DREAM HOMES
Whilst researching the current housing crisis, I created cardboard interventions and placed them around the city of Oxford. These are the dream homes of some of the people I spoke to. Each person’s home is unique to them, to their needs and aspirations.
The housing issue is central to so many people’s lives and struggles. And whilst housing development sits in the laps of corperate property developers, who have no incentive to flood the market with affordable homes, the next generation is being disenfranchised from ever even dreaming of owning their own homes.
This work looks to highlight how: to build a better future we must first be able to dream it is possible.
THE HOUSES:
A House for Micheal:
Michael’s dream house is a little mansion, each room is for a homeless family. It is in the countryside, but with bicycles to get into town. It has a beautiful garden, where people can grow food, with chickens and goat. A place where homeless people can find security, a family place for raising kids.
A House for Claire:
Claire’s dream house is split between a corrugated shack out front with a veranda, which is an indoor outdoor space, and a car warehouse at the back, very modern, made of steel or container blocks, with a studio space for prop making and sculpture.
A House for Jamie:
Jamie’s dream house is a European style apartment. He’s getting older and he knows the hips or the the knees will go.
It is a flat on 1 level, like the one’s he’s seen in Germany: spacious, normal and all your neighbours have the same size one, with a really good lift that works. There are shops and a cafe on the road at the bottom, so he can hobble around the block, get everything he needs and then hobble back.