In Australia, one in six women experience physical or sexual violence at the hands of a current or former partner, often repeatedly. In the face of such violence, refuges provide a nurturing environment in which women and children can start re-building their lives.
But, like many social services, these spaces are chronically underfunded and often makeshift, resulting in physical environments that often fail to offer service users the comfort, security and autonomy they seek.
UTS researcher Samantha Donnelly is trying to change these outcomes through the development of best practice design principles for refuge accommodation. Called The Design Guide for Refuge Accommodation for Women and Children, the work is now transforming the refuge sector in NSW.
Design that supports recovery from violence
Prior to joining UTS, Donnelly had worked in architectural private practice where she contributed to a number of refuge projects and saw firsthand how well-designed spaces could enhance resident wellbeing.
But, because most refuges are cobbled together using available, low-cost housing or rental stock, very few are fit for purpose — according to Donnelly, only two of 86 refuges in NSW are designed in a way that meets residents’ needs.
“When women are in refuge, they have a series of support frameworks available to them, like access to counselling and opportunities to learn life skills that they may not have had before,” she says.
"If the refuge provides a welcoming entry, calm interiors, and a sense of safety, women are more likely to stay."
To develop the design guide, Donnelly visited 11 refuges across greater Sydney, interviewing women, refuge managers and staff members to better understand how responsive design could help enhance the refuge experience.
She found that women valued spaces that were safe and private and that enabled them to live alongside other women while still maintaining their autonomy. Refuge staff, who were similarly struggling with issues of space and privacy, articulated the need for more functional work environments.
“Staff would be working in single rooms that were completely chaotic — phone calls, staff meetings, donations, volunteers, visiting consultants, and day-to-day resident inquiries,” Donnelly says.
“Because they’re in there every day helping women navigate difficult circumstances, they need to have a space that operates in a really high-level way so they can work well and stay sane.”
Transforming the design of NSW refuges
After the interviews, Donnelly collated the data and began drawing out a series of recurring themes. These themes — safety, privacy, dignity, flexibility, accessibility, child focused, sustainability, therapeutic space, sense of home — became the nine principles that sit at the heart of the design guide.
The Design Guide for Refuge Accommodation for Women and Children was released in 2020 and disseminated widely to public agencies, social services organisations and construction companies.
That same year, Donnelly was contacted by the NSW Land and Housing Commission, peak organisation Domestic Violence NSW and social housing provider Housing Plus and asked to provide feedback on each organisation’s own refuge housing design guidelines, which drew heavily on her research.
And the impacts have been significant: the NSW Government has since announced $484 million in public funding to support the building of 75 new refuges across the state, while Housing Plus has implemented the Design Guide to help frame their in-house design strategies for ten new sites in NSW.
“The proliferation of design guides and the funding that is emerging in this space demonstrates that the housing sector is increasingly recognising the importance of good design.
“My research and practice collaborations with government, NGOs and the private sector will continue to shape this rapidly-changing space.”
Samantha Donnelly
The Women and Girls’ Emergency Centre (WAGEC) in Redfern was an early participant in the Design Guide’s development, providing access to numerous refuges for Donnelly’s research and offering a wealth of insights into the lived experience of residing and working in these spaces.
The WAGEC team has since drawn on the Guide’s nine best-practice principles to shape a recent renovation of their head office, as well as of three of their refuge sites.
“The feedback from staff and clients and the service managers has been really positive — the spaces are much more clean, refreshed and trauma informed,” says WAGEC’s Strategic Project Officer Melissa Burnet-Rice.
“They also reflect the Design Guide’s principles of flexibility, accessibility and sustainability —they can be easily adapted to different size families and different cultural needs.”
A post-occupancy evaluation of the refurbishment process is currently underway.
This impact story was developed as part of UTS' Distilling Research Impact initiative, which is designed to help academics tell the story of how their research is making a difference for their partners and in their communities.
Illustrations courtesy of Samantha Donnelly
→ Read The Design Guide for Refuge Accommodation for Women and Children
