Housing The Homeless

While architecture, a physical built art form, markets itself as a public endeavor, access divides along societal and economical status. Urban planning of city layouts mimic and deep these divides, falling prey to the ideology that one must afford spaces, beauty, and comfort. Those who fall short of societal standards must be designed away as to not inconvenience the desired user. Washington DC does not even deem shelter a human right. The homeless, who population is higher there than anywhere else in the United States, are simply neglected. The Embed Projects aims to recognize their needs. Exploring the conditions and attributes that led them there, the every day struggles faced, the community centers focus on overall support through many facets. Breaking down hostile architecture, the failures of homeless architecture solutions typically offered, and the systemic design to keep individuals from escaping homelessness, and exploring the lifestyle sustainability offered through permanent housing. This thesis offers a city wide, communal plan to provide flexible, permanent housing to individuals suffering from homelessness and a full network of support for every homeless individual. It aims to address not only the housing but the societal measures that led to it, and difficulties of within this community.