Gali Paz & Adi Klein

Street Life | Towards nomadic urbanism

Homelessness - the situation of “no home” - is a growing global situation that requires a different approach to urbanism, one that is not based on ownership and permanence. Over the years, the issue of homelessness has worsened around the world. Homelessness is presented not as an individual tragedy, but as a problem of the society that requires spatial-systemic solutions. However, in recent years, the political discourse in many countries around the world implies that poverty is a personal mishap and that if people experience homelessness, it is because they have not made enough effort to ensure shelter and livelihood. Although architecture alone cannot solve the problem of homelessness, the question arises: what and what roles can it play? Or, rather, how can architecture collaborate with other disciplines in urban development that also includes those who do not have a home? We look at the intersection of the homeless and the design of our urban space, the way we talk about street children, possible strategies for the future - socially, politically, and economically, as well as architecture - and how Tel Aviv, a city with the highest number of street children in the country and as a city facing distress Housing, can address the issue in the meantime, what responsibility does the city bear and what strategies does it take to create solutions? What role can architecture play as a profession? How can the issue be made more visible in our society? And what potential does architecture have for creating opportunities? The project seeks to make room in the city for those who do not have a permanent home, on the assumption that the number of these will increase greatly in the coming years. These people have been on the street for a long time and have developed habits accordingly, such as instability, ephemerality and movement, and commitment difficulties. Nevertheless, they will come back to life off the street. Intervention in these lives must include recognition of their characteristics and provide an appropriate response to them, such as basic infrastructure, integration into the city's operational system, and temporary and non-committal housing, with a variable location throughout the city. An urban approach is required, which presents a re-reading of the city, that is, not therapeutic but spatial-infrastructural, an approach that will allow the coexistence of a variety of life forms in the city, a different kind of residence, without a home, or without a permanent home. Expanding the role of the city and thinking of urban infrastructures as nomads, lacking ownership and belonging, enabling proper street life.