This paper examines the interconnection between Swedish non-institutionalized housing provision for asylum seekers and everyday domestic practices. Though not investigated, these emergent housing modalities bridge a gap in the provision of accommodation for adolescents facing relocation orders to other municipalities. Since 2015, volunteer homes in northern Sweden multiplied and underwent major architectural transformations to provide these youths with stable housing. The spatial transformations in the affected dwellings pushed the limits of architectural design and raise critical questions about the resilience of current Swedish housing design recommendations for the construction of ‘the Swedish home’.
Through an interdisciplinary examination of case studies, the paper addresses the spatial and social aspects of domestic architecture transformation. The specific research objectives are to:
1. investigate the conditions that led unaccompanied asylum seekers turning 18 to face an unstable housing situation and that prompted self-organized networks to emerge;
2. define the architecture of non-institutionalized accommodation for vulnerable youths provided by Swedish civil society;
3. determine how the architecture of the dwelling transformations relate to everyday domestic practices; and
4. understand how Swedish recommendations for housing design impact the way domestic architecture is transformed and used.
The methods used are prototyping, formal analysis, interviews, site observations, and discourse analysis. The paper contributes unprecedented analysis of the implications domestic space has on everyday life, shows how housing design relates to societal circumstances, and provides an interdisciplinary framework to revise the design and regulation of domestic space.
2022.
International Conference on the Home, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 10-11, 2022