So, "shelter" and "cart" shamelessly used in the same sentence, as the premise for a design competition at that....is this OK?
DesignBoom maintains that this competition will help generate awareness of the plight of the homeless; All very well, but I say any benefit is superseded by the fact that it tacitly condones the notion of human beings living in tragic conditions on the street. The entire thing is predicated on the extraordinarily callous supposition that it's OK for society to provide "shelter in a cart" for its most marginalized members.
I think this competition should be canned forthwith and the money better spent elsewhere. Curious what others think.
Jared,
I think that you are showing a bias. Let me preface this by saying that I may be completely worng, but I feel that:
a-if nothing else it begins to alleviate their "plight" gives them a place to call:home
b-I refuse to feel superior to others, thus I dont think that the homeless may be in some ways freer than the rest of us. Of course sometimes there are issues of mental illness or addicyion, but nevertheless I will not put myself above these people and their "horrible" conditions. Are people in McMansions in better conditions? Who are we to judge, we are here to design a better environment.
c-there are people that choose to live out of the matrix of our everyday life. homelessness can also be a spiritual/political action.
d-I will enter becuase I just want to design a better world not change it through ideas of superiority, I feel like we can end up with more gov't projects and Le Corbusier inspired bad social design.
holeyman I dont think AFH's is the same idea, but I have heard that it was done before by someone else. No matter it should be done constantly until the idea is taken seriously.
Street people need social assistance, not a "cart".
The "cart" is the actualization of a consumerist society trying to fix a social problem with an object. We might as well give them the latest cell phone while we're at it, if one finds a stash of pop cans he could call the others to recruit help.
hummm....you could do Shacks...but there is the romantic thought
of a shack on wheels.... why not call it a mobile home....like so many
people have taken to living in during recent months. I was surprised
to find so many in England when I traveled there.
Your majesty I will respectfully disagree with you.
We have had years and years of "social services" that dont do much besides institutionilizing these peoples. Lets try this approach it is interesting gives people a hand not a hand out. And as I say I know that for some (a minority I would acknowledge) homelessness is sometimes also a political/spiritual stand that must be respected.
Im not sure either though, and you guys have made me question whether I am the one with the bias.... I think this is an important discussion. The new face of benevolance, what does it look like now?
How can we design a more just world, without submitting ohters into it?
Another question I have personally is whether homelessness might be more prevalent in the future. We are all becomeing nomads, maybe homeless the are just more avant garde than the rest of us.
Dont know and I know Im probably wrong.
Art Center and also CCA have done homelessness studios that have inclued 'shopping cart' solutions. There are a bunch out there.
there is a figure floating out there that the Grocers of America (whatever their trade assoc. is called) spends $2M a year reposessing carts from homeless people. IF you've seen them do it in LA it's quite rough. saw a woman have all her stuff thrown on the floor and her cart thrown on the back of a truck. she was distraught.
I've seen 2 good versions of this that include sleeping quarters and storage.
5 years ago, when i first moved to san francisco, i was SHOCKED at the homeless problem in the city. I grew up in the heart of manahattan, lived in hells kitchen, and had, what i thought was a pretty real picture of the homelessness and the issues that cause it it and it creates. i was wrong...san francisco is CRAZY. people sleeping in their own fesces, very few shelters, tons of shopping cart traffic, and mental disabilities like you've never seen.
what i have heard, though, and i think there are studies to this effect, is that what people really want is a sense of ownership and belonging, no matter how small. while i agree that people should not be living in carts, i also believe that until the infastructure is in place, we need to provide for the people who are living in the streets. bottom line.
when i moved to sf, i decided to design a mobile shelter for just this purpose...the thought being that it was a step in the right direction and that it povided a relatively safe and secure alternative to the shopping cart culture that already existed. anyhow, i think the competition is a great idea. i am sure there will be entries that may be insensitive, but there may just be a few that start pushing something in the right direction. lets not forget that these mobile shelters should be tied into some concrete social servicing, which should also be part of the design challenge.
I had this as a studio project when I was a sophomore in college, circa 1991. We had a choice of designing a shelter that was either cart-based or cardboard box-based.
Dec 14, 05 9:21 pm ·
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Shelter in a Cart?
Check it out:
http://www.designboom.com/cart_shelter.html
So, "shelter" and "cart" shamelessly used in the same sentence, as the premise for a design competition at that....is this OK?
DesignBoom maintains that this competition will help generate awareness of the plight of the homeless; All very well, but I say any benefit is superseded by the fact that it tacitly condones the notion of human beings living in tragic conditions on the street. The entire thing is predicated on the extraordinarily callous supposition that it's OK for society to provide "shelter in a cart" for its most marginalized members.
I think this competition should be canned forthwith and the money better spent elsewhere. Curious what others think.
Politics aside, this competition has been done before.
http://www.architectureforhumanity.org/programs/africa/Exhibit/Selected.htm
Jared,
I think that you are showing a bias. Let me preface this by saying that I may be completely worng, but I feel that:
a-if nothing else it begins to alleviate their "plight" gives them a place to call:home
b-I refuse to feel superior to others, thus I dont think that the homeless may be in some ways freer than the rest of us. Of course sometimes there are issues of mental illness or addicyion, but nevertheless I will not put myself above these people and their "horrible" conditions. Are people in McMansions in better conditions? Who are we to judge, we are here to design a better environment.
c-there are people that choose to live out of the matrix of our everyday life. homelessness can also be a spiritual/political action.
d-I will enter becuase I just want to design a better world not change it through ideas of superiority, I feel like we can end up with more gov't projects and Le Corbusier inspired bad social design.
over and out
holeyman I dont think AFH's is the same idea, but I have heard that it was done before by someone else. No matter it should be done constantly until the idea is taken seriously.
Who would want to live in a cart? We have shelters to house these people.
egg-ZACKT-ly.
God Save The Queen.
Street people need social assistance, not a "cart".
The "cart" is the actualization of a consumerist society trying to fix a social problem with an object. We might as well give them the latest cell phone while we're at it, if one finds a stash of pop cans he could call the others to recruit help.
hummm....you could do Shacks...but there is the romantic thought
of a shack on wheels.... why not call it a mobile home....like so many
people have taken to living in during recent months. I was surprised
to find so many in England when I traveled there.
Your majesty I will respectfully disagree with you.
We have had years and years of "social services" that dont do much besides institutionilizing these peoples. Lets try this approach it is interesting gives people a hand not a hand out. And as I say I know that for some (a minority I would acknowledge) homelessness is sometimes also a political/spiritual stand that must be respected.
Im not sure either though, and you guys have made me question whether I am the one with the bias.... I think this is an important discussion. The new face of benevolance, what does it look like now?
How can we design a more just world, without submitting ohters into it?
Another question I have personally is whether homelessness might be more prevalent in the future. We are all becomeing nomads, maybe homeless the are just more avant garde than the rest of us.
Dont know and I know Im probably wrong.
Art Center and also CCA have done homelessness studios that have inclued 'shopping cart' solutions. There are a bunch out there.
there is a figure floating out there that the Grocers of America (whatever their trade assoc. is called) spends $2M a year reposessing carts from homeless people. IF you've seen them do it in LA it's quite rough. saw a woman have all her stuff thrown on the floor and her cart thrown on the back of a truck. she was distraught.
I've seen 2 good versions of this that include sleeping quarters and storage.
5 years ago, when i first moved to san francisco, i was SHOCKED at the homeless problem in the city. I grew up in the heart of manahattan, lived in hells kitchen, and had, what i thought was a pretty real picture of the homelessness and the issues that cause it it and it creates. i was wrong...san francisco is CRAZY. people sleeping in their own fesces, very few shelters, tons of shopping cart traffic, and mental disabilities like you've never seen.
what i have heard, though, and i think there are studies to this effect, is that what people really want is a sense of ownership and belonging, no matter how small. while i agree that people should not be living in carts, i also believe that until the infastructure is in place, we need to provide for the people who are living in the streets. bottom line.
when i moved to sf, i decided to design a mobile shelter for just this purpose...the thought being that it was a step in the right direction and that it povided a relatively safe and secure alternative to the shopping cart culture that already existed. anyhow, i think the competition is a great idea. i am sure there will be entries that may be insensitive, but there may just be a few that start pushing something in the right direction. lets not forget that these mobile shelters should be tied into some concrete social servicing, which should also be part of the design challenge.
bye bye
I had this as a studio project when I was a sophomore in college, circa 1991. We had a choice of designing a shelter that was either cart-based or cardboard box-based.
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