AIA exhibit "Where I Slept" documents homelessness

This month the American Institute of Architects/Portland Chapter is exhibiting photographs from a new book called "Where I Slept" at its Center For Architecture. A First Thursday opening party will kick things off this Thursday from 5:30-8:30PM.

A collection of photographs and thoughts by homeless individuals in Portland, this book was organized by Transition Projects, a social service agency that helps people make the transition from homelessness to housing. The agency provided cameras to residents of their shelters and asked them to take photographs and share memories of where they slept before coming to the shelter. "Where I Slept" also commemorates the 40th anniversary of Transition Projects.

"There's a starkness - a sense of dehumanization and otherworldliness - captured by these photographs that expresses the alienation that the chronically homeless feel on a daily basis," said Ted Wheeler, Multnomah County Chair. "The most basic thing we can do to help the homeless is to reach out to them and acknowledge them as fellow human beings. The worst thing we can do is pretend that they don't exist."

The exhibit is being organized by Dave Otte of Holst Architecture and Tony Bernal of Transition Projects. Otte got involved because Transition Projects will be one of the tenants of the new Homeless Access Resource Center that Holst is designing. Otte also served as one of the architects who designed the Center for Architecture for the AIA.

The Center for Architecture is located at 403 NW Eleventh Avenue.

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Are we Rural Studios or Mouthpieces?