The Oranje Huis Cardiff

Domestic abuse is a problem that is becoming increasingly more prevalent in our society, but with more occurence, there is more conversation surrounding the issue, drawing it to the attention of a wider public whilst also inspiring much needed activism. Despite this, many women still only seek help at crisis points due to fear.

Fear of becoming homeless, fear of breaking their relationship, fear of losing friends or family due to the current anonymous solutions. When we look at these fears from a design perspective we can see that there is a significant lack of architecture targeting the problems, with retrofits or appropriated stock being the societal standard. These typologies offer a “Witness protection” style refuge, isolating these women from their local area, their jobs, their families whilst often providing these vulnerable women with less than adequate living standards, with not even a guarantee of safety.

This thesis sets out to design an ideal womens refuge that tackles the problem from its roots, ecouraging women to seek help at an earlier stage in the abuse. The ethos of the design is based on the Dutch Oranje huis, a typology based around the traffic light system, where green means day centre care for couples with benign issues, red means crisis care and orange, their main demographic, means women who are at a point in their relationship where it would be beneficial for them to take some space from their partner who has started to show signs of abuse. Oranje Huis Cardiff provides a state of the art residential facility that positively impacts the women that enter its doors, it encourages freedom and independance and offers a “home away from home” environment with resort-esque facilities, allowing the women to feel like they are being empowered rather than being punished for being a victim.

It promotes education and growth and it makes itself known to the city via both its physical structure and presence and also its marketing strategy, inherently creating a protected bubble and enhancing the feeling of security. With its monolithic exterior and soft, tailored interior, it is a symbol of the strength of the survivors. There is comfort in knowing that you will not be stripped of your basic rights when entering the Oranje Huis as you would within anonymous refuge but rather be given new opportunities and a guarantee of a bright future, truly encouraging intervention before crisis point.