'The Castle' is a collaborative project between The School of Architecture & Design, a youth shelter and a school-alternative workshop. The project aims to assist youth at risk of homelessness by deploying micro-dwellings to households experiencing spatial and emotional distress. The Castle questions common assumptions about housing. The brief requires a dwelling that is small, mobile, autonomous and spatially clever. Four prototypes have been designed and built by architecture students in collaboration with a neighbouring homeless shelter, Youth Futures. One prototype, combining the attributes of an oversized piece of furniture, a caravan, a loft apartment and a backyard studio has proceeded to serial manufacture by long-term unemployed trainees under an Australian federal government program.

Assembly has been tailored for low-skilled labour through the evolution of an innovative digital design/fabrication system called 'Panitecture'. Borrowing strategies from the kitchen cabinetry, boatbuilding, caravan and mobile home industries panitecture is based on a construction grammar that includes a reliable component jointing regime, a limited material palette, minimal tools (mallet, screwdriver, glue and paintbrush) and a legible communication of assembly instructions.

The Castle proposes a model of long-term community engagement between a school of architecture and progressive community organisations, drawing together a complimentary set of skills and priorities, addresses each of the three pillars of sustainability and contributes to the School of Architecture & Design in terms of teaching, research and consultancy.