Design for Homeless (DfH): A capstone experience

Capstone projects are usually designed to promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity using the knowledge and skills students acquire in their coursework. This paper presents the initial findings of a two-semester-long, industry-facilitated, and collaborative capstone project in Spring and Fall 2018. A team of construction management and interior design students at California State University, Fresno was tasked to design and build a temporary home prototype for a local homeless shelter to raise awareness of an urgent social and economic issue in the community. The new design aims to create a more comfortable and uplifting environment for the homeless. The project provides an immersive interdisciplinary learning environment with a tangible scope, featuring direct mentorship of faculty and a local architect, collaboration between two colleges, and active interaction with a non-profit organization. The project is evaluated based upon information gathered from student design artifacts, construction process documentation, and perceptual data via surveying and reflection. This paper discusses the benefits and unique challenges of Design for Homeless (DfH) and provides insights on its implementation as a capstone experience. Introduction Capstone design courses are intended to provide rich opportunities for student learning [1]. According to Marin et al., successful capstone experience can be affected by many factors, including student preparation, the type of project selected, and the roles of mentorship [2]. A study conducted by Todd et al. revealed that a significant number of institutions engaged industrial clients to sponsor capstone projects [3]. In addition, a number of schools were using undergraduate team-based projects, with a few using interdepartmental undergraduate teams from different disciplines. This study discusses a senior capstone experience featuring multidisciplinary collaboration between construction management and interior design students on a service-learning project that addresses design for homeless. The project involves a broad spectrum of stakeholders including architectural and construction firms, non-profit organizations and other community partners. Student learning outcomes are assessed to offer insights in understanding how such a capstone experience may have the potential to provide tangible benefits to both students and the local homeless community. Background According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of 2018 there were around 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night, or 0.17% of the population and about one-third (35%) were unsheltered. Noticeably, California has the largest homeless population (24% or 129,972 people) and the highest percentage of unsheltered homeless population (68.9% or 89,543) [4]. Small temporary shelters offer respite from the homelessness crisis and relief for the users, providing them with a safe and private environment, protection from the elements, and a shield from the vulnerability of living in the street [5]. The Department of Construction Management at California State University, Fresno has a welldocumented history of commitment to address homeless issues in the community, and has been dedicated to seeking innovative and affordable shelter design and construction solutions via service-learning and active collaboration with local architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms. The Eco-Village project [6] documented efforts of students from two colleges (i.e., Lyles College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Humanities) who were tasked to design and construct meaningful emergency housing after investigating various conditions harming the homeless population in local community and elsewhere around the world. This unique experiential program allowed students the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to gain social, cultural, and environmental consciousness in both their professional and personal lives. In the long term, the program is staged to design for the needs of a community it will serve. Another unique project in the department, entitled the “$300 House Challenge”, explored the technological and social dimensions of lower-division student learning in engineering and construction curriculum, via a design for homeless shelter with $300 budget [7]. This uniquely blended technological and social context became a facilitator to enhance student learning outcomes (SLOs) in teamwork, collaboration, communication, and leadership, which are deemed as essential social competencies of future workforce. Existing literature about student design of shelters is broad, but there is a lack of studies in this area involving multidisciplinary work. In addition, studies rarely explore the impact, during and at completion of a project, on students who designed and built a temporary shelter prototype for chronically homeless people. In a study from 2017 [8], interior design students at a university designed and tested a prototyped portable homeless shelter with six homeless men in order to gain a better understanding of the design needs for portable homeless shelters. The project had a different focus compared to the study presented in this paper, as it did not involve collaboration with other disciplines, nor did it assess the impact of the project on the students. The Capstone Project Design and Implementation This was a two-semester-long capstone team project for a group of four (4) senior construction management (CM) students. The team was tasked to design and build a temporary home prototype (single or double occupancy) for a local homeless shelter to raise awareness of the homeless crisis in the community. In phase 1 (Spring 2018), the initial design concept of the shelter prototype was presented to the team by a local architect in the form of a paper model and a preliminary floor plan. The team then worked closely with the architect and the instructor to develop detailed design plans, digital models, specifications, along with a milestone construction schedule and a material cost estimate for the project. In phase 2 (Fall 2018), a collaboration with a class of eighteen (18) freshman interior design (ID) students began. The CM and ID students paid a visit to the homeless shelter together where they observed the conditions of the existing shelters and learned the living challenges and needs from the shelter representatives. Based on the feedback and further literature review, the ID students provided recommendations on interior and exterior paint selections and designed an accent wall for the interior. Meanwhile the CM team constructed the shelter prototype on campus following updated design plans and digital models, a construction safety plan, a work coordination plan, a weekly construction schedule, and a detailed cost estimate. Figure 1 (a) (d) illustrate the conceptual paper model from the architect, the 3D model created by the CM students, the accent wall design and interior color selection proposed by the ID students, and the final completed shelter prototype, respectively. The project provides an immersive interdisciplinary learning environment with a tangible scope, featuring direct mentorship of faculty and industry professionals, collaboration between two colleges, and active interaction with a non-profit organization. The project is evaluated based upon information gathered from student design artifacts, construction process documentation, and perceptual data via surveying and reflection. Figure 1. The evolvement of the shelter prototype Design Features of the Shelter Prototype The sleeping units at the local homeless shelter consist of an assemblage of uninsulated tool sheds, which are obviously less than desirable for human habitation. After a site tour and consultation with the shelter director in regards to their needs, safety, comfort, privacy, prevention of bedbugs, and ease of maintenance were identified as the top design priorities. Consideration of the diversity of users, stressors related to homelessness [9], and geographic location of the small unit provided appropriate interior materials and a color scheme for the prototype. The paint used for the interior including the walls, the ceiling, and the floor was a liquid rubber, a product that is water based, waterproof, chemical resistant, and has low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds). Plywood was chosen over drywall for sheathing as it is a much stronger material and is less susceptible to cracking in case of transportation. All corner seams and cracks were sealed using an embedded reinforcement fabric provided by the paint manufacturer, which further prevents the infestation of bedbugs, a major problem in homeless shelters. A drain was installed inside the shelter to allow for an easy and thorough rinse-off with a high pressure water hose. An accent wall emphasized by the design of lines delimiting simple shapes was conceptualized by the ID students as a visual and uplifting distraction [10]. The horizontal lines evoke calm and tranquility and vertical lines evoke stability, strength, and dignity [11]. Students also proposed a variety of accent walls for future design applications to differentiate one shelter from another and to personalize the small units [12]. Psychological effects of colors are difficult to prove since many variables affect them: different responses from one person to another, levels of brightness and saturation of the color, amount and type of light in a space, and the space itself [13], [14]. These variables, in addition to a lack of specific research suggesting colors appropriate for small temporary shelters, made the selection of colors for the shelter challenging. The colors selected by the students for the prototype were based on general agreements of color theories and symbolism, and with consideration for the searing tempera