The influence of community-centered design and design-build projects on architectural education has increased in the last decade. Including student-led community-engaged projects in the curriculum of architecture schools has shaped architectural education and influenced the profession. These projects provide a service to communities or non-profit organisations in need of design solutions. Engaging social responsibility and public interest design represents an ideological shift in the way that architecture schools are approaching education. There is often an intersection of public interest design and design-build in these projects. This paper explores the question, can an academic community-based design-build project provide a new transitional housing prototype for the homeless? And, do these projects fulfil the needs of students to provide effective learning experiences for promoting their desire to promote communities they serve?
Architecture schools provide learning experiences through various initiatives. For example, Yale University’s “The Yale Building Project,”1 Auburn University’s “Rural Studio”2 and University of Kansas “Studio 804”3 have had long-running public interest design studios. These designbuild initiatives educate students outside the typical design studio. This article will provide an overview of public interest and design-build education in the United States to provide context for introducing this into the curriculum at an Australian university.
The Prefab 21 design-build studio is a partnership between the Deakin University School of Architecture and Built Environment, FormFlow, and Samaritan House, a shelter for homeless men, that focuses on the design and fabrication of a prototype house. This transdisciplinary project was accomplished in design studio and workshop sessions that designed, documented, and built an Independent Living Unit (ILU) and created a microvillage of seven ILUs at Samaritan House. This prototype has an extensive impact through it providing a new typology for transitional homeless accommodation and jobs in the region.
Cover image: Samaritan House Microvillage Aerial View
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