380 affordable houses
Design concept
On a hilly lot, the program calls for 380 deep affordable units. Our proposal is to use for each house, a lot coverage of 23x50 feet, with a front and back patio, but with many adaptive plans depending on the household size. The plans are based on a single structural system that is industrialized and prefabricated. Varying heights up to two stories and different prefabricated external stairs and architectural elements on the façade provide dynamic variations to the street scape.
II.
Street design
Designing the streets in a low rise district is as important as designing the houses. The first decision is to have a pedestrian street. The second decision is to use a combination of straight and bifurcating streets. This is obtained by sliding the houses. The resulting cluster plans are either a clustered of house with a garden courtyard in a straight street, or a shifting pattern in a bifurcating street.
III.
Dignified
While affordable houses construction costs must remain low, the design does not need to provide a generic dorm for the outcast; but rather it must be a dignified housing scheme, that lift and enrich people's lives.