Architectural environments and women’s sense of safety in domestic violence shelters: a scoping review

Abstract Women’s sense of safety is central to domestic violence shelter provision, yet the architectural and interior environment has been addressed unevenly across disciplines, and related findings are rarely consolidated. This scoping review maps and characterises peer-reviewed evidence on how domestic violence shelter built environments relate to women’s sense of safety and synthesises recurrent evidence-linked candidate mechanisms. We searched Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed and supplemented database searches with citation chasing and Google Scholar screening. Included studies were systematically charted and synthesised using reflexive thematic analysis and an evidence-mapping approach. To support transparent interpretation, we distinguished direct domestic violence shelter evidence from analogous accommodation evidence and broader transfer-based inference, and we appraised included studies to qualify interpretive confidence rather than exclude studies. Twenty studies met inclusion criteria. The evidence base is small and methodologically heterogeneous, with qualitative designs predominant and uneven architectural specificity. Synthesis yielded four criteria and twelve parameters: Physical Protection, Autonomous Control, Spatial Legibility, and Restorative Comfort, capturing candidate mechanisms through which spatial conditions, interpreted alongside governance practices and threat context, may shape women’s sense of safety. The review consolidates the current evidence base and helps shape a focused agenda for future empirical work in domestic violence shelter settings.