Organization and Arrangement of Social Centers for Women in Challenging Situations

The purpose of this research is to justify the necessity of multidimensional women crisis center arrangement. Women in modern society are the most vulnerable to challenging situations in life. This situation is supported by the cultural patterns in the society, financial and legal insecurity of married women. The analysis of the current situation in Russia showed that there is public awareness is low and the number of crisis centers that help overcome life challenges is small in the country. Currently, there is no uniform statistical database of all persons suffering from domestic violence, no correlations found between the crisis center arrangement standards and the population size of cities. This research states and solves the following problems: studying the medical and psychological aspects of architectural solution impacts on people’s health, analyzing crisis center arrangement from the point of view of sociology, studying the experience of Russian and foreign crisis center designs, inspecting the existing center premises, determining their pluses and minuses in operation, analyzing various social center layout options. Based on the performed analysis of the experimental project, the authors formulated the basic principles for crisis center design. First of all, it is necessary to determine the current demand for the center’s services in the city, as well as center funding opportunities. The preferred option shall be multidimensional centers with temporary accommodation functions. The center territory must be divided into private rest zones and public areas, and the visitors must be classified depending on the purpose of their visit, e.g. consultations or classes. There must be separate rooms for center residents and the employees. Creating a positive living environment - the architecture of center buildings must be in harmony with the surrounding area, and the interiors must use balanced, non-aggressive forms and green plants to reduce visitors’ stress levels. Mobility-impaired people must have easy access to the crisis center premises by installing special equipment for visitors with disabilities. The research confirmed that it is necessary to establish multidimensional help centers for women in challenging situations and demonstrated the importance of developing universal principles for architectural and planning solutions used in such centers. This article is the first one in a series of crisis center research aimed at the study of the impact of architectural solutions on the health and psychological state of women in challenging situations.