Empty Spaces: Architecture Healing the Emptiness within Victims of Abuse and Sexual Exploitation

Abstract

Just as death is underrepresented in modern society, women who have been exploited in abuse, domestic violence, stalking, rape, and sex trafficking have also become underrepresented. A voice needs to be given to these women who are forgotten and misunderstood. They need a place to heal and find their voice again. This will happen in a women’s shelter that focuses on the architectural healing of their psyche in the public setting of a shopping mall. The shelter will also give a voice to those who have not yet escaped their oppression through its mood and experiences in the spaces. Through in person interviews and phenomenological research, I will be able to understand the needs of these women and apply them to my design.