Christa Cowell

Supervisor: Associate Professor Jillian Walliss

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In Australia, 1 in 3 women have experienced intimate partner violence and are 24 times more likely than men to become homeless because of it. For culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women, the risks of family violence are exacerbated by social isolation.

A Royal Commission into Family Violence in 2015 resulted in 227 recommendations to improve the current fragmented service model and ensure all women and children fleeing violence can access appropriate shelter without the burden of ceasing work and school.

A Woman’s Place proposes an alternative women’s refuge design. Acknowledging the nuanced complexity of women’s needs, this project takes an intersectional lens to offer safe and private shelter that speaks to the cultural diversity of its users at a scale that feels comfortable. Located in a high demand urban centre with specialized family violence support, it enables community connections in a secure space that is accessible to work, school and universal services.

I explore traditional binaries outside/inside, public/private and prospect/refuge in critical transitional spaces where a negotiation between landscape and architecture occurs. Knitting patterns of Coburg’s textile manufacturing past and cultural geometries underpin the project’s design language of hybridization. This focus on detailing, its interplay with materiality, and the use of spatial tactics manipulating light and vegetation challenge the institutional, one-size-fits-all approach to community infrastructure.