temporary urban bedroom

A project exploring the relationship between Architecture and the eradication of Poverty

Homeless means very often sleep-less and therefore dream-less.

If the right to a home is not for everyone the right to dream has to be.

Dreams for the future, dreams for a better life.

Big cities of the world produce a lot of waste as a result of a continuous transformation, but somebody’s waste can be a precious resource for others.

The project aims to give a warm winter shelter to homeless people, re-using hot air blowing in the street from the exhausts of the underground ventilation systems. The residual energy is used as a passive heating system.

By conveying this already waste energy into a very big “sack” surrounding a core room, the hot air is caught and kept in the soft volume a large cardboard box in which is possible to sleep and dream.

The Dream Shelter can be totally disposable, reusable, adaptable and built as a kit.

 

Design team: Giovanni Bonfanti, Federico Grazzini, Francesco Draisci

Client: UIA and UNESCO

Location: London

Status: Competition entry, 1998