Muzus is a design group specialized in co creation, with the help of Impegno and the City of the Hague a workshop was run focusing on concerns a group of longtime unemployed Hindustani men, in the Transvaal area of The Hague. Most of the men are alcoholic and homeless, which results in the group hanging about in the streets. The group consisted of 40 men. The city received complaints from the residents of the neighborhood and therefore started up a project around two years ago, together with the foundation Impegno, to help this group.

During the workshop, on the first day, we investigated the context of both the men and their coaches, and learned about their needs and wishes. Based on this information on the second day we developed concepts that will help them, improve their situation, or benefit these people in any other way.

The final projects were presented to the local government representatives from the Hague. The project I worked on was dealing with communication. Between the men and their families, the wider community and the authorities.

Concept 1  Post Box Caddy

Communication with family and friends was mostly facilitated through the use of letter and postcards. The Dutch government provides homeless people with assistance in receiving a postal box. This is a stable place where they can store their important items. This design uses this small space to organize their letter, and create a small personal space where they could write letters of their own.

Concept 2 Letter Decipher

This concept pertains to the communication between the homeless men and the authorities. Many of them receive legal and institutional information that they do not understand. This concept proposes creating a booklet of letter templates which you could check to see what the letter was about without having to dissect it with a dictionary or ask for help. It tells you in plain language what the letter is about.

Concept 3 Community Cookbook

What we found when we met the men during our workshop is that they really enjoy cooking. Perhaps this is because they only have access to a kitchen and dining area once every couple of weeks, but nonetheless they were very organized and passionate about what they were going to cook and how. Many had recipes from their home country of Suriname. Throughout the day they explain that there was often a problem with communicating with the wider community in the Hague. We saw a community cookbook that mixed Dutch and Surinamese cuisine would be a great exercise to try.