About

An open framework, openly licensed.

A graduate thesis published under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. The framework can be adapted; it cannot be enclosed.

Author + course context

Subversive Architecture is the master’s thesis of Nathalie J. Hutchinson, completed at Portland State University in 2026. The Neighborhood Triage instrument was first developed in ARCH 433/533: Designing for Wellness (Spring 2026); the Right-Sizing Density Toolkit and the Unionize zine were produced in concurrent thesis seminars. The proposed building at SE 17th + SE Schiller is the integrative design output.

The thesis investigates architecture as an instrument of redistribution rather than form-making — specifically, how design can recover the value extracted from neighborhoods by speculative development, and how community-controlled tenure structures (community land trusts, community investment trusts) can be embedded in spatial form rather than appended to it.

Contact

For citation, adaptation, or collaboration questions: nathalie.j.hutchinson@gmail.com.

License

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

You are free to:

  • Share — copy and redistribute the framework, the spreadsheet, the zine, and the website source in any medium or format
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — appropriate credit, a link to the license, and indication of changes
  • ShareAlike — adaptations must be distributed under the same license. The ShareAlike clause is the legal backbone of the political claim: refuse the enclosure of methods developed for redistribution.

Full license text: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Citation

If the framework is deployed in academic work, please cite the method, not only the URL.

Chicago / Turabian (notes & bibliography)

Hutchinson, Nathalie J. “Subversive Architecture: Three Subversions of the Architectural Apparatus.” Master’s thesis artifact, Portland State University, 2026. CC BY-SA 4.0.

APA 7th edition

Hutchinson, N. J. (2026). Subversive Architecture: Three subversions of the architectural apparatus. Portland State University. CC BY-SA 4.0.

For the Brooklyn assessment specifically

Hutchinson, N. J. (2026). Brooklyn Neighborhood Triage Assessment. PSU ARCH 433/533. Adjusted Triage Score: 2.08 (Baseline).

Intellectual debts

The framework is not a clean-room invention. It extends three precedents that should be cited alongside any adaptation.

Making Healthy Places (2nd ed., 2022)

Botchwey, Nisha D., Andrew L. Dannenberg, and Howard Frumkin, eds. Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Well-Being, Equity, and Sustainability. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2022. The textbook’s social determinants framework underpins the eight Triage domains; chapters 1–3 in particular structure the indicator selection.

SERA Architects — Wellness Compass & Sustainable Project Compass

The Wellness Compass contributes the three intervention scales (Adaptive / Enhanced / Transformative) used throughout the design-translation step. The Sustainable Project Compass contributes the multi-axis radial structure that informs the relation between the eight domains. The Triage model is independently authored but methodologically descended from these precedents.

The Blackfeet Perspective on Hierarchy of Needs

The Blackfeet inversion of Maslow seats Self-Actualization at the base, Community Self-Actualization in the middle, and Cultural Perpetuity at the apex. This reorientation reframes the entire framework: Triage is not only diagnosing individual deficits but identifying what a community needs to perpetuate its culture and self-determine its future. The debt is named explicitly because Indigenous frameworks are routinely absorbed into design discourse without attribution.

When citing Subversive Architecture, please cite all three precedents. They are intellectual debts, not inspirations.

What this site does and does not do

The site runs in your browser. It does not call home.

  • No tracking. No analytics, no cookies, no fingerprinting.
  • No accounts. No login, no signup beyond the optional Unionize roster.
  • No AI / LLM integration. Scoring and interpretation are human work, by design.

The site is hosted as part of njhportfolio.com; downloads and form submissions are handled by Squarespace’s native infrastructure.