Participant challenges current approaches to the housing crisis in Seattle.

Designed as an intersection of present and future narratives, Participant seeks to grow and develop alongside the changing needs of the population it serves. The goal of this empathetic architecture is to facilitate the reclamation of social and political power for people facing homelessness through the creation of mutual aid networks and renewed possibilities for urban authorship.

Narrative Futurism

The project's spaces are designed in response to and in formation of the real-life stories of people who have experienced homelessness in Seattle. Shared through documentaries and interviews, these stories occupy new imagined futures in Urban Participant in which their narrators have met their needs and are pursuing their aspirations. Here, Melody is provided her own classroom after the school she worked for failed to support her when she got cancer and she lost her job. She is able to continue teaching here, a vocational training space where residents and community members learn skills to help build their community.

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Concept Design

The project operation shifts as the needs of the occupants shift. First, permanent SRO housing housing and health services (clinic, safe injection, education centers) meet the critical needs of those who are chronically unhoused. Then, the modular tiny-home factory at the ground floor flips the script of housing assistance, providing optional transitional housing after permanent housing is established. This allows occupants to customize their space and select the community the live in once their critical needs are met. Modular tiny-homes form mutual aid networks that amplify the collective political and capital power of those with shared experiences of Seattle's housing crisis.

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