can be attributed to a series of formal spaces adapted to suit the programmatic necessities. Ironically this can be seen as an act of resistance, initially due to repression and marginality. Over time its outreach expanded as the genre of music began to show signs of gender neutrality into its explicit culture. (youngthug album