![AXON_01_TRUCK [Converted]-01.jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55ca13d7e4b0618a8b668660/1595695536177-MN08V1P4Y6MMVL6Q4XR1/AXON_01_TRUCK+%5BConverted%5D-01.jpg)
cornell university | B.Arch Thesis
Received the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Medal
Read more at Core 77 Design Awards
Compassionate Spaces facilitates reproductive choice for poor and rural women through responsive, covert interventions, with the ultimate aim of returning choice to the individual. Keeping or terminating a pregnancy is a deeply personal decision, one fraught with emotion and outside pressures on both sides of the argument. External issues such as cost, stigma, and exclusionary laws further complicate the decision by exerting undue pressure on the individual.
Abortion is federally legal, but women in rural areas are losing access as clinics are closed down. As a result, many have to travel out of state to get the care they need, and are often harassed once they reach the clinic. Burdensome costs, hassle, and intimidation pose a higher barrier of entry to financially vulnerable women.
This project proposes a system of deployable mobile shelters to address the issue, framing its architecture as a site of radical engagement and practical activism. These shelters are covert, nimble, and responsive: nestled within the bulkhead of a ubiquitous beverage truck is a living, reconfigurable, soft space that anticipates and reacts to the needs of body it holds, comforting the traveler within while providing protection through safe passage and secrecy.
Compassionate Spaces aims to insulate a highly personal decision from outside political noise, while creating opportunities for comfort through interpersonal connection. By addressing large sociopolitical issues at a personal level, architecture can use its agency to create openings in otherwise impenetrable political, social, and economic systems.