Participatory Approaches to Communal Gathering Design in Homeless Shelter Villages

Abstract

People experience each other and their shared environments through communal spaces. Often, these shared spaces allow residents of neighbourhoods to affiliate a sense of identity and placemaking and foster socio-economic relations. Homelessness, exacerbated by growing socio-economic inequality in cities, manifests itself in external, public, and frequently hostile urban settings. Although architectural investigations seek solutions to provide basic shelter to persons experiencing displacement, their community spaces often remain largely overlooked. This paper underscores the need for more effective community spaces, in addition to basic shelter, in homeless re-housing projects. It investigates social and structural paradigms to create spaces of opportunity that provide a safe space for community interaction, fostering social relations and even employment opportunities while recognising social challenges such as reticence among shelter residents due to mistrust, fear of theft and more. Beyond social challenges, the research investigates some challenges related to the employment of more inclusive and participatory design processes and the development of low-cost, adaptable and durable architectural solutions that are safe and effective but do not require a building permit. Working along with a non-profit housing organisation in Seattle, Washington, a team of university students and instructors revealed through this study a necessity for multifaceted approaches towards the design and construction of communal spaces that can be built inexpensively and within code requirements on a variety of sites with more significant community member input. The outcome of this research is a catalogue of shelter systems - a ‘recipe book’ called “Recipes of Hope”- with tectonic elements - called ‘ingredients’- categorised as structure or skin that can be combined by non-profit developers, builders and residents to create safe, sociable, and structurally efficient communal gathering places, that emanate an environment of joy and hope.