The rise of social equity movements in the 19th century happened to correspond with the invention of steel beam building technology, giving the leaders behind social revolution a timely solution to the unsafe, unhealthy and inequitable housing issues of the time. They were laying the foundations for the superblock.

The rise of design theories from Bauhaus era architects and designers propelled the theory of highly functional, practical methods for urban density. Post war Europe found itself wanting for housing solutions as they rebuilt their cities. Soviet dictators co-opted the highly functional concept of mass housing with exuberance. The notion of precisely equal units in well ordered blocks appealed at first to their sense of equality for the masses and secondly as an ideal way to exercise authoritarian policies on a large scale.

Apartment blocks became a worldwide phenomenon in the 1960's as city planners cast off design based on human scale and began construction on a future of managed density. Filled with optimism about a new society that would live in collective units, the designers swept away old learning about organic urban growth in order to bring the traffic pattern of human lives under strict control.

In “Units of Separation”, my project is an exploration of the way people maintain their individuality while being part of a collective and how units of space meant to foster communal harmony can actually threaten our sense of community. While a resident may come to know their immediate neighbor, it is possible they may never meet the person living directly above them.

In this collection of images, I explored blocks of flats in different countries and photographed them from different vantage points. I am fascinated by how the notion of communities in high-rise apartment complexes changes in different parts of the world. In some countries it is a sign of luxury, in others they are equated to a slum.

Most of the project was shot in Singapore where I photographed several apartment complexes. Visiting each floor, I documented the small personal items left outside of otherwise identical homes: bikes, shoes, shrines and drying laundry of all different colors. It was fascinating for me to see the ways the occupants had personalized their exterior spaces to separate themselves from other units.