The creation of safe spaces and community

The project is a refugee centre with accommodation spaces for refugees, women, POC, and the community at Stokes Croft. A space where everyone is welcome to use the space. Refugee Women of Bristol (RWoB) are the main tenant of the administration spaces and will run the centre. Refugee women and families can apply to stay at the accommodation spaces. The site has plenty of public social spaces for the residents and the community to interact with each other.

As the theme of Unit 12 is Urbanism: Land as a Secret Weapon, I first observed our site location, Stokes Croft to study the visible physical urban fabric and invisible power structures. This alongside my research allowed me to come out with a brief to design a public-facing building for my specific users. Starting with the philosophy of home and belonging as a design methodology, I explored Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Feminist City to come up with my design synthesis using it to inform my design and programming, being inspired by cultural inspirations to create moments within the project.

Within the context of urbanism, I identified the web of Stakeholders that will be involved with the project, making sure to design with them in mind and a long-term sustainability plan. After studying Leslie Kern’s book, Feminist City, I set up the conceptual design strategies that will inform my design process. Kern explores experiences of the city from three characters: mothers, friends, and individuals. This gave me a clear framework to create actors for my theoretical project. The theories and lessons learnt from anecdotes of women and their experiences within current city models should be actively applied to contemporary spaces to ensure that the everyday urban experiences of women are not limited by the patriarchal social norms that have been built into our cities. Using this design inspiration to inform how the building would be, from large scale like structure (physical embodiment) to program (massing & moments) and all the way down to thought (philosophical ideas and practices).

The concepts include using food to connect with each other by cooking and eating together, using the Islamic design concept of differing layers of privacy throughout the building, cultural and skill exchange between the refugee woman and community, applying feminist theories in design and, creating pockets of green space throughout the building.