| Summary: | Rethinking the box explores the idea of revitalizing a vacant grocery store using a more human- and nature-centered approach to create a residential development that promotes social interaction, diversity, environmental care, and active living. Retail stores are typically a reflection of pure capitalistic motives and consumption behaviors, where the quest for the greatest and fastest return of investment becomes the main driver of the design decisions. These projects also reflect how modern societies function, with the automobile as the dominant mechanism for the development of proportions with an interior atmosphere distant from the outdoor environment, surrounded by a vast asphalt plain dedicated to no living beings. However, conventional retail stores are ceasing to be an important component of contemporary societies. This "retail apocalypse" is now leaving thousands of boxy-looking buildings as concrete inaccessible islands scattered across the American nation. And to make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the situation as the ecommerce experiences a substantial growth propelled by social distancing and isolation mandates imposed by the government. Experts expect that 1 in 4 shopping centers will close by 2025 (Coresight Research & Credit Suisse, 2020).Moreover, the shortage of affordable houses in the U.S. continues to be present, with only 36% of the 10.9 million renter households living in extreme low-income conditions having access to affordable dwellings. This means that there is currently a shortage of 7 million affordable and available rental homes. Around 7.7 million extremely low-income renter households spend more than half of their revenue on rent and utilities (NLIHC, 2020). This situation is expected to worsen due to the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. An unprecedented housing crisis might be on the way as an estimated of 30 to 40 million Americans are currently at risk of eviction (Aspen Institute, 2020).The present study seeks to create a potential ...
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