Young designer Timo Niskanen was last summer honorable
mentioned in an international design competition, Shelter in a Cart,
the given task in which was to design a cart for the homeless. Two
main functions were expected from the cart: possibility for accommodation
in the night time and possibility for carrying one´s possessions
as well as collecting goods in the daytime. More than 4200 proposals
were presented in the competition. The association
Vailla vakinaista asuntoa ry - No Fixed Abode - and Timo have manufactured
prototype of the cart. The cart will be tested in extreme conditions:
in the homeless' winter in Helsinki. Test results and evaluation will
be published
in April 2007.
Carry On Campaign calls public attention during six months to the
real solution of the homelessness problem. Vva is not producing any
episode of Survivors but introducing the eternal question about the
conditions of the homeless, the lack of rental apartments and the
right to housing. Shelters and dormitories are no solution, but as
the number of shelter places in Helsinki has decreased the homeless
will scarcely have a place where to wait for the real home. The real
home on the other hand seems to be a vanishing dream to the homeless:
new obstacles have been arisen e.g. due to the rental apartment policy
of the city of Helsinki.
