The Welcome Village
Denver, Colorado
With over 5,800 people experiencing homelessness in the Denver Metro region, and 940+ of that population unsheltered, living on the streets, under bridges, or in abandoned buildings. It’s no secret to the general public that this is a serious challenge for the City of Denver. After joining a committee led by the Colorado Village Collaborative and Mile High Ministries that had already been working to bring light to this issue, our team knew we could help them make a difference. Through a lot of research, community sessions, and countless meetings community leaders and local neighbors, the team came up with a new solution for homelessness in Colorado - the Tiny Home Initiative. The primary goal was to create temporary tiny home shelters to give people experiencing homelessness a place to call their own and the stability to get back on their feet.
In collaboration with the Colorado Village Collaborative, our team was able to design and implement the first village dedicated to women experiencing homelessness, The Women’s Village at Clara Brown Commons. This village featured fourteen relocatable tiny homes and one shared Common House in Denver’s Cole neighborhood. In addition to this Village which is currently at full capacity, we have also engaged the city to create a new zoning type for tiny homes, helped with site studies, engaged with community members, negotiated with the city, and even created a video explaining the benefits of tiny homes verses traditional shelters and halfway homes to share with the broader public in hopes of soon developing more Tiny Home villages.
- Location Denver, Colorado
- Client Colorado Village Collaborative
- Photography Jess Blackwell Photography
- Markets Civic/CulturalResidential
- Type Architecture
