Maya Welsch

(Emergency) Housing in Brunswick

This project tackles housing as a feminist issue, which traditionally locks women in the kitchen, but now extends further than this. We still see second wave feminist issues that are reinforced by housing. Tapping into collective living and its impacts by operating in a shared living module with reduced kitchens, the suburban pipeline to gender norms and roles can be subverted. Vulnerable groups become less isolated and therefore less vulnerable to exploitation. Taking this further, housing is a human right, and should not be taken advantage of to generate profit. Community spaces on site serve individuals requiring support - an area of the site is reserved for rehoming emergency housing. Reinterpreting suburban living, the architectural typology is created by investigating features of suburban Melbourne and what we think of as Australian vernaculars, changing the scale of traditional middle ring units, creating indoor-outdoor connections, and promoting communal living and relationships.