The history of Los Angeles’ Chinatown District is one of extraction and relocation of people for the benefit of industry and infrastructure. Our proposal for Hope Village seeks to remember these stories and restore connections to the history of this place and its people. Hope Village is a 300-unit mixed use development for formerly incarcerated individuals, the unhoused, and families affected by the justice system. It contains an extensive network of mental health and social services as well as community amenities, landscape, and open space to establish a network of affiliations both within and beyond the site. A network of programmed pavilions provide for a range of services and spatial conditions that acknowledge varying levels of engagement from public to private, while also reconnecting, and restoring, a pedestrian oriented urban fabric.
By elevating the three values of Choice, Community, and Comfort as principle tenets of a Trauma Informed Design framework, the design places emphasis on the whole person that prioritizes human experience to enhance personal control, dignity, connection, meaning, value, and safety. Additionally, through extensive use of landscape, shade, stormwater management strategies, and noise mitigation, the design attempts to offset some of the environmental impacts of industry and infrastructure disproportionately placed on the Chinatown community.