Greg Yeo

Hōmu

“Homelessness is not ‘rooflessness’. A home means a sense of security, stability, privacy, safety, and the ability to control living space.” (Mallet, 2014). Youth homelessness in Australia, is a rapidly escalating social predicament which has seen a drastic 26% spike over the last decade. ‘Hōmu’, Japanese for ‘home’, is a proposal for a youth vertical village located at 326 Lonsdale Street that functions as a platform for social enterprise, following the doctrines of our client – the church of St Francis.

Taking inspiration from Japanese culture, its celebration of craft and its vernacular ‘kyo-machiya’ typology; Hōmu illustrates a mixed-use building focusing on the development of both practical and inter-personal social skills through exchange and interactions between residents of the program and the public. Through hands-on learning in the makerspace and collaboration with the public on multiple fronts within the proposal, a symbiotic relationship of live, work and learn aims to alleviate some of the stress off the city, culminating in a gradual but long-term solution to youth homelessness.