Building Hope: The potentialities of trauma-informed architecture in a residential alternative to custody for women

• In Event: Supporting desistance in community sanctions and measures

Abstract

Hope Street is a purpose-built residential community for women and children impacted by the criminal legal system. It represents a radical rethinking of how the justice system understands offending by women and their gendered experiences within its existing structures. Hope Street has been designed and built according to principles of trauma-informed practice. It is a space that intentionally attempts to use the built environment as a tool for supporting women to heal from some of the traumatic experiences common in their pathways to crime. Rather than tinkering with the existing (arguably misogynistic, abusive) system, it seeks to build something new, collaboratively with those who will be impacted by it, that has the potential to offer a viable, effective alternative to custody for women. Our paper reports on Phase 2 of the Building Hope project. Phase 1 of the project mapped the process of designing principles of trauma-informed practice into the physical space of Hope Street.  This part of the project is a post-occupancy evaluation. Using photo-voice and emotion mapping activities, we are exploring with the women living and staff working at Hope Street the extent to which it succeeds as a trauma-informed space.

Authors

• Madeline Petrillo, University of Greenwich

• Alexandra Fanghanel, Greenwich University