Elaine Khoo - Live Archive

Program:

Site:

Date:

Collaborators:

Archive and Community Center

Overtown, Miami, FL

2023

Instructor Tao DuFour

Partner work with Steffie Chan

Miami’s Overtown is a historical hub of cultural diaspora – Seminoles, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Bahamians, and Spaniards all inhabited the area, culminating in a thriving mecca of businesses, arts, entertainment, and food during the Jim Crow era. Although the construction of the interstate highway in the 1960s and 70s left the neighborhood reeling socioeconomically, displaced most of Overtown’s residents, and severed once-thriving community connections, Overtown remains a testament to the resilience, adaptability, and vibrant character of Miami’s diverse communities.

This project seeks to connect Overtown’s residents back to the natural landscape that once nourished the creolized foodways of the neighborhood and celebrate the complex history of Overtown through the act of storytelling, strengthening community bonds through food and shared history. The interventions are spread across the site in a campus-style approach, connected by winding paths and lush green spaces. Programs such as the community kitchen, food forest, herbal medicine clinic, and food bank surround the urban farm that is central to the site, while historical and educational programs such as the library, theater, and plant preservation lab are adjacent to the highway. The interventions feature interior courtyards and cutouts that act as gathering spaces, their boundaries defined by the use of round logs, whereas the rest of the structure features rough sawn lumber with square profiles. The edges of the buildings are pushed and pulled away from the grid to create spaces that have more connection to the outside, in order to encourage moments of intimate encounter with the natural environment.