Walmart
City

Addressing Urban Exile

2019

Advisor: Dr. Tara Bissett

Collaborators: Daniel Vanderhorst

Trailer park homes are the largest source of subsidized affordable housing for the first-time home-buyer to those formerly living a homeless life on the streets. However the trailer park has become an endangered species, largely due to Walmart itself. Many big box stores have looked to the same suburban fringes and small town outskirts that the trailer parks occupy to develop new stores and supercenters. Thus, many trailer park owners have opted to sell their lucrative properties to big box store developers, and in doing so, forcefully evict their tenants in a matter of weeks.

To address this exile, we looked at how to work in the best interests of both groups: the now-homeless mobile home dwellers and Walmart. Rather than relying on governments and tax money for subsidy, we asked why Walmart could not provide housing for these residents themselves. And while this may not be seen as a lucrative endeavour for Walmart, we asked how we could make this a profitable and just act for them. By redefining the traditional parking lot - which largely sits unused most of the time - we proposed a new landscape that could suit both the store and residents.

Using unused trailer units would be sold to the residents along with liquidated products, allowing them to adjust and build onto their homes as they accumulate more wealth. Eventually, they would even be able to buy another trailer unit and stack it on top (with the rental of a Walmart-owned crane truck to do so), allowing them to build a home and sense of community. We looked to present an alternative housing solution to these displaced people. A solution that rejects the conformity of conventional social housing. A solution that is efficient and sustainable. A solution that gives its residents the freedom to build a community from the ground up. Through re-purposing the Walmart parking lot, we can repurpose the American dream and grant access of it to millions of exiled people.




Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3