IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs) improve public safety and have saved lives globally for decades. International public health research has determined the overwhelming success of OPCs as an integrated care model that improves mortality rates and overall health of people who use drugs (PWUD). As well as increase neighborhood safety and cleanliness for all residents in neighborhoods with high drug use. However, despite their track record, they are highly politicized with their legal status, design and location being precarious. Safety concerns are often still the primary objection used by cities and neighborhood groups to block their development. This paper explores how architectural research rooted in the public heath concept of harm reduction can begin to define OPCs as a standard building typology in the health design landscape. Once accepted as a standard typology, architecture can aid in the development of and advocacy for policy that ameliorates safety concerns regarding the implementation of OPCs. The role of architecture is to construct justifiable site strategies, program, and planning metrics to assist harm reduction advocates in turning a politically contested typology into a socially accepted one, mediating government and community concerns about building and neighborhood safety, while prioritizing the safety of drug users as a highly marginalized population. Life safety is a fundamental architectural problem. Architects build buildings, and this building saves lives.