MArch Research Studio
Media and perception pose a significant challenge to the expansion of affordable housing in the United States. Images of decay in urban areas are closely linked to misunderstandings about poverty and social challenges.
Affordable housing is characterized as a troubled supportive measure, which contrasts with Eden-like wealth in the suburbs. What kinds of housing solutions lie beyond these images? How can digital media be used to mediate between polarised narratives?
My research project is interested in creating images of low-rise suburban cohousing that can be diffused through digital media in the form of GIFs. The context for the project emerges from my participation in the Fall 2023 HUD Innovation in Affordable Housing Competition.
The site of the competition was an existing publically-operated 170-unit apartment complex set in a single-family residential
neighbourhood. An important stipulation of the competition was that residents must only move once,
directly into their new unit.
As America’s public housing stock ages, repairs and improvements require displacement of residents.
Working with American public housing buildings necessitates a phased approach to construction.
Though my team did not advance to the final round, I learned about the challenges around creating affordable housing in 2024. I continued to develop the project, located in a single-family residential neighborhood in Madison, WI, as a “MAT” housing type, which can morph and mutate over time the site based on a series of rules at the unit level.
My proposal is a replicating “cluster” that can
aggregate along 3 partition walls. Bars of housing
are attached in the middle by a communal space (highlighted in orange throughout the
project), broken up to allow connection between
courtyards. Wet spaces and circulation are pushed along this middle band to increase
efficiency.