Concept Thesis Project

‘Beyond shelter’ responds to the 2018 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare which indicated a 49% increase in older homeless individuals within the last decade. Less likely to be living on the streets, but instead in temporary homes, and boarding houses, those over 55 are often a forgotten group within Australia’s homeless population. 

Anticipating this growing crisis, My proposal aims to reconcile otherwise contradictory values of prospect and refuge,  that is, the desire to live in community while not wholly denying the possibility of being alone. It draws design techniques embedded within libraries and age old monasteries, long known as alternate refuge places for the homeless,. It uses these a basis to design a recuperative emergency centre that looks beyond the necessities of food and shelter.