PROBLEM STATEMENT:

As detailed in the following thesis, local councils and state governments

seem to be stuck in a lethargic state when facing the ongoing severe housing

crisis, failing to come up with concluant solutions. In September 2023,

136,000 houses were vacant in Australia 1 ; with 4,449 unoccupied dwellings 2

in Melbourne. Still, in a census produced in 2021 (no more recent reports),

1163 persons are recorded as experiencing homelessness in the locality of

Melbourne. An obvious disparity is at play here. With a bigger budget

allocated to graffiti erasing than for housing planning, it might be time for

Melbourne to revise its littles well-oiled system, relying on capital-viable

solutions. This amount of empty buildings can be partly explained by the

merciless high finance system. Basing its economy on an extractive model.

Meaning it's taking out something for its exclusive advantage and the other

party loses. 3

Real estate corporations are transforming a fundamental human

right into a commodity, tradable on public stock exchanges, at such a level

of abstraction, that the good itself loses its function. Not only does it vivify

the housing crisis, but it also contributes to the social fragmentation of the

city; along the misuse of spatial practices, such as urban design strategies.

It's time to look outside of institutional boundaries. A solution that does not

involve challenging power structures is impossible. design and policy need

to actively work to create inclusive and safe spaces . Given the state of 4

emergency of the housing crisis in Melbourne, the design and policy-

making approach of local councils and state governments, requires

transgressive reforms. To reach this goal, we need to develop a new

functional type, basing its classification of space by defining people's

specific needs. In the case of this proposal, the needs of vulnerable

communities within the homelessness spectrum. It is urgently needed to

rethink our public and urban design strategies and embrace a new radical

approach to housing and shelter alternatives.

Before establishing a new set of socio-architectural types, and socially

driven alternative design strategies, we need to understand how the actual

and current design strategies enforced by the local council and State

government are hostile to their people.

1 Touma, Raffia and Nick Evershed, The Guardian, “Up to 136,000 houses are empty in Australia – find out where they are,”

2 ABS, Census

3 OFFICE, The Politics of public Space

4 Jeremy Kerbel, Politics of Appropriating Social Space, The Balloon Factory and Beyond

METHOD:

Employment

This report of concern was made possible by a diversity of research

methods. The first part relies on the use of field research, in which

observation and documentation of the urban environment took place,

interviews and discussions were held, besides manual data mining,

reviewing census, index, municipality yearly budget reports and housing

five year plans. The second part displays comparative analysis of

classification systems and A critical study of the functional architectural

typology allowing its hypothetical reshaping. This investigation resulted in

a set of recommendations encouraging direct actions and a conceptually

developed socio-architectural typology that would bring new housing

alternatives: a typology of care. From the local to the global, withhin the

current global capitalist crisis, it is not only a Melbourne story…

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Last Updated 24.10.31