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Zero Flat: the design of a new type of apartment for chronically homeless people

Zero Flat: the design of a new type of apartment for chronically homeless people
Zero Flat: the design of a new type of apartment for chronically homeless people
Zero Flat is a new type of apartment for chronically homeless persons with difficulties adapting to any other housing resource due to the high degree of their social exclusion. Combining the characteristics of a night shelter with the minimal requirements for sleeping rough as well as the warmth of a home, this new space proposes new ways of living that respond to the real needs of long-term homeless people. Situated in the historical city centre of Barcelona in a municipally owned apartment, Zero Flat began as a design project developed with the intention of providing Arrels Fundació, a non- governmental organisation that assists homeless persons, with useful input. During the first year of operation, after its launch in January 2017, more than 74% of Zero Flat’s users were able to improve their situation and move on to another apartment or residence for the elderly. This paper reviews the design process and the results of this collaborative project.
Chronic homelessness, collaborative projects, low demand, design, housing, street, affordable housing
2030-3106
75-92
Cid Moragas, Daniel
c7e1e6ac-7f91-4109-8c0d-3f093ca20010
Serrats, Eva
3e9e20ff-302c-4dfe-97e9-22fd0d2f9f66
Pla, Francesca
b4d12c07-b71d-4a97-9b7e-259442ae0439
Cid Moragas, Daniel
c7e1e6ac-7f91-4109-8c0d-3f093ca20010
Serrats, Eva
3e9e20ff-302c-4dfe-97e9-22fd0d2f9f66
Pla, Francesca
b4d12c07-b71d-4a97-9b7e-259442ae0439

Cid Moragas, Daniel, Serrats, Eva and Pla, Francesca (2019) Zero Flat: the design of a new type of apartment for chronically homeless people. European Journal of Homelessness, 13 (2), 75-92, [4].

Record type: Article

Abstract

Zero Flat is a new type of apartment for chronically homeless persons with difficulties adapting to any other housing resource due to the high degree of their social exclusion. Combining the characteristics of a night shelter with the minimal requirements for sleeping rough as well as the warmth of a home, this new space proposes new ways of living that respond to the real needs of long-term homeless people. Situated in the historical city centre of Barcelona in a municipally owned apartment, Zero Flat began as a design project developed with the intention of providing Arrels Fundació, a non- governmental organisation that assists homeless persons, with useful input. During the first year of operation, after its launch in January 2017, more than 74% of Zero Flat’s users were able to improve their situation and move on to another apartment or residence for the elderly. This paper reviews the design process and the results of this collaborative project.

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Accepted/In Press date: 1 September 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 December 2019
Published date: 27 December 2019
Additional Information: REFERENCES Alba Rico, S. (2016) Penúltimos días (Mercancías, máquinas, hombres) [Penultimate days (Goods, machines, men)]. (Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata). Bachelard, G. (1969 [1964]) The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press). Bosch, J. (2009) How Urban Planning Instruments Can Contribute in the Fight against Homelessness. An International Overview of Inclusionary Housing, European Journal of Homelessness 3 pp.155-177. Burn, S. (1992) Loss of Control, Attributions, and Helplessness in the Homeless, Journal of Applied Social Psychology 22(15) pp.1161-74. Cid, D. and Sala, T. (2012) Casas de la vida. Relatos habitados de la modernidad [Houses of Life. Inhabited Stories of Modernity]. (Barcelona: Ariel). Cloke, P., May, J. and Johnsen, S. (2010) Swept Up Lives? Re-envisioning the Homeless City (Malden, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell). Davis, S. (2004) Designing for the Homeless: Architecture That Works (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press). De Certeau, M. and Giard, L. (1998 [1994]) Private Spaces, in: M. de Certeau, L. Giard and P. Mayol (Eds.) The Practice of Everyday Life, pp.145-148. (Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press). Donley, A.M. and Wright, J.D. (2012). Safer Outside: A Qualitative Exploration of Homeless People’s Resistance to Homeless Shelters, Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice 12(4) pp.288-306. Esquirol, J.M. (2015) La reistència íntima: assaig d’una filosofia de la proximitat [Intimate Resistance: Essay of a Philosophy of Proximity]. (Barcelona: Quaderns Crema). Evans, J. (2011) Exploring the (Bio)political Dimensions of Voluntarism and Care in the City: The Case of a “Bow Barrier” Emergency Shelter, Health and Place 17(1) pp.24-32. Farrell, D.C. (2010) The Paradox of Chronic Homelessness: The Conscious Desire to Leave Homelessness and the Unconscious Familiarity of the Street Life, Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 20(2) pp.239-254. Fernández Evangelista, G. (2015) El acceso a la vivienda social de las personas sin hogar. Estudio de casos: Alemania, España, Finlandia y Reino Unido [Access to Social Housing for Homeless People. Case studies: Germany, Spain, Finland and United Kingdom]. (Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). 92 European Journal of Homelessness _ Volume 13, No. 2, 2019 Fernández Evangelista, G. (2016) Shrinking Social Housing Stocks as a Barrier to the Eradication of Homelessness: The Cases of Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom and Spain, European Journal of Homelessness 10(2) pp.151-172. Johnsen, S., Cloke, P. and May, J. (2005) Day Centres for Homeless People: Spaces of Care or Fear?, Social and Cultural Geography 6 (6) pp.787-811. Julià, M. (2013) Pròleg [Prologue], in: E. Richard Con Cartones por la Calle [With Cardboards on the Street], pp.7-10. (Barcelona: Arrels Fundació). Kaminer, T. (2017) The Efficacy of Architecture. Political Contestation and Agency (London, New York: Routledge). Kohn, M. (2004) Brave New Neighborhoods. The Privatization of Public Space (New York and London: Routledge). Lancione, M. (2013) How is Homelessness?, European Journal of Homelessness 7(2) pp.237-248. Lancione, M. (2016) The City and ‘the Homeless’: Machinic Subjects, in: H. Frichot, C. Gabrielsson and J. Metzger (Eds.) Deleuze and the ity, pp.145-160. (Edinburg: Edinburg University Press). Larsen, L., Poortinga, E. and Hurdle, D. E. (2004) Sleeping Rough: Exploring the Differences Between Shelter-Using and Non-Shelter-Using Homeless Individuals, Environment and Behavior 36(4) pp.578-591. Pable, J. (2015) Possessions in the Homeless Shelter Experience: The Built Environment’s Potential Role in Self-restoration, Interiors 4(3) pp.267-294. Perec, G. and Sturrock, J. (1997) Species of Space and Other Pieces (London, England: Penguin Books). Perry, SL. (2012) Urban Hybrid Space and the Homeless, Ethnography 14(4) pp.431-451. Petrovich, J.C., Murphy, E.R. and Hardin, L.K. and Koch, B.R. (2017) Creating Safe Spaces: Designing Day Shelters for People Experiencing Homelessness, Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless 26(1) pp.65-72. Wasserman, J.A. and Clair, J.M. (2010) At Home on the Street (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner). Waters, J. (1992) Community Or Ghetto?: An Analysis of Day Centres for Single Homeless People in England and Wales (London: Campaign for the Homeless and Rootless).
Keywords: Chronic homelessness, collaborative projects, low demand, design, housing, street, affordable housing

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 437849
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437849
ISSN: 2030-3106
PURE UUID: ea98fb03-9e04-4421-a621-07f9ee58d761

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Date deposited: 20 Feb 2020 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:25

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Contributors

Author: Eva Serrats
Author: Francesca Pla

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