Reproductive labor, which encompasses all the work within the raising of a child, is endemic to the human condition - we do not exist without it. The production of the capitalist state depends on the reproduction of the human body. And yet, while the labor of industry is legitimized through remuneration, the labor of reproduction often remains subordinate. This work- the work of care- demands and deserves political and spatial valorization.

This thesis imagines a center for children and working parents to render visible the unseen performance and performers of reproductive labor.

Performing carework is feeding a baby and changing dirty diapers, but it is also soothing a baby’s cries and offering tenderness and affection. Carework subsists on both material and immaterial labor, and this thesis places carework’s manifold forms in juxtaposition with other types of labor.

The proposed project is a cooperative 24/7 childcare center for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local outpost in Houston. The headquarters will be reimagined with a foregrounding of childcare. SEIU represents the constituency whose remunerated labor is based around service and care.

A reimagined SEIU outpost that includes childcare considers what can happen for its members when childcare becomes a common good? Having a space for this reproductive labor increases the accessibility of working parents and amplifies their agency. Having a space for the children means there can be space for gathering, assembly, and organizing as a collectivized body.

By employing the practices of prefigurative politics, this project speculates upon an architecture of a social, political, and economic future where childcare is a public common.