With the ‘Bedsteeg’ – a wordplay on the traditional Dutch sleeping accommodation ‘bedstede’ – Roegiers is now bringing attention to residual urban space that can be used to improve living conditions for the homeless. ‘It is about certain basic human needs that have to be met for a homeless person to become strong enough – both mentally and physically – to regain independence,’ he told local newspaper Het Parool. — Pop-Up City
As his graduation project for Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, Patrick Roegiers created a simple cardboard house. Wedged between two existing buildings, covered in water-resistant coating and 3 meters high, the structure is meant to provide homeless people with a warm and dry place to sleep.
Since sleeping on the streets of Amsterdam is criminalized, the homeless population is often forced to move beyond the city's boarders. Through his project, Roegiers, hoped to give the unhoused an opportunity to safely stay in their neighborhoods while making use of Amsterdam's numerous and largely unused alleyways.
One of the challenges was convincing property owners to allow these makeshift bedrooms right next to their homes. Luckily, the neighbors were willing to cooperate, and after they granted permission, Roegiers tasked himself with finding a bedroom resident for every night of the week. If the prototype is successful, the idea might be picked up by existing homeless organizations.
Most of the commenters read the project wrong or are just stubborn and don't want to get it...
Again, it's not a house but a shelter, actually a place to sleep in for max 8 hours a day with privacy, warmth, dry and fireproof.
All the homeless that slept in were thankfull and already felt more relaxed the other day by not being on the cold streets again.
This project is also about creating awareness that the city has a homeless problem and a lot of unused space which you can program with low-cost solutions for primary needs of humans.
Im not stating this is the solution, but it definitly helps as a intermediar. If you do nothing and scream how things should work, nothing will happen and nothing improves. It's all about by just doing it and working together.
We need more of these intermediars (to sleep, eat, wash, evolve) and more independent housing units to improve the steps to get back into society and have a home for yourself.
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I don't want to dunk on what is obviously a well-intentioned project, but I can't ever forget the studio assignment I saw 25 years ago in Philadelphia, in which students proposed cardboard overnight shelters for rough sleepers and the actual formerly-homeless people who saw them said "I won't sleep in that, someone might set me on fire."
It’s fascinating the difference between experience and no experience - you can take my statement with a grain of salt: since I’m only one year into my architecture licensure...
There’s a reason buildings are separated, the most important is fire. Squeezing the destitute into these crevices would be like shoving kindling between two buildings. From my experience in downtown Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, I’ve seen first-hand that the homeless residing in downtown environments tend to not be tidy. They tend to collect miscellaneous flammable material and often times can be seen smoking - a bad combination.
Buildings are also separate for air movement. Plug up the gaps with people who bathe occasionally or never, and again this all makes for a bad combination. I’ve also seen first hand that these homeless city dwellers will use any back ally as a toilet, which I’m certain would only worsen this proposed crevice packing idea.
The idea is obviously well-intentioned, but it shouldn’t be taken too seriously without more understanding of zoning and building code intent.
The solution for homelessness can’t be cheap or quick. It needs to be well thought-out and implemented seriously.
If you do it, do it well: https://www.dezeen.com/2012/10...
Idiotic. Eliminate homelessness with economic and social policy, not temporary cardboard shelters. This kind of activity ingrains homelessness into our consciousness as a normal and permanent aspect of modern society.
A lot of the homeless can and do work, they just can't afford housing in many parts of the US. An attempt to remedy this has resulted in various rent-controlled housing schemes that sometimes have families making up to $200,000 a year in rent-controlled apartments.
Another group is mentally and physically normal but just don't want to work at all. They languish on various wait lists while often on some kind of welfare plan. Sometimes those plans are a floor income while they work off-the books or engage in criminal activity of one kind or another to augment their income.
Another group is the mentally ill. They need supervised help with their medications. Often the drugs themselves or their reactions to not taking the drugs at all can lead to extremely serious, violent behavior.
I think the claustrophobic housing schemes proposed above could easily increase anyone's susceptibility to mental illness.
Decent housing, nutrition, clothing, education, and medical care should be available to all. How to do it?
I'm not homeless, never been - and own a city subsidized apartment, otherwise no worker could afford to live here.
Another group is mentally and physically normal but just don't want to work at all.
In my experience the idlers in society are the ones rolling in dough, not the ones who have been bouncing around at the bottom for most of their lives and who would like nothing better than to participate in a healthy society. Please stop perpetuating the myth that being poor is one's own fault when the entire culture pits everyone against each other.
Generational welfare is a problem is both the inner cities and in places like Appalachia, with the current opioid crisis there. Poor schools (not necessarily cheap schools for the taxpayers) bear part of the problem. There are a lot of problems with education, housing, family structure, medical care, ect., none of which is being addressed adequately except for the tiresome clichés on both sides.
people one here constantly vilify the wealthy and cherish the poor. I know wealthy people who worked hard from absolute nothing and do good things for their communities. I know poor people that are horrible human beings and have spit on every opportunity they’ve been offered. The inverse is true as well. Maybe it’s a false perception of reality by people who haven’t really been exposed to a wide demographic, or maybe it’s logic-less teenage angst extended into adulthood, or maybe it’s virtue signaling...
Not sure, all I know is that this cardboard bedroom is appalling.
dude, it's percocet, wake up. In this valley, (mountain valley 60 miles long, about 100k people) there's a van distributing these guys every morning even if it's snowing, some with dogs. It's an enterprise, fueled by this total loss of faith in humanity - you keep pitching the rich against the poor like money was something you can produce just by sheer will, but I think there are mechanisms at play where the rich are unconsciously and unknowingly driving this society to a brink. The opioid epidemic is not a coincidence, people have been using opiods for pain for ages without getting hooked, a now you will tell me they get hooked bc of a character flaw, I don't think so.
what?
This project in Amsterdam does suck, and is probably dangerous fire wise, but the idea of using “terrain vauge” to provide space for the homeless is not a new one or a bad one.
I think we could integrate a solution into public spaces like parks. Small houses in parks in exchange for x community service hours per week. That gives some sense of pride, earning,
and a place to live.
It would be interesting to create a way for the homeless to be the caretakers of the public spaces in exchange for housing or something like that.
Pitting the rich against the poor is a game the left has been playing for a long time.
again, you got it wrong - it's pitching the poor against the rich. order of factors matter.
You ar Correct.
You are correct.
And it’s wrong because 1) it creates a sense of entitlement 2) it breeds a victim mentality 3) it feeds into the false narrative that material possessions are a necessity to happiness.
Most of the commenters read the project wrong or are just stubborn and don't want to get it...
Again, it's not a house but a shelter, actually a place to sleep in for max 8 hours a day with privacy, warmth, dry and fireproof.
All the homeless that slept in were thankfull and already felt more relaxed the other day by not being on the cold streets again.
This project is also about creating awareness that the city has a homeless problem and a lot of unused space which you can program with low-cost solutions for primary needs of humans.
Im not stating this is the solution, but it definitly helps as a intermediar. If you do nothing and scream how things should work, nothing will happen and nothing improves. It's all about by just doing it and working together.
We need more of these intermediars (to sleep, eat, wash, evolve) and more independent housing units to improve the steps to get back into society and have a home for yourself.
The "wash" part of the above is huge. The US has almost no truly public toilets, nevermind actual showers. I wish this could change, but we're so dang fearful of bodily functions in this country.
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