PAVE Student Design Competition

Project Description

For this project, I worked with my classmate, Sofia Alves, to come up with a new design for City Relief’s pop-up services for people experiencing homelessness. The pop-up has to be able to be set up in under 30 minutes, and must store into 2,000 cubic feet. Our design won the 2022 PAVE Student Design Competition.

Concept Statement

For our design, we used biomimicry and translated the form of a roly poly shell into a tent-like structure. Like the exoskeleton for roly polys, these structures, and the design as a whole, provides a place of refuge that creates a sense of safety and comfort for people experiencing homelessness. This design is built to operate as a “third place” by building community and providing visitors a public place to feel comfortable and socialize. This design provides people experiencing homelessness a variety of choices and services, and a space that makes them feel safe and supported, in order to help them work towards a better future.

All renderings done by my teammate, Sofia Alves