Location of Project/Forces acting on the Project

As discussed on the critique during the exhibition showcase, the major factor that I am missing to start defining my topic for my thesis is a location. Aside from this, I still don’t have a clear idea of what and where I really want to go with my research and my project. I have been following the idea of doing something related with the problem and concept of urban sprawl. I have been discovering that it can be and that it is a broad topic to start off from, but I have not been able to generate a starting point to focus on from this broad idea yet. As I have been writing in the past blogs, I want to focus on something that can potentially help counteract urban sprawl and how to educate ourselves as students and professionals to know how to start creating communities that are more sustainable within the environment in which they exist.

After having the discussion with you during the exhibit about defining the location of my project and the ideas that you suggested, I think it is a good idea if I focus in the Boise, Idaho area. I have lived in the Boise area, more specifically Nampa, since I came to this country; I have lived there for more than 10 years now and I have noticed how the area has changed with the expansion and growth of the suburbs in Boise as well as the neighboring cities. Sine I have experienced and spent a long time living in this area, it could be beneficial to project because I am familiar and I have a direct connection with the place and context.

Now that I have somewhat defined the location of my project, I think the next step is to start narrowing down more the location. Boise and its surroundings have been greatly affected by the problem of urban sprawl. It is not a large city per say, but it is a state capital that in my opinion needs to be densified and that it is a city that has to start thinking about a solution or a regulation system to try to minimize and if possible stop the urban sprawl problem that the city and area as a whole has been facing. A starting point could be by taking a look and examining the city as a whole and from there I can probably focus on a specific are that has been mainly affected by the problem of sprawl.

I do not know much about the historical background of Boise as a city or how it started; doing research about the historical background of the city could be of much help to try to understand what or who helped to shape the city. Also what actions or ideas influenced the design of the city and the reasons why the decision to create a city that grows out of the center limits instead of building up and densifying the center of the city.

In brief, I think the forces acting on this project are my desire to learn more about the sprawl problem, especially in the area where I have lived for almost half of my life; also how we can fix or prevent this problem in the future. Learn from these mistakes that we have done as: professionals, designer, citizens and start applying solutions to the problems we have created.