Design Session
Hagar’s House is a women’s safe-home in New Orleans, LA. The home is a two story shotgun style house, and space was running low with more children coming to the home. They approached Tulane City Center for an outdoor enrichment room to give the kids a personal place to play. The project would occupy the existing back porch which faced the community garden. The project strives to connect the house to the garden, both functionally and visually; the space provides open an area for the children as well as the women to practice such activities as yoga; a large storage wall blocks the southern sun, while also providing study nooks for the children; a tree-house type loft space is a unique place for the kids to claim their own territory, hide, imagine and explore; this place also becomes an outdoor seating area covered by the butterfly roof which catches water to feed the garden. The project was designed in 4 weeks as part of a community design studio in the Fall of 2010. We collaborated with the women and children of the house to produce the final design. Construction was completed in January (16 weeks total) and was done exclusively by the students in the studio.
Final Design
photo by will crocker
photo by will crocker
photo by will crocker