Cities of Homefullness

Research Background: Cities of Homefullness was the most recent outcome from researchers Macarow, Haslem and Knutagård in the project Homefullness; an ongoing art, design and social science research project into housing, homelessness and housing stress. This research responds to pressing concerns of homefullness and housing stress through a manifesto. Exhibited as hand-printed letterpress artefacts, printed on a 1926 letterpress printing machine and arranged in a 5 x 5 grid. Cities of Homefullness was exhibited in the European Cultural Centre’s (ECC) architecture biennial exhibition, Time Space Existence from 22 May - 21 November 2021. Research Contribution: Cities of Homefullness was a collaboration between researchers based in the Schools of Art & Design at RMIT University and the School of Social Work, Lund University (Sweden). This artwork draws on research into issues that connect to housing, homelessness and homelands; art and political manifestos from the 1920s until the present day; and practice-led research through experiments with letterpress printing and typography. The research is informed by the housing activism of Knutagård, a leading housing researcher in the Nordic region and one of the architects behind Finland’s homelessness policy. Research Significance: In 2018, ECC curators, Debora Bae and Lucia Pedrana invited Macarow and Haslem into the Biennial of Architecture exhibition on the strength of their previous research publications, conferences and exhibitions exploring Homefullness. The resulting artwork was exhibited for Time Space Existence in Palazzo Mora alongside the creative works of artists and architects including Adrian Parr (US), Arkitektvaerelset (Norway) and Frontoffice Tokyo (Japan/Canada). The ECC exhibition ran parallel to Venice Architecture Biennale, and hosted collateral events for the 2021 Biennale. The event hosts over 600,000 visitors from across the world and received media profile in Arcdaily and World-Architects.com.