Location: Laurentian Main campus, room C-104
1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
1.5 AIA LU
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
This presentation, which began as a Master’s of Architecture thesis completed in the spring of 2022, sheds light on the state of women’s hidden houselessness and poverty in Ontario. It zooms in on Sudbury and aims to prove houselessness is not gender-neutral; women have distinct needs when it comes to services and housing.
The rise in the visibility of unhoused men has led to a policy and service environment that heavily favours men, which has resulted in women’s houselessness becoming invisible to the public and the service system. Using an intersectional feminist approach, the project study is an architectural response to the unique needs in a caring and sensitive way through creating a woman-centred place in an urban city like Sudbury using multi-programming to promote women’s empowerment, their physical and mental recovery, and, most importantly, foster independent living.
The project study uses trauma-informed design as a framework for deinstitutionalizing the current system and shifting the focus from housing to ultimately healing by promoting dignity and hope. Ultimately, it is not intended to be a sole solution, but rather a resource that provides an opportunity for discussions to take place between designers, staff members, and community members.
Learning Objectives
- Become aware of and understand intersectional and gender-based barriers to exit houselessness.
- Learn about gaps in current housing systems, support, and services.
- Learn about the benefits and core principles of trauma-informed care and design.
- Get familiar with complexities of trauma and how it impacts the user’s experience of the built environment.
Maria Zakharova, B.A.S, M.Arch, defended her M.Arch thesis project at the McEwen School of Architecture in 2022 and is now an intern architect at 3rdLine.Studio. Her interests and research focus on gender and design, poverty, and trauma-informed care. From being a first-generation immigrant from Eastern Europe to her academic studies at the McEwen School of Architecture, where she was exposed to work with real community issues, she developed a unique understanding and an open-minded approach to diversity, as well as socially and culturally sustainable architecture.