East Austin Oaks: The Limits of Participatory Planning in the Space Age

Abstract

In the fall of 1968, just after the passage of the Fair Housing Act and before astronauts would first orbit the moon, President Johnson launched a housing design competition meant to apply space-age technology to solve the housing crisis. The competition was judged not only by the performance of ten model homes in which a racially integrated community of first-time homebuyers would live but also via a larger participatory design study to identify cultural obstacles to racial integration. East Austin Oaks did not solve the housing crisis, but it did produce a humble cul-de-sac where several original homeowners still live.