Building Performance Knowledge Community

The way to get rid of the homeless can be give them a roof to live under, which can be an architectural challenge for students or anybody with creative ideas of design.

The building material can be paper/cement, a variance of papier-mâché, using the lots of junk mail received to lots of people, news papers, plastic bags, and any other item going to the trash.  Was is important is imagination, create shapes comfortable to live, even furniture can be shaped with this method, soil cement, window and doors with tree branches and plastic bags, plumbing minimum by a water tank serving the faucets, exterior finish plaster applied on the exposed areas.

Land is plenty in Cities interested in have some touristic attractions, like a community with different shapes and colors to be photographed, and buy art items from former homeless.   Designer need to provide areas for volunteers' teaching they skills to produce their merchandise for sale, also design the Master Plan to make the place attractive, parking for visitors, access to water delivered by trucks to fill the water tank of the houses, also locate the place for septic tanks.

Some ideas to enhance or modify this dream?.

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Eugenio Aburto AIA
Eugenio Aburto, AIA
Palm Desert CA
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Some homeless aren't homeless because they don't have the opportunity for a place to go; they choose to not be in a "place" for various reasons, some of the psychologic.  We have a "neighbor" that lives in the park next door - a very nice, gentle, clean and christian man that when offered a place to stay that is warm and out of the weather (and believe me we are having plenty) absolutely refuses.  He kindly declines the offer and indicates that he is fine right there - has everything he wants and needs.

So, while it is fantastic to offer end design shelter for those that need and WANT it, but it won't get rid of homeless - some choose to be homeless.

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David Collins FAIA
President
Preview Group, Inc.
Cincinnati OH
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To someone with a hammer everything is a nail. To many architects everything can be solved by building something.

Don't get me wrong, inexpensive temporary or permanent housing or shelter is a good thing and Mr .Aburto challenges us to help design them, so let's do that but don't forget for whom we are designing. Many of these people have special needs

As Mr. Collins points out, some homeless do not want a shelter. Many wrestle with mental illness and we have few if any people available to help get them medication and help them stay on it. Many of these end up institutionalized - not in mental institutions or hospitals with nurses and doctors but in our jails with an officer guarding the door...and no medications or therapy.

Therefore, let's design temporary and permanent shelters (I'll need one here in Seattle when the earthquake comes and takes my 1929 spec house down) And let's also help and give as possible to those who attempt to care for the mentally ill and homeless, be that your local government a charity or NGO.

When designing these little units lets keep in mind the state of the people who need them.

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Marc Chavez AIA, CSI CCS CCCA
Architect- Specifier
ZGF Architects LLP
Seattle WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-11-2014 17:31
From: David Collins
Subject: Get rid of homeless people

Some homeless aren't homeless because they don't have the opportunity for a place to go; they choose to not be in a "place" for various reasons, some of the psychologic.  We have a "neighbor" that lives in the park next door - a very nice, gentle, clean and christian man that when offered a place to stay that is warm and out of the weather (and believe me we are having plenty) absolutely refuses.  He kindly declines the offer and indicates that he is fine right there - has everything he wants and needs.

So, while it is fantastic to offer end design shelter for those that need and WANT it, but it won't get rid of homeless - some choose to be homeless.

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David Collins FAIA
President
Preview Group, Inc.
Cincinnati OH
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Giving stuff away is never the answer. Show them how to apply for jobs, show them how to acquire free materials,  show them how to build. Show them, teach them anything, but enough of the give-aways, already.

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Charles Graham AIA
Architect
O'Neal, Inc.
Greenville SC
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One time-tested way to build would be to use earth brick. When I was 27, I was not homeless, but I built an adobe house that I designed. Then I went to architecture school.. I visited a friend's home in Mexico near Chihuahua. He built a two room adobe house inside of a compound. The house was approximately 3 meters or 10 feet square. The entrance was at the kitchen, which had free standing stove and a dinette with 4 chairs. The other room was a bedroom/living room. There was no running water in the house, but a communal shower, toilet and drinking water served the residents. Security was provided by a high wall around the compound, which also kept the trucks safe at night. Inventing new materials from recycled items is great fun and a practical thing to do, but I will stick with site made sun-dried brick and a permit from the Forest Service to cut pine roof beams and Aspen saplings for roof deck. See photo for another option where trees are scarce. See www.teg.com for a professional group that is a resource. ------------------------------------------- Richard C Scott AIA, Owner AQUATIC EXCELLENCE AUSTIN EARTHBUILDER AUSTIN, TEXAS -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 02-10-2014 23:09 From: Eugenio Aburto Subject: Get rid of homeless people The way to get rid of the homeless can be give them a roof to live under, which can be an architectural challenge for students or anybody with creative ideas of design. The building material can be paper/cement, a variance of papier-mâché, using the lots of junk mail received to lots of people, news papers, plastic bags, and any other item going to the trash. Was is important is imagination, create shapes comfortable to live, even furniture can be shaped with this method, soil cement, window and doors with tree branches and plastic bags, plumbing minimum by a water tank serving the faucets, exterior finish plaster applied on the exposed areas. Land is plenty in Cities interested in have some touristic attractions, like a community with different shapes and colors to be photographed, and buy art items from former homeless. Designer need to provide areas for volunteers' teaching they skills to produce their merchandise for sale, also design the Master Plan to make the place attractive, parking for visitors, access to water delivered by trucks to fill the water tank of the houses, also locate the place for septic tanks. Some ideas to enhance or modify this dream?. ------------------------------------------- Eugenio Aburto AIA Eugenio Aburto, AIA Palm Desert CA -------------------------------------------

Nice thought, but the approach you suggest already exists in ad hoc developments known as shantytowns in the English-speaking world, favelas in Brazil, etc.  I don't know the statistics offhand, but I've read that a preponderance of the homeless are living rough on the streets because they are mentally disturbed or drug users and would prefer not to live subject to rules and expectations in a shelter.  There are no simple solutions to the problem, which has many and complex causes, including the previously mentioned drug use and mental problems, but also the job market and other forces beyond the control of the individual. 

San Antonio has the Haven for Hope Shelter, which like similar facilities in many other places provides shelter, job training, counseling, etc. to a large number of homeless people, but there are also at least an equal number who hang around outside the compound doing drugs or otherwise not willing to submit to the rules of the mission.  



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Martin Notzon AIA, NCARB, LEED AP
San Antonio TX
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