The Wake

“Culturally sensitive housing” is a term that evokes both curiosity and skepticism from much of the university community. Interior design professor Tasoulla Hadjiyanni and her students aim to change that.

“Building Ties: Culturally Sensitive Housing Designs for Hmong and Somali Refugees,” an exhibit of housing designs by Hadjiyanni’s students, runs until May 2 at the Hennepin History Museum. The drawings illustrate plans for affordable housing units that cater to the cultural needs of specific immigrant populations here in the Twin Cities.

“Just having a roof over your head doesn’t mean you’re not homeless,” says Hadjiyanni, an immigrant herself. She wants people to recognize that design plays a major role in making a house a home, and a home can make or break an immigrant’s sense of belonging in a new place.

Hadjiyanni studied the effects of inadequate housing on immigrant populations for 11 years. In 2002 she wrote a book, “The Making of a Refugee,” on immigrant children in her native country of Cyprus and how their experiences in housing projects affected their identities. She has done similar research on local Hmong and Somali populations. The data she collects about these cultures and their needs forms the basis of her students’ projects, but she says she would like to turn her ideas into official policies.

Chiharu Miller, a third-year interior design student, created a housing plan for Hmong immigrants. Her design left more open space than is typical of American homes because, in Hmong culture, members of the extended family often live under the same roof as the nuclear family. “In the Hmong language, there is no word for privacy,” Miller says.

“Hmong religion is centered around the house,” third-year interior design major Katie MacDonald says. “You have to allow space for that.” Open spaces are important for Hmong families because they practice their religious ceremonies at home, rather than at an outside building such as a church or temple.

Juniors Jillian Marchiafava and Sarah Josephson based their designs on the cultural needs of Somali immigrants. Knowing that the Islamic faith requires Muslims to pray facing east every day, Marchiafava included an east-facing prayer-room in her design. She says she kept the room simple so any non-Islamic family that may live there in the future could still use it.

Students designing houses for Somali immigrants also took gender separation into account. Separate entrances into the kitchen allow women to cook without being seen and without wearing burkhas, junior Cheri Sundal says. Somali residents value their privacy and want higher windows and back staircases, she says.

It was important to make sure all the designs held resale value for non-immigrant families but still emphasized cultural compatibility, students said at the exhibit. For example, Somali Muslims wash their hands and feet every time they pray. If a non-immigrant family ever moved into a house with a low sink made for foot-washing, it wouldn’t make sense to them, Josephson says. But the shower she designed with a seat and pull-down showerhead would meet the cultural needs of Somali families as well as be useful for non-Islamic families.

Students also focused on affordability. Two duplexes, located at Hiawatha and 43rd Street, were built with the principles of affordability and cultural sustainability in mind. The houses were built according to Hmong cultural needs, with indoor and outdoor space for gardening purposes, and went on the market at prices that the average immigrant could afford.

Hadjiyanni hopes the exhibit will help raise awareness at the university and among city policy makers. Designs that are sensitive to diverse cultural needs are more important than most people realize, she says, and she wants to make people aware of that. As part of her effort to do this, Hadjiyanni was a panelist at a sustainability discussion between local mayors last month.

“Culturally sensitive housing is not something we think about when addressing affordable housing,” Hadjiyanni says. “And it has to do with education, and getting people familiar with the term.”