Attempted solutions for homelessness in a city like New York are ever present. That’s why creative agency Framlab has proposed an innovative architectural design to house NYC’s expanding homeless population, reported inhabitat. The company named their idea Homed: a honeycomb like series of 3D-printed hexagonal pods attached to blank, windowless building sidewalls.
An approximation made by the Coalition for the Homeless estimates that over 61,000 people occupy New York City’s homeless shelters every night. This number has risen by 40 percent in the past five years, and will only continue to grow.
Rendering by Framlab
Framlab hopes to offer single-room occupancy units reminiscent of the city’s old SROs that offered inexpensive accommodation for one or two people at a time. These SROs were terminated between the 50’s and 70’s, which Framlab claims actually led to an increase in New York’s homeless population.
Framlab’s Homed attempts to make use of New York’s myriad of unused “vertical land.” Homed’s housing pods will be attached to vacant sidewalls by scaffolding, and will be tailored for different uses and easy transportation from site to site.
Rendering by Framlab
They will be accessible through staircases fitted within the scaffolding frames, which can be easily constructed or dismantled. Homed’s housing pods hope to design temporary micro-communities with an aspect of privacy that homeless shelters are incapable of providing.
Each of the aluminum-framed units includes interior 3D printed modules from recyclable bioplastics and adorned with wood laminate. The outside of the units are lined with PMMA smart glass which absorbs natural light, and can simultaneously be used to display commercial content or art.
The modules will provide a variety of uses along with sleeping, like showering and fraternizing. Homed’s goal, “Creating a Shelter with Dignity,” will hopefully act as another piece in the puzzle in how to handle homelessness in NYC.
