College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
UW architecture students win first prize for homeless memorial
Tuesday April 2008
First place for this year's national Design Build Challenge is a 6-foot cube lined with acrylic plaques, some of which bear the names and ages of men and women who have died while homeless since 2000. Within the memorial, the thick bamboo flooring and a cube allows a place for visitors to reflect while also holding some of the smaller pieces of the memorial, and a crafted box with a blank plaque and a marker for future additions to the memorial. The designers also hung mirrors along with the acrylic plaques, intending to remind us of the connections all people share with the homeless. As the memorial travels it will be "a place for homeless people to grieve as much as a symbol of the problem of homelessness," according to team member, Adam Amsel. The competition resulted in a total of two travelling memorials that will be set up around Seattle, as well as a set of easily duplicated, portable toilets. Organized by last year's New Orleans Design Build Challenge winners, another CAUP team who formed the group TILT, a coalition of designers, architects and builders who use architecture to help underprivileged people and foster community awareness, this year's challenge featured 30 participants, who had 3 days to get their assignments and scrounge for supplies without a budget. Participants worked with representatives of the Women's Housing Equality and Enhancement league (WHEEL), and a related group, Women in Black, who hold vigils for those who have died on the streets or as a result of violence. The idea of a memorial makes sense particularly because the homeless do have grieving friends and famliy too, and yet their remains are usually cremated and placed in mass graves. Judges considered the appropriateness of the designs and materials, and whether the teams finished their projects on time.
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