The proposal is for an educational opportunity centre in Chicago, which provides overnight accommodation as well as facilities for therapy and learning. It is also an employment junction for those seeking escape from gun violence prevalent in south and west Chicago.

The Institution will become part of the newly elected Mayor Lightfoot’s outreach scheme in which $250 million has been promised for programmes dedicated to reducing gun violence. The building has a domestic agenda: it seeks to provide a welcoming safe space and offer a sense of security and comfort. The architecture makes reference to traditional methods of fortification, as well as psycho-spatial defences like the ‘blanket fort’, the epitome of childhood security. Crafted in concrete, a casting formwork of steam-bent ply shells encasing latex reservoirs offers a typology that mediates between fortress and blanket.