Tracing and Redrawing: Visual Strategies for Memory and Transformation in the Built Landscape

Abstract

This article explores the layered nature of the built landscape in U.S. cities shaped by policies of segregation, demolition, and displacement. Focusing on three case studies—Sekou Cooke’s We Outchea, Yolande Daniels’ Black City, and the Westside Evolves initiative in Chattanooga—it examines how contemporary methods of graphic representation reclaim erased memory and re- construct cultural heritage in urban contexts where physical continuity has been lost. Through visual overlays, digital mapping, and participatory art, these projects expand the definition of preservation to include intangible, symbolic, and collective dimensions. The article argues that palimpsestic representation offers not only a tool of analysis but also a political and cultural strategy for documenting, understanding, and transforming the built environment.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.35.2025.8