Slide 1
This collage illustrates the notion of inhabiting the porch and how porch sitting influences activities as well as modes of communal engagement.
Slide 2
Materiality is a key component in the story of the porch. This basket of collected hardware from southern homes became the tools for exploration of these homes.
Slide 3
Illustration of dialogue and historical context of the porch; the extension of boundaries across the cross grain; the use of the shotgun home to develop the community
Slide 4
This porch highlights the porch sitting past time of shelling peas by joining two porches to form a community garden and kitchen. Sectional perspective of community
Slide 5
Two porches are unified by shared furniture for porch sitting. The act of socializing freely is encouraged from outside in via the notion of the outdoor living room
Slide 6
A study model of linear living; double shotgun homes impact on socializing represented by the front porch and the cultivation of diversity within this new community

inhabit: Re-imagining Southern Front Porch Living

The Southern front porch is the vehicle through which I am investigating the notion of a boundary. The act of transitioning from one place to another is often characterized by the permeation of a boundary (physical or mental). The extension of boundaries both spatially and socially into the semi-public realm, and the transitive space that is produced by the front porch become essential to the cultivation of outdoor living experiences within this semi-porous interior. The front porch is the unifying thread that re-engages the community within this realm of domestic living. These traditional intrinsic qualities of Southern front porch culture are ones that can be reignited through the materiality and spatiality of living within the transitive space as a means of encouraging new social interactions in present day southern cities.

Thesis Advisor: Joanna Merwood Salisbury