Honey home

      This design is a homeless youth shelter in Toronto, Canada. At the beginning, we discussed why there exists  homeless youths, and decided to find some root problems, and then To solve these problems one by one in the design. We believed that the phenomenon of homeless youth is mostly due to three points: the lacking of economy, family and education. Economic problems are really difficult to solve in architecture, so we decided to focus on education and family, and take this as the core problem to be solved in this design,but how to provide them with family and education? (In addition, we believed that the concept of education is broad. It can refer to social education, including communication with people, life skills learning, teamwork ability, and knowledge education, and even sports such as playing ball are also an education).

    We decided to choose a few basic elements in the family and education, the first is the family---we chose the fireplace as the core element,although many families no longer use the fireplace in nowadays, the fireplace has been the absolutely symbol of family from ancient times to modern times.  Secondly, the mutual aid association is combined to strengthen the collective identity of the youth. In terms of education, elements such as libraries and teaching kitchens were used for conceiving.

    This time the site has a height difference of 1.75 meters from the north side to the south side, with the middle part as the starting point, the height difference on the south side is steeper, and the north side is relatively gentle. So we chose to fill up the site on the north side, and the site on the south side was connected to the site on the north side through a ramp. Making a courtyard in the core of the south site and the north site each represents the family and education issues we solve. We decided to make the courtyard on the north side a closed courtyard. First of all, because the light on the north side is less and colder, we hope that the courtyard representing the family can give young people more privacy and a sense of security. They can have activities around the fireplace in the courtyard, or organize mutual aid associations in it. Good privacy can prompt them to speak out their problems and experiences more confidently. In the courtyard on the north side, we have added some walls. These walls are placed near the entrances and exits of some surrounding rooms to completely separate the surrounding office staff from the entrance and the flow of people. This is to ensure that the entire courtyard has a certain degree of privacy. Let the young people here be able to relax themselves in this courtyard. The courtyard on the south side is surrounded by glass curtain walls. In order to allow sunlight and scenery to penetrate all around, young people can feel vitality in this part. The two courtyards are divided into two parts, which have their own functions, but are closely integrated.

    The south side is made into an open courtyard, first of all to introduce sunlight into the building, and then we hope that the site on the south side will be more dynamic, sunlight, sports and learning can penetrate every part of the building through the glass curtain wall.In the north courtyard we added some circular sunken steps. These inspirations came from the mutual aid association. The young people gathered in a circle by the fireplace and told each other about their difficulties and psychological problems in life. Repulsive, but here they can find a sense of collective identity. We also made a sink in the courtyard on the south side, forming a small theater here, where young people can perform social activities or perform some drama performances. With the core, the next step is to arrange the rest of the functional rooms around. We arranged the rooms in the form of units in order according to the height difference. Some rooms consist of two units, which have formed very interesting changes in the interior, and the spatial form is also marvelous.

    We adopted two typologies of façade on the facade of the dormitory on the second floor. Aluminum has good durability, will not rust, and is easy to maintain and clean. We hope to be distinguished from the surrounding houses on the facade. This will be a unique home for these young peopleThe above is the whole process of our design.