[Re]Rural: designing the built environment as a parallel context study

Manvi Jain // Sequoyah Hunter-Cuyjet

[Re]Rural: designing the built environment as a parallel context study

We inhabit dual realms: with [re]rural, these realms are rural necessities and urban desires. This thesis focuses on drawing parallels between different types of rural environments—a reservation in the USA and a village in India—with the aim of making these villages self-sustainable using currently available resources. Rural spaces have long been shaped by a lack of planning, where the presence of people and community gave culture to the structures. This living tradition is the focus of my design.

For this project, my aim is to use these building modules to redesign according to the current needs of the masses. How we live is often defined by these four aspects, which are also the areas of design (nodes) in this project: healthcare, housing, education, and commerce. Throughout this journey, experiences have become narratives, learnings have become intents, structures have become spaces, all with one intention—[re]rural.