Today’s society forces people to feel the need to define and categorize everyone into groups. The group that is discriminated against and misunderstood the most is the homeless population. In the Tapestry of Space Nersessova focuses on the homeless population and many different elements of the homelessness as a whole. She raises questions in the reader’s mind like, what is homelessness and is any one truly homeless? In her article she focuses on an array of different topics. The role of the urban photographer, the rejection of imperialism, what is public space vs city attractions, and lastly the domestic architecture. The portion of the article on Domestic Architecture is key in understanding the basis of the article, because throughout it she hones in on why people are labeled as homeless and subliminally questions the meaning of that label.
The main reason that people are labeled as homeless is because they don’t own their property. Nersessova points out that in reality “many people don’t own their own property” (37). Would a college professor who rents a thousand dollar a month apartment be considered homeless? Though these homeless individuals don’t own their own property they should be considered their homes even more so than some renting out pent houses in New York City, “because they physically create them and emotional invest in the process of the home building.” (42). The homeless individuals use other people’s trash and scrapes to create shielding pieces of architecture.
The homeless don’t only create the structures for their homes they also personalize them. Their homes have been decorated, they have pets, gardens, and do everything that they can to make them comfortable. Nersessova brings up the e
xample of Pepe from Morton’s book who is constantly renovating his home with material from his surrounds and various tools. His home becomes a “complex piece of domestic architecture.” In the end his home was demolished because of the fact that his home along with other homeless people’s homes are seen as worthless and thus get no government protection.
Nersessova establishes that the homeless homes are theirs because they make it and personalize it. Because of these deep relationships with their homes a homeless persons dwelling often resemble “its inhabitant” describing “the closeness one has to something he or she builds.” (41). She using Mr. Lee as an example of this bond between homeless person and home. Even after his death by fire in his home was still tied to his home, through the décor, and personal items that scattered about. If a structure ties to a person so deeply that it is recognizably theirs after death should that not be considered their home?
Nersessova article is highly intellectual and the different elements of it break Morton’s study, on the homeless in in The Tunnel underground, a ground breaking way. She examples how the homeless are more than just a group of roaming nomad people who are ‘the worst of life…drunks, vagrants, prostitutes, wild-eyed men with matted hair and beard who may well be insane. (31).
Bibliography
NERSESSOVA, IRINA. “Tapestry Of Space: Domestic Architecture And Underground Communities In Margaret Morton’s Photography Of A Forgotten New York.” Disclose.23 (2014): 26. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 20 Nov. 2015