Urban Living Room: Inclusive U District Station Plaza Design

Abstract

This thesis explores the social condition of homelessness in Seattle’s city fabric, and the design project is to provide a healthier built environment for an inclusive group of users in U District Station plaza to encourage an interactive social communication. The introduction talks about the crucial questions of the thesis, including the reasons of researching this topic, design proposal and the audience of this design. The literature review and precedent studies focus on the discussion of how homeless experience and use the city and what services are existing in the American contemporary society as well as the discussion of lessons learned and how to improve. The site analysis chapter gives audience a better understanding of the history, current and future conditions of the site. Following is a detailed description of the design and the proposed program, and its connection with surrounding services. The conclusion discusses general thoughts on the continued challenges the design thesis faces.