We designed the 30-unit project through a collaborative process with the self-developing residents, prioritizing community, adaptability, and environmental stewardship, and ran 15 consensus-based workshops, prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility for the residents, aged 0-93 with differing needs.

The architecture emphasizes connection through visual transparency and collective awareness in its asymmetrical layouts and semi-enclosed courtyard, blending outdoors and indoors. This fosters social interactions across scales—from intimate nooks to large communal areas.

A deep first floor plan accommodates the large common spaces, which in turn allows for shared terraces above as the common spaces shrink as they rise. The first floor hides a garage below with a green roof, while terracing produces stealthy single loaded corridors above, creating cross ventilation and connected views for engagement. The open southwest corner of the courtyard invites golden-hour sun to the common dining room, drawing inhabitants in towards dinner. It welcomes summer breezes and blocks winter’s prevailing winds. At a material scale, the affordable sound-dampening felt ceiling in the communal dining room is playfully designed to counter any institutional feeling.

Framed in prefabricated wood panels and scissor trusses, and clad in fiber cement lap siding, the project reimagines the familiar construction methods of residential complexes. It uses this repetitive malleable construction type to efficiently unravel the typical double-loaded corridor box, instead nesting a series of delicate spaces around the interior partial courtyard, while keeping construction costs below $260/sf. The electric HVAC system contributes to a building design that is 71% below the energy use baseline.