TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — From model to micro-shelter—16 University of Arizona architecture students, now graduates, designed a 96-square-foot space for people who are unhoused, and Tucson may see more like it very soon.
This was their final capstone project for students in the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA).
A survey from the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness shows that on a single night in 2024, over 2,000 people were living in shelters, traditional housing, or without shelter.
Wanting to offer more than a meal to the unhoused, Chuck Dunn from the Tucson Hope Factory, proposed the idea of creating a micro-shelter village in Tucson to the College of Architecture’s Drachman Institute last summer.
“When they are given this little spot to live in, they have a key. It's their key. It represents the safety and compassion of what this project is all about," Dunn said. "That key represents control of where their life will go going forward.”
Dunn has volunteered on behalf of unhoused people for over 10 years and wanted to help establish a safe space for people to call their own.
“You have to come out to use the bathrooms. You have to come out to use the showers. You have to come out to eat. You have to come out to go to counseling, so it becomes communal. You've got to get out of your little cave and into a communal environment. And that builds community," said Dunn.
Students like Carolina Durazo began designing prototypes of an 8-by-12-foot micro-shelter in the fall and finished the project early this month. Some of the students met with people who are unhoused to understand their needs.
“Getting that feedback was very helpful in terms of how we should design the microshelter because there’s a thing called trauma-informed design where certain aspects like building a shelter with a really small window can be triggering to someone who just came out of prison," Durazo said.
The project was co-led by Associate Professor of Practice at the College of Architecture, Teresa Rosano, and Greg Veitch, research coordinator at the Drachman Institute.
Rosano says they are working with other colleges at the UA to improve the next prototypes.
“With the college of medicine and public health—working on a grant with them that then hopefully allows this project to be tested, monitored, and then that feedback that we get and improve the next iteration," Rosano said.
The micro-shelters were designed so that volunteers can assemble them using instruction booklets in the future.
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Jacqueline Aguilar is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9. Born and raised in Yuma, AZ., she is no stranger to the unforgiving Arizona heat. Now this U of A wildcat is excited to be back in Tucson and is looking forward to involving herself in the community. Share your story ideas with Jacqueline by emailing jacqueline.aguilar@kgun9.com or connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
