Dar Tereża is a community project which caters specifically for women with mental health problems and their children.
The refashioned house offers facilities to shoulder care responsibilities within a safe and empowering environment, affording family members to remain living together as a family while receiving the support they need. After winning the Sustainable Communities competition in 2019, LOCAL OFFICE for Architecture worked on a consultative process with all stakeholders to generate a space built on three main considerations: safety for individual residents, shared spaces for communal interaction and opportunities for integration with the public realm. Architects Alexia Mercieca and Alex Spiteri operated at the intersection of the Ministry for Social Accommodation, the Housing Authority and Kamra tal-Periti who launched the competition, together with the Richmond Foundation as the clients, to create an ecosystem which satisfies the criteria of this project, setting a precedent with Dar Tereża for how to forge better societal impact through architectural reuse.on replacing former learning spaces – unremarkable in organisation or design. The project’s design ambition was to create communal space that united bold, sculptural geometry with pragmatic use. A lengthy central pool was integrated for exertion and entertainment but became one of a pair of the home’s strongest design elements.
The restoration of the two houses has reinvigorated the way in which they work, creating a series of spaces which maximise the natural orientation of the corner property. A new addition on the roof serves to offer flexibility to hosted families, encouraging interaction whilst allowing for independent living and reduced conflict through the doubling up of all facilities. The house is not a shared dwelling, it is a series of spaces with different potentials of privacy so that residents will have the chance to better develop the conditions required to live unassisted, but still supported, within society. Dar Tereża is built on the idea that architecture needs to become an opportunity for community. It reinvestigates modern living so that it can become a space of healing. The project maximises the abundant views, creates a dynamic interior and maximises the heritage potential of the site. The architects played the important role of facilitating interaction between all stakeholders (public and private) in what has become an excellent example for the future of sustainable community projects. The scope of the architecture office extended beyond the mainstream remit of such a practice, creating participatory workshops in the community and with the NGO, working to fundraise and procure sponsorships to ameliorate the quality of the spaces and the eventual wellbeing of prospective residents and staff. The project continues through the design of a post-occupancy study to gauge the impact of the project for residents and the immediate community.
As part of the initiative of LOCAL OFFICE for Architecture and Richmond Foundation, Project Green has responded in developing a public garden project that is also sensitive to the needs of the resident mothers and children which is being envisaged as part of the house’s community impact.
