This design-build workshop is a product of two years of collaboration and discussion with an Athens-based NGO called The HOME Project that works to provide housing, education and social inclusion to unaccompanied minor refugees that arrive in Greece. The HOME Project currently operates 11 shelters in the form of rented apartment buildings throughout Athens and cares for around 220 children. The organization has a growing interest in incorporating urban agriculture into their shelters both as a way to address issues of climate change, which will soon be the leading cause of displaced people, and as a way to educate the children within their shelters and provide skills needed for jobs in the agricultural industry.
With the advice and coordination of The HOME Project, the rooftop of one of their newest shelters in the neighborhood of Kypseli was chosen as the site for this project. The second floor of the home will house 10-12 boys, age 18 and older, who have aged out of the typical shelters of the organization, but are still in need of a support system. The first floor will serve as a community daycare center, both for refugee children and local Athenian children.
The design is intended to serve as a pilot project to demonstrate the possibility for this rooftop strategy to be deployed across all 11 shelters of The HOME Project throughout Athens.
Athens, Greece - Summer 2019
Students: Kevin Marblestone, Emily Whitbeck, Stephan Hernandez, Charlotte D’Acierno, Jaehun Woo, Clarence Lee
Instructors: Marc Simmons
