Today, many of the social issues we face stem from a focus on the individual, their membership to certain groups, and the classification of everything else as “other”. This alienates those that we deem different and manifests itself in fear, hostility, and apathy.
As a response, this thesis asks how architecture can be used as a tool to build empathy. Taking inspiration from my own cultural background and experience growing up as an “other” in Texas, I took the principles taught in Hinduism — which are deeply rooted in this idea of connection to all life around us — and introduce it to the physical context of my hometown, Abilene,TX in order to start a conversation about having respect for other cultures, people, and our environment.
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