Home(less)ness Shelter
After visiting the “Hub,” these students were very affected by the area of our site that was being used as a “home,” storing clothes, being used for cooking, and also experiencing very cold and wet conditions. They decided, out of all the safety concerns in this area, that safety for the homeless was the first issue that needed to be addressed. They developed a hanging tipi system that allows residents to lower their personal tipi with their secret code and raise it back up for a safe night’s sleep. Their system would provide at least ten tipis that in turn provide shelter for 1-2 residents per unit. The scaled model they built used recycled materials from an exhibit at Pratt and is easily compacted and transported. Teaching was overseen by Erika Schroeder and Borinquen Gallo through the Taconic Fellowship hosted by the Pratt Center for Community Development.
