Tag Archives: cabbage town

Actually An Annotation: Segregation via Contemporary Architecture

Caldeira, T. P. R. “Fortcified Enclaves: The New Urban Segregation.” Public Culture 8.2 (1996): 303-28. Web.
Teresa Caldeira, anthropologist and Professor of City and Regional Planning at University of California, Berkeley writes in her article Fortified Enclaves: The New Urban Segregation on how cities with the fortified enclave of urban contemporary architecture promote inequality and segregation: “Among the conditions necessary for democracy is that people acknowledge those from different social groups as cocitizens, i.e., as people having similar rights. If this is true, it is clear that contemporary cities which are segregated by fortified enclaves are not environments which generate conditions conducive to democracy” (Cladeira). Cladeira relied on the primary resources of her own personal research and analysis of her research. The authors purpose in writing this book is to provide a look into how architectural exclusion (specifically with urban contemporary architecture) can act as a mode of segregation. Her intended audience are researchers looking to understand the implications of the built environment and how it can be manufactured to promote inequities.This is useful because it brings to attention the insidious effect architecture has on  those living in the inner city.

Exterior Engaging Encounters: Built Environment Description of Cabbage Town

An alley in the very eclectic Cabbage Town Atlanta.

Its 2:30 in the afternoon and the sun is shining down on the concrete road. Cars drive up and down the two way street separating the shops, boutiques, and old ward Atlanta housing from the Oakland cemeteries brick walls. The sound of birds calling, the indiscernible chatter of humans. I walk past a coffee shop called octane, boutiques and technology companies line the streets, the entrances to each of the shops not facing out towards the streets but in a partially shaded alleyway. Streets are cracked and worn, and the paint discerning left from right lane are faded. The buildings lining Memorial Ave are all some sort of business offering a service and architecturally are urban contemporary save for the refurbished brick buildings.Directly behind these buildings housing businesses or offices, old, A-frame houses line the streets, met at the end by a chain fence separating the homes from a very loud freeway. Some of these old homes are remodeled, keeping the same air of the traditional, wrap around porch home, but painted over and refurbished. Other homes are visibly original in build as well as landscaping upkeep. Cabbage town houses a mixture of businesses and residential area.