A body, a room, failed care

This research investigates the architectural inadequacies of women’s shelters in Turkey, showing how the design of these shelters ignores the needs of users, including privacy, comfort, and the chance to rebuild trust. No matter the political or administrative frameworks under which they were planned, these shelters impose a spatial regime of constant visibility and surveillance, subjecting already traumatized bodies to more discipline rather than protection. Four black boxes make up the installation, each representing a distinct moment of spatial and emotional deprivation. This immersive experience seeks to place the visitor in the shoes of the body experiencing these spaces.

body_1 rejection
When traumatized women bravely leave behind their familiar living conditions and arrive at a shelter seeking safety, recovery, and a new start, the door of the institution can become a barrier rather than an entry point. In some cases, management denies admission to those with a history of sex work, despite the lack of legal grounds. Mothers also face difficult choices, since shelters refuse to admit boys over the age of 12; in such cases, the child is sent to a protection facility while the mother enters alone, forcing families to confront painful separation at a moment of crisis.

body_2 common areas
In shelters, daily life unfolds mainly in common areas. Yet, in many cases, these spaces are often poorly designed and furnished with arbitrary objects, leaving the body detached from a sense of home. Unlike in a household, activities are scheduled and collectively enforced by the institution’s management, requiring everyone’s simultaneous participation and creating a constant sense of restriction and enforced order.

body_3 surveillance
Examining management practices reveals that the shelter functions as part of a broader political system. Regardless of political orientation, the institution often makes the traumatized body feel under constant surveillance. The use of shelters as publicity tools by political authorities such as municipalities and ministries, together with the state’s preference for the term “women’s guest house” over “women’s shelter”—a place intended as refuge from violence—exposes how these institutions reproduce trauma through mechanisms of visibility and control.

body_4 privacy
One of the most vital needs of a traumatized body is to have a personal space reserved solely for itself. Yet in shelters, individuals are placed in shared rooms with others and their children, where constant proximity can intensify past wounds or create new ones. On the other hand, management often limits communication among residents out of fear of negative consequences and sometimes confines them to their rooms. Thus, the body’s freedom, already constrained upon entering the shelter, is further restricted by the institution.