Renewing Manchester: A supportive life skills center for Manchester's most underprivileged residents

In America today, many people have fallen into sub-standard housing situations. Domestic violence, drug abuse, and lack of educational and employment opportunities are a few of the myriad reasons for this. On average the number of homeless people in the greater Richmond area is 5,200 individuals.1 These are people specifically in need of a re-integration into society.This thesis examines the role that the built environment can play in this process, by providing a sustainable, affordable and flexible site for a program that encourages people to rise above their current state by "recycling" them into better more productive citizens. The intent of this design is to provide a program that will be flexible enough to become a prototype for future housing plans involving upward mobility.The existing structure lies in the Manchester district of Richmond, Va. This community is comprised of many gentrified warehouses and expensive artist lofts, skirted by poverty and the very compromised Blackwell neighborhood. Specifically this project will serve the needs of the Richmond, VA. Community. Richmond, like most American cities, houses simultaneously houses both affluence and poverty.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Interior Design

Year dc:date.available

2007

Author dc:creator

• Hamilton, Jennifer Lynne

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lucinda Havenhand

• urban design
• homeless shelter design
• Richmond Virginia
• Blackwell neighborhood
• Art and Design
• Arts and Humanities

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1258

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-2257