Conversation at Potluck BBQ
Author: Kayla Ho | Major: Architecture
My name is Kayla Ho and my capstone focuses on capturing and crafting a story about the social life of a cohousing community. The capstone uses interviewing and photography as research and narrative tools. As part of the capstone, a book was designed and printed to share this story of my impression of Yulupa with others. I recently graduated with a Bachelor’s of Architecture and a minor in sustainability, and I completed my capstone in the spring of 2022.
I was drawn to this topic due to my interests in community, housing, and the combination of the two. I chose to focus on cohousing because this fast-growing shared housing model is intentionally designed to foster strong communities. After reaching out to several cohousing communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, a location home to many alternative housing models including cohousing communities, I eventually narrowed in on Yulupa Cohousing in Santa Rosa as the primary focus of the capstone.
Over several months, I built a relationship with the community at Yulupa, interviewed a quarter of the residents (virtually), and traveled to the community for several days to make photographs. In addition to being well-suited to gathering and sharing qualitative, experiential information, the choice to use interviewing and photography also stemmed from a personal interest. My favorite part of working on the capstone was being able to employ these new research methods which are not typically used in architectural design projects!
Conducting interviews was a new experience for me, and what a fun way to do it for the first time! I loved learning how to write and then later ask interview questions and I really enjoyed the different conversations I had with residents from Yulupa. On the other hand, I have loved photography for years but this capstone allowed me to create my own photography project and dedicate myself to the art of photography much more seriously. Over my Spring Break, I visited Yulupa Cohousing for a few days and spent almost all of my time exploring the community, talking to residents, and photographing. After gathering all of the information, I worked to edit and craft a story about this community into a small book featuring my original photographs and quotes from the interviewed residents!
Throughout this capstone, I have been working with my mentor, Dr. Noah Billig, an associate professor in the department of landscape architecture who also serves as the honors program director in the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design. Like me, Dr. Billig is interested in public participation and community engagement. Dr. Billig has guided me every step of the way in our weekly meetings, sharing his thoughtful insights with me during this semester while still allowing me the opportunity to craft the project for myself. In addition to my mentor, I also worked with Professor Rana Young from the department of photography and Professor Brian Holland from the department of architecture, both of whom eagerly joined my honors capstone committee. I am very grateful to have had a committee of professors from different departments to offer their varying perspectives and to have a committee of people who encouraged me constantly! In addition to my committee, I also had some support from friends who volunteered to proofread the book for me.
Since the capstone involved traveling to conduct research with other people, the main challenge I faced was, of course, the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to scheduling and rescheduling the travel portion, planning for alternative research methods, and being more flexible with everyone involved; sometimes it felt like I was figuring out what the capstone would be while I was working on it! Rather than being upset about these challenges, I understood that any project involving a community of people (whether during a pandemic or not), would involve a lot of moving parts and require a lot of flexibility and patience.
The experiences I had building a relationship with a community, conducting interviews, making photographs, working with a committee, and even applying for grants from the honors college will be invaluable to my career going forward. I hope to incorporate this type of research into my professional career as a designer and work on housing, public, and community development projects!