Fostering healing spaces: reimagining Toronto's existing violence against women shelters through a trauma-informed design approach

Abstract

Since the second wave of feminist movements began in Canada in the 1960s, violence against women has been a topic of discussion. Despite these ongoing discussions and policies aimed at addressing gender-based violence, the country has seen few changes in case numbers, highlighting the importance of Violence Against Women (VAW) shelters. Many of these shelters operate within older buildings not originally designed to support this demographic and as a result, the quality of VAW shelters in the city of Toronto has been a concern. Using a trauma-informed design approach, the thesis retrofits existing environments to be a supportive, and responsive to survivors’ diverse identities and needs and reimages them as a place of refuge for healing. The thesis presents a toolkit for shelter improvement, a crucial resource that offers design strategies to foster safety, dignity, and empowerment. It aims to contribute to Toronto’s broader efforts to end gender-based violence through intentional and supportive design.