Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Axonometric
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Axonometric 2
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Analytical Diagram 01
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Analytical Diagram 02
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Axonometric Diagrams
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Axonometric Diagram
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Exterior Perspective
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Exterior Perspective
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Sectional Perspective
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Elevation
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Section/Elevation
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Enlarged Section/Elevation
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Floor Plan
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Perspective
Urban Refuge: Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities - Perspective
Urban Refuge
Assisting in the Development of Tent Communities through Modular and Trauma sensitive Design
Master of Architecture Thesis Project
This project began as an attempt to help homeless youth in Oakland. It evolved into a study of the supportive communities that the unhoused population of Oakland can foster in tent cities. The project
aims to create a zero-barrier-to-entry supportive housing facility based on the tent city typology using reclaimed industrial materials. The project is an intervention bringing material integrity, organizational stability, and new spaces of refuge to the tent cities they occupy. Using modular design strategies, the project could be integrated piece by piece over time to create a low-impact housing solution that minimizes immediate displacement, reclaiming the site for those who already live on it.
Homelessness in the United States is a problem that disproportionately affects California. According to the World Population Review, the homeless population in California is 161.5 thousand; that is 16x more homeless people than the national average of 11.4 thousand. It is sufficient to say that the issue of homelessness is not going away any time soon. Of all the cities in the United States, three of the cities with the highest homeless population exist in the Bay Area. San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco account for 10% of the homeless population of the entire state.
The object of this study is to find ways to create better spaces of refuge for the unhoused residents of Oakland who currently call tent cities home. Tent cities are one way that the unhoused communities organize themselves. Tent cities can pop up anywhere, from highway medians to the side of the road. The selected site for this project is inhabited by a fledgling tent city that has not quite found an organizational rhythm as others in Oakland have. It is also positioned in an industrial zone which presents opportunities for city sanctioning, should the project be successful.
Homelessness is an issue that is becoming more and more important to address in the Bay Area. Homelessness in the past year has increased by 43%, and housing in the Bay Area is scarce, with 83% of residentially zoned land being low-density single-family housing. Addressing the homeless problem requires creative and efficient problem-solving in the areas of land use and programming. With residential land being occupied by predominantly low-density housing, looking elsewhere might provide more solutions to the problem. Locating and adaptively reusing sites that are already occupied by the homeless could not only be a solution to more efficient use of land in the city of Oakland, but it could also act to serve the community that resides there already. This is like the idea of programs such as “urban alchemy,” which bring services to the people who need them most. Reusing lots that are already occupied by the homeless is an opportunity to bring social, health, and housing services to them at a large scale.
