Respecting the planet while helping people in need

What would it take to help people & the planet?

Xystudio shared the example of the Shelter in Jankowice through our website. They explained it is an unusual building designed for people in need: homeless who are too unwell to live in night shelters, yet too healthy for public healthcare. It is for them that Nun Małgorzata Chmielewska decided to create a home & found a way to do so through a founder.

The Shelter is a single-storey building that blends in with the surrounding fields & hills. It is unnoticeable from the road, hidden behind old trees growing around a former school yard.

It is divided into three main zones separated by brick walls. The first one is open for everyone with a chapel, offices, rehabilitation rooms, a common room, dining room, and kitchen. It is designed to support resocialization. The second zone is intended for the homeless and has 19 rooms with bathrooms. Large transparent walls give a sense of space and help staff to take care of inhabitants. The third zone is intended for those who devoted their lives to caring for the homeless & consists of 3 tiny apartments.

The inhabitants of the Shelter require constant care. The house had to be accessible to the disabled by design. That, was achieved through a balanced arrangement of the space.

The heart of the building is the courtyard, decorated with "Four Seasons" mural by Marcin Czaja. All common rooms are around it. The residential area is more distant, simple & cosy.

The building is supported only through donations, so it had to be efficient & affordable.

They introduced simple ecological installations like ventilation with recuperation, house sewage treatment plant, floor heating & watering the garden from rainwater tanks. The walls are filled with reused ceramic blocks. Ecological materials are used everywhere. Keeping heat loss as low as possible is important for easy & low-cost maintenance.

The interior equipment comes from donations, e.g. washbasins from a lost cargo, or end-of-production series. Every bathroom is different. Connecting all these parts in harmony was a worthy challenge.

? Home for The Homeless © xystudio