Sunset Colonies
by Diego Waisman

portfolio shortlisted call 'Urbanautica Institute Awards 2025', 2025
Category: Representations of Space, Architecture, and Conflicts


I'm interested in the concept of displacement and its social and economic implications. As an immigrant, born into a first-generation family, understanding the diaspora was only possible by its physical manifestation. The concept of home transcends its sense of belonging; its meaning goes beyond its physical place. Space is freedom, place is belonging. Any personal space relates to our personal connections and how those serve as reflections that shape our history and identity. Despite the last economic recession, cities across the US have seen a rebound in real-estate value. As a result, land appreciation has allowed developers to target low-income neighborhoods, paving the way for gentrification. As one South Florida reporter suggested, Mobile Home Park communities have become the "low-hanging fruit for developers." The disappearance of these Mobile Home Park communities is expanding homelessness and affecting the ever-shrinking inventory of affordable housing. In Sunset Colonies I'm creating a visual elegy by using juxtapositions to visualize social and physical realities. The repetition of images establishes a visual language of mutual and antagonistic elements such as the trailer's painted corrugated exteriors, the collection of Florida motor tags in an anchored vehicle, and the superimposed view of the neighboring construction site. Many South Florida retirement communities have been conceived as trailer parks. The promise of a warm and sunny climate has for decades enticed seniors to migrate South in search of a comfortable retirement. Today, many 55+ residents' livelihood hangs in the balance between sustained inflation, stagnant pensions and disability checks. The sale and gentrification of these Mobile Home Communities is forcing them out of their homes and neighborhoods. For some, relocation means moving hundreds of miles away from their communities. They represent a forgotten demographic whose time and resources are running out. The history of these Mobile Home Parks communities parallels the development of South Florida's municipalities. By incorporating time-period materials through the appropriation of photographs, magazine ads, and newspaper clippings, I am introducing a speculative non-fiction narrative, along with the documentary photography, that illustrates a sense of collective memories. This allows the ramification of the narrative into other threads. Piecing a historical perspective into the work has created another layer of understanding, whose themes might not be otherwise evident.


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