Our latest Dezeen x MINI Living video investigates a prefabricated homeless housing concept for Los Angeles that aims to bridge the gap between life on the streets and permanent accommodation.
Homes for Hope, which Los Angeles studio Madworkshop developed in collaboration with the USC School of Architecture's Homeless Studio, is a modular system of prefabricated units that can be assembled rapidly on any small plot of unused land.
The project aims to create developments that will house people for three to six months before they can move into permanent accommodation.
Homes for Hope is a homeless housing proposal by Los Angeles studio Madworkshop
Sofia Borges, director at Madworkshop, is keen to stress the importance of this intermediary period in moving homeless people into housing. "It can be extremely traumatic for someone who has been chronically homeless for decades to go from the streets into a permanent home," Borges told Dezeen. "Having that transitional place is critical."
The housing units designed for the project, which will be fabricated off-site and then forklifted into place, can be stacked on top of each other or combined horizontally to create offices and communal spaces.
Housing communities would be formed of stackable, prefabricated units that can be forklifted into place
The units have been designed to offer dignity to their residents, featuring an idiosyncratic kink in the wall facing the entrance that angles the window to allow more ...