Paula Rodriguez

The Collective Plaza is designed to answer the question: How can a community care system support physical, mental, and ecological wellness in redlined neighborhoods? The self-care wellness industry represents a significant sector of the global economy, with $4.2 trillion in investments, but it is beyond the reach of populations that can’t afford its products and services. My thesis addresses this problem by proposing a collective wellness system accessible to all, located in a public space. In designing it, I drew on strategies used by community care systems that have supported physical and mental health in both people and animals. The system relies on community care practice, which has a greater capacity to address problems affecting a wide range of people than individual self-care services. The site of my thesis is a street in Hunts Point, in the Bronx. Hunts Point is a redlined neighborhood with the highest rates of unemployment, food insecurity, crime, environmental pollution, and mental health hospitalizations and the lowest rate of access to quality healthcare in New York City. I incorporated civic space guidelines, social determinants of health, and systems of care in my thesis project. My design proposal for a Collective Plaza will provide low-income families and animals in Hunts Point with community care, offering education, job opportunities, community engagement, access to nutritious foods, and physical fitness facilities.