In 1998, David Isay and Stacy Abramson had the unprecedented opportunity to spend 24 hours in a flophouse in the infamous Bowery of NYC. They produced a documentary called the Sunshine Hotel that documented the lives of visitors and residents of the hotel. People that played their guitars to the same tune unintentionally created the soundtrack to the lives of these people. As the manager says in the documentary; without this place, these guys wouldn't have a place to go. One thing is common with everyone at the Sunshine Hotel, everyone is on their own.

LISTEN TO THE FULL SUNSHINE HOTEL RADIO DOCUMENTARY HERE: https://storycorps.org/listen/the-sunshine-hotel/

We fear homelessness. It's why we work as hard as we do...anything to just get enough to put food on the table and a roof above our heads. It's why organizations like Peace Corp visit natural disaster sites to build medical clinics and foster people now living in the ruins. Fear brews stigma to the homeless community. Perhaps it is uncanny after we've became so used to behavioral traits that some homeless people's actions like approaching your car at a red light seem eerie and ominous. They may be unpredictable and, in an ingrained society, order and reason dictate our feelings. In a way, we remove their humanity because despite being human, we see them not quite "as human" as our co-workers or family. This is absolutely wrong of course but it's been ingrained into society that we're taught at early age to not trust the homeless.

These teachings are the products of the governing philosophy of anti-homeless movements. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that despite states like Georgia and Massachusetts concluding a reduction of over 2,000 homeless individuals, other states like New York and California having INCREASES of over 3,000 and 16,000 respectfully. These numbers from 2017 reflect in light of California's new laws that call for more low-income housing while enacting other laws to eradicate the homeless like making public sitting, laying, and sleeping illegal and "disruptive" acts

In light of this battle, I want to reform how we see the homeless by looking at how the homeless combat against not only physical removal but social disgrace and radical stigma embedded in society for years and years.

The answer may lie in irregular fighting in what can only be described as, "guerrilla architecture".

My name is Michael Bair and this is the Reformist.

INSPIRATION

I have attended REUNION Boston Church since arriving in Boston for my architecture schooling. Originally in the Back Bay, the community has shifted to hosting Sunday service at the Blackstone Community Center in the South End. Walking from campus, I pass through Roxbury and through a few low-income neighborhoods on my weekly commute. The first morning we meet at the community center, it was the typical Boston weather of rain and wind. Me being the particularly clumsy and focused writer I am, I ducked in and out of small pockets of the buildings to maintain some sort of definition of being dry. Nearly at the door, I slid into the side of the Stella Restaurant and noticed I wasn't alone. On the outside of the community center, formed in the suppressed façade was a sheet of cardboard and two cement blocks.

My photo of the Brookline Community Center guerrilla architecture movement

Sleeping behind the sheet were a man and what I could only assume to be his girlfriend, holding each other beneath a pink blanket. In a rush, I took a picture of the shelter and went inside for the Sunday sermon. Once I left the gathering, I rushed outside to see if they were awake or hanging around their shelter but everything was gone. The cardboard had disappeared, the blocks were completely removed, and the two people were gone with nothing but a couple of bottles lying where they had been. According to a friend at a later date, this sort of thing happens all the time and I shouldn't fixate on it.

But I was fascinated. These people who had no home or shelter but had still defined a space exclusively to themselves. While not concrete nor brick, they had built a wall that signified not only the public and private, but the rest of the city and them. They didn't take their environment as built but renovated and modified a threshold of sorts into a space of definition and dignity...only to be removed completely in a couple of hours.

Benches, vestibules, and public alleys are almost too cliché to even look at but it's interesting when these spaces take on new programs based on their users. Unfortunately, the government and public regulations have a strategy only going under the alias of "defensive" architecture. From the leaning benches of the New York Subway to the common handles on benches, these additions change and regulate how public spaces are used. Defenders often cite activities like skateboarding or even bird feeding as reasons for their inclusion but it's inclusion has direct implications to the homeless: you're not welcomed here.

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RESEARCH

The idea that the homeless people revolt through architecture is not as simple as I originally thought. In my research, I found a number of examples of architecture not FOR the homeless but BY the homeless. This is architecture that is not built out of scholarly understanding or community outreach but rather a necessity and statement. Today on The Reformist, I'd like to take you beautiful people through a look at examples of the homeless response to aggressive architecture. These are partially organized by order of common practice although no research was done to support this ordering.

1. - SPACE DIVIDERS

Photo source:https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/th...Johannesburg, South Africa

One of the most common signs of homeless community design. Dividers are some of the simplest architecture detail. It signifies a threshold of sorts between one perspective and another. Public v. Private? Owner v. Guest? Simple v. Complex? Home v. Nature? All walls by nature are inherently dividers but designers are constantly redefining the function of a wall. In the homeless community, dividers can be made of wood, cardboard, existing details, and many more. As with my homeless encounter, these walls are non-permanent installations that provide the user a space of their own. These motifs can even be seen in the Sunshine Hotel of Bowery, New York where small cubical define the only space these people can call home. By being able to call a space your own, even theoretically, they can begin to identify place and find refugee.

2. - CARDBOARD HOMES

Photo source: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/the-homeless-b... - Shinjuku, Japan

I debated whether I should include this on the list as I have never experienced a cardboard home and almost construed them as cliché and a product of film culture but in my research, cardboard homes are common practice not only domestically but internationally. Not only are they innovative in minimal material use and scope but their open to variation in form and function. Some can be tied in rope or tape while others rely solely on primitive construction techniques and even begin spatial organization with rooms and programs. Instead of describing them, I have selected a couple of the most interesting to showcase.

Photo source: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/the-homeless-b... - Shinjuku, Japan

Photo source: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1854703 - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Photo Source: http://patmorganauthor.com/2015/07/will-usich-mean...- Memphis, Tennesseee

3. - TENT CITIES

Photo source: http://kuow.org/post/homelessness-task-force-recom... Seattle, Washington - Tent City 3

In an act of urban planning, the Tent Cities as they've come to be known are fairly common practice. Greenways, bridges, and parks act as a site plan for small communities. These, " illegal encampments" can home a few tenements to over 100 people. Some even format a sort of ruffian government by naming the city. In Seattle, one particular encampment called themselves Nickelsville as a sort of insult in reference to Mayor Greg Nickels. These cities are so well know that they have even been cataloged by sites like The Economic Collapse in their list of known tent cities. As a sort of revolutionized urban planning, the tent cities, despite their high crime rates, show that architecture and urban planning cannot be limited to higher institutions and instead are innate for survival and in defiance of the oppressors.

Photo source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/tent-c...List of known tent cities

LEARN MORE AT https://obrag.org/2009/04/californias-tent-cities-...

4. - GARDENS

Photo source: Transitory Gardens, Uprooted Lives by Diana Balmori - Print

Transitory Gardens, Uprooted Lives by Diana Balmori is a book published by the Yale University Press. She researches and visits an assortment of gardens in lower Manhattan that were arranged by the homeless community. Objects like broken chairs, toys, and tires arranged around a given space may seem esoteric but Balmori argues that it holds the right to be labeled a garden just as much as the MFA or Isabella Stewart Gardens here in Boston. Gardens were not meant to last as millions of gardens come and go without notice but it is rather the human intent of gardens that deserves to be analysed. In a way, gardens remind us of our connection to nature but also our separation from it. A great book by Robert Harrison of the Chicago University Press called, "Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition," speaks more about the human "tension" to nature. The homeless gardens of NYC prove this connection to at some level ring true.

Photo source: Transitory Gardens, Uprooted Lives by Diaa Balmori - Print

5. - ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE

Photo source: https://english.mojahedin.org/pagesen/inpicdetails... - Iran

As previously introduced, aggressive architecture is an ever-present reality to the homeless everyday. So adaptive architecture is as simple as a single sheet of cardboard as a softer surface to brick and as complex as entire structures. This spot is to the rest of the methods of design used to adapt to the rough conditions present to them. In a world bent on inequality, the leveling tool is design. Look in your local streets to find everyday examples of survival through design.

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REFORMED!

The homeless world of architecture is a familiar yet unexplored one. Homes out of cheap materials, salvaged remains, and simple construction reminds me of my youth in my backyard building forts. Pieces of wood propped on logs, tarps hung to tree branches, a simple fire out of dried pine needles and leaves. To me, these memories are nostalgic and perhaps remembered fondly for starting my interest in architecture. But for many, this is the method of survival.

The homeless population is a family of innovators, inventors, and most importantly, survivors

Thousands of proposals for homeless housing exist all over the world. But fundamentally, it's designers coming to the homeless, offering their talents and resources to people who are all too familiar with ideas. These people are not interested in what COULD be or what SHOULD be done. Instead these people are looking at what WILL be done. Through a look at homeless guerilla architecture, it becomes clear that the homeless should be coming to designers on exactly what needs to be done.

The question is: will we look at them differently if they do?

Photo source: http://wlrn.org/post/aclu-challenges-miami-law-beh... - Miami, Florida

And as Nathan Smith of the Sunshine Hotel said as the guests checked out of their room:

"I always tell my tenements the same thing when they leave...good luck...Where were they going the next place I hope it's not the same as this, I hope it's a little better but I always tell them that...good luck...good luck, that's all I say".