Sample

I mentioned before that I’m passionate about informal architecture, which means self-built without the architect’s involvement. I grew up in such a place in Russia, so it became a life-long passion.

"A homeless camp is better than a homeless shelter." - homeless.

Problem: Accommodations

I bet you that you will choose the street over the shelter by the time you finish reading this section. Remember the hypothetical young lady who fled her abusive boyfriend in Homelessness: Overcoming the Bias article? Let’s see where she and people like her are greeted.

• Feel. Shelters feel like prisons: hostile. Shelter typology is unaware of the book Defensible Spaces (Oscar Newman, 1972). Shelters do everything this book warned against, creating rugged, oppressive, controlling spaces, with correctional aspirations. Value engineering as the sole design intent: we end up with a core and shell, with some nice façade to keep the neighborhood happy. People conquer the hostile space with informal uses, each indicating a design issue.