Fall 2016 Grant Recipient
Graduate Student
Shannon Ruhl (Architecture) As precedents to the now abandoned coal camps of Appalachia, massive incorporated municipalities dedicated to resource extraction in India and China today, and growing tech communities in Silicon Valley; the model company town is an intersection of economic, political, social, and cultural agendas manifest through urban form. This research asks how economic enterprises operate within an urban context through the armature of ownership. A form of utopian development, the proliferation and evolution of model company towns in 19th century Britain are inherently and completely dependent upon the company's economic success.