08/18/2017
Our collaboration with Rachel Dao for the UNENCUMBERED exhibit looking for ideas on how to best serve Los Angeles' homeless community:
UNENCUMBERED Exhibit
Casey Hughes Architects and Rachel Dao Tensity - New Skid Row Housing Typology
There has been a large homeless population since the inception of Los Angeles; this population has always retained its own neighborhood – Skid Row. Skid Row remains the largest “stable population” of homeless in the United States, which creates its unique character. The culture of Skid Row is the culture of homelessness.
But this neighborhood and culture are under threat from those who would like to “clean it up” by way of development. Skid Row is being encroached upon and whittled away by an ever- growing demand for urban luxury lofts. As with other gentrifying neighborhoods, there is a sense that the onslaught of capitalism is unstoppable. Can a housing type be developed that satisfies the real-estate market’s appetite for luxury “urban” housing while simultaneously serving Skid Row’s homeless population?
Casey Hughes Architects and Rachel Dao's submission for the UNENCUMBERED exhibit explores this tension between homelessness, development and gentrification.
Through the incorporation of homeless encampments into the façade of the luxury loft, they propose a new housing typology that addresses Skid Row’s culture and needs. This inhabitable façade embraces the neighborhood's culture rather than trying to extinguish it.
This proposal is an alternative to forcing the homeless population into conventional low- income housing - a one-size fits all solution that fails to address the actual needs of the culture. Tensity proposes to create a housing infrastructure that retains the adaptability of a homeless encampment while incorporating the amenities of conventional housing (bathrooms, kitchens, etc.) and the specific services that Skid Row’s population requires (medical services, food kitchens, etc.).
Tensity is a sanctioned and visible place for Skid Row’s population to live that integrates the lofts into the Skid Row context. It addresses the needs of the building’s distinct user groups and allows for socially conscience real-estate development to support (rather than displace) Skid Row’s current residents. This housing type reiterates that the homeless inhabitants are as important as any loft dweller and empowers them to shape the way they live.
