Archinect - News

University at Buffalo students are constructing tiny homes to fight homelessness

2022-06-20T13:55:00-04:00

Students from the University at Buffalo have embarked on the construction of three tiny homes to help combat homelessness. Led by Brad Wales, a clinical assistant professor at the university’s Department of Architecture, the initiative forms part of a design-build program within the school called the Small Built Works Project.

Tilt House render. Image courtesy of University at Buffalo

The process began with students designing prototypes for tiny houses, which were developed into permit-ready construction documents for three homes in Syracuse, New York. Construction on the homes began in June 2022, and are expected to be completed by June 2023.

Passive Solar House render. Image courtesy of University at Buffalo

For Wales, the project is the latest of dozens of projects undertaken in the Small Built Works Project’s 21 year history, which has secured nine building permits to develop and install public benefit projects across Buffalo. The program has been focused on affordable housing sinc...

Drury architecture students build homeless shelter that plays on light and color

2022-05-17T11:54:00-04:00

Architecture students at Drury University have unveiled a new shelter designed and built to aid the homeless community in Springfield, Missouri. Situated at the Revive 66 Campground, a local site offering nightly stays for unhoused people, the project is designed to offer a more spacious alternative to the teardrop trailers predominantly used in the grounds.

Photograph by Traci Sooter FAIA

Outside, the shelter’s exposed timber structure and cladding are brought to life by a multicolored window forming a second skin around the patio. Inside, the cabin is designed with a full-sized bed to accommodate couples and enable ADA-compliant accessibility for wheelchair users. Heating is provided through an electric radiant floor system, supported by highly-insulated walls, floors, and ceilings.

Photograph by Traci Sooter FAIA

“The structure honors the role of community in helping to provide dignity for those that so often encounter the indignities of poverty and homelessness,” said Traci Soote...

The debate around tiny homes for the homeless has inserted itself into L.A.’s mayoral race in a big way

2022-03-28T20:19:00-04:00

At a time when permanent supportive housing takes years to build and the average cost per unit has climbed to nearly $600,000, the cost of these tiny homes came to about $68,000 each, or roughly $35,000 per bed, according to De León’s office. In his speeches, De León likes to ask, “in what parallel universe” is it better to leave people on the street than move them into various forms of temporary housing while awaiting more permanent housing?

LA Times columnist Steve Lopez visited the second-newest in a string of tiny home developments opened in November in a space that had previously been sparsely used as a parking lot for the Eagle Rock Recreation Center and co-owned and operated by the city, county, and utilities giant SoCal Edison. At 224 beds, it is reported to be the largest of its kind anywhere in the United States and was proceeded by four similar Lehrer-designed projects across northern Los Angeles, all of which are run by a local charity called Hope in the Valley.

A frequent criticism lobbed at the mayoral frontrunner Kevin de León echoes a debate within the architectural community as to whether or not such a confined (each cabin is only 64 square feet) and, in the case of the Arroyo Seco Tiny Homes, shared space truly aligns with a humane vision of housing justice championed by de León an...

University of Kansas students converted shipping containers into housing for community shelter guests in need of quarantined spaces

2021-11-10T19:46:00-05:00

As part of a program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design, a cohort of students retrofitted twelve shipping containers to serve as private housing for homeless people during the pandemic.

The project, located at Kansas’ Lawrence Community Shelter, is called Monarch Village. It was established in response to the need for adequate quarantine spaces for its population when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020. The initiative is part of the non-profit Studio 804, a comprehensive design-build program offered through the school where graduate students design and build a LEED Platinum project. Monarch Village is the studio’s sixteenth.

According to Studio 804, the dwellings offer much-needed privacy for families while allowing guests access to services at the shelter. It is hoped that this project will be a precedent to move away from housing the homeless in gymnasium-like rooms full of bunk beds, an arrangement that makes isolating impossible.

Construction on th...

Los Angeles is turning to Lehrer Architects' Tiny Homes in its fight to construct transitional housing

2021-11-02T18:06:00-04:00

With expediency in mind, Los Angeles is looking to adopt a successful blueprint to solve the growing number of large homeless encampments that have been cropping up in the city since the beginning of the pandemic last spring.

Silverlake-based Lehrer Architects is expanding on its award-winning design for transitional housing thanks to another commission from the city’s Bureau of Engineering — now the firm's fourth collaboration.

Image courtesy Lehrer Architects

Lehrer’s Chandler Tiny Homes Village in North Hollywood won an AIALA Design Award this year with a village that became a beta design for the agency. Its polychromatic format has been repeated in a new development called Whitsett West.

Image courtesy Lehrer Architects

Los Angeles is facing rising numbers of homelessness in a year that saw citywide efforts to rehouse a record number of people. The city currently is looking to build no less than 255,000 units of affordable housing by the year 2029 and may look to bridge the serv...

San Francisco is adapting the tiny home approach to city's largest encampment

2021-09-22T17:40:00-04:00

The cost of up to $1.7 million for building and installing the cabins, along with the dining and other facilities, will be paid for by the nonprofits DignityMoves and Tipping Point Community. The cabins will remain for 18 months, when the lease the city signed for using the parking lots as outdoor shelter spaces runs out.

The 64-square-foot cabins are produced by LifeMoves, a Silicon Valley-based company responsible for the installation of a similar development in nearby Mountain View in 2016. Neighboring Oakland has operated its own cabin site since 2017, albeit with mixed results for residents who have found themselves back on the streets long-term.

San Francisco’s move comes a bit late, however, as COVID-related fears have deemed the crowded shelter system a non-starter for many. Other cities like Los Angeles have invested in the tiny homes movement, which is being seen as a popular solution to a crisis at a time when encampments sanctioned by municipal governments are popping up increasingly throughout the state. More than 40% of America’s homeless population lives in California alone.

The new approach certainly constitutes a change from San Francisco’s previous initiati...

7 steps for ending homelessness proposed by AIA Los Angeles

2021-06-30T12:30:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIALA) has published a set of strategies urging LA city leaders to tackle the city’s homelessness and affordable housing crisis. The“House All Angelenos” Call-to-Action urges officials to adopt seven strategies aimed at accelerating the construction of affordable homes, and facilitate a more diverse, resilient housing portfolio for the 66,000 residents that lack adequate shelter in the region. The strategies encompass changes to zoning, subsidies, definitions of dwellings, and requirements for developers to provide affordable housing in new developments.

"On a daily basis, architects create supportive, affordable, and market-rate housing throughout the Los Angeles area. It is our responsibility to share the expertise we have garnered with our region at this time of crisis," says AIALA President Wade Killefer, FAIA. “While these strategies lead to housing for those currently without, they also elevate life for all Angelenos. They imp...

Cal Poly Pomona architecture students aim to address homelessness with mobile dwelling design

2021-05-16T13:48:00-04:00

"The idea for us has been to create that infrastructure around it, Not just given the houses, but created that environment around that gives them employment, gives them functionality, gives them purpose, gives them hope."

A group of Cal Poly Pomona architecture students developed and built mobile housing that can move around as needed.

Dr. Behn Samareh who is leading the effort of the students says, "(it's) much easier to build a mobile structure, one that is not connected to the ground, much easier to build one of those in terms of code restrictions than it is attached component. A critical element is the use of land owned by the government. In this case, it's Bureau of Land Management land near the Salton Sea which was originally developed as a trailer park complete with infrastructure. But now, it sits vacant."

New Philadelphia park will be designed for, and together with, homeless people

2021-03-22T16:28:00-04:00

Plans are underway to start building in 2022 a pocket park where people experiencing homelessness will not only be welcome but will also be asked to design and build aspects of the space. It’s the only project of its kind in Philadelphia, say design professionals involved in the project.

Supported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia's largest homeless shelter, the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, aims to plan and build the small pocket park near its facility on North Pearl Street.

Lehrer Architects converts vacant lot into colorful tiny home village for the homeless in North Hollywood

2021-02-11T11:56:00-05:00

The Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village, designed by Lehrer Architects and the Bureau of Engineering (Engineering) for the City of Los Angeles, has recently opened to its first residents in North Hollywood. Working in collaboration with various city agencies, Lehrer Architects converted an abandoned and overlooked infill lot into a colorful Tiny Home village of 40 individual shelters.

Built in a mere 13 weeks, the new project serves as a beta for the City, and provides an efficient provision of "bridge" shelter for people on their way to permanent housing.

"...the Bureau of Engineering was able to use our extensive experience to make the new, tiny home concept a reality," said Gary Lee Moore, City Engineer and General Manger of the Bureau of Engineering. "We were able to overcome numerous challenges in this first-of-its-kind facility, coordinate with numerous other departments and deliver the facility in record time. We are extremely proud of our work on the Chandler Tiny Home Vi...

Los Angeles bets on tiny homes to battle enormous homelessness crisis

2020-12-14T14:15:00-05:00

At the city’s first tiny home village, scheduled to open in January, each of the 39 closet-sized homes is costing $130,000, about 10 times what some other cities are spending. Five more villages are planned to open later.

LA Times Senior Writer Doug Smith reports on the progress, and higher-than-usual costs, of erecting tiny home villages in a City of Los Angeles effort to take on its ballooning homelessness crisis.

"Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the program in March," writes Smith, "signaling that the concept of sheltering people in tiny homes, long neglected in Los Angeles, had emerged as a leading strategy in the city’s response to a federal lawsuit alleging it has done too little to get homeless people off the streets."

Lehrer Architects-designed Aetna St. Bridge Home opens in Los Angeles

2020-08-13T12:56:00-04:00

Lehrer Architects' latest project, the Aetna Bridge Home was opened this week by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as part of the city's A Bridge Home initiative. The design team converted an under-utilized quarter-acre parking lot into a vibrant 70+ bed facility for homeless Angelenos. With a tight timeline, the complex was designed in a mere three weeks and built in only four months.

"For us, projects like this are exhilarating," said Michael Lehrer, FAIA, Founding Partner of Lehrer Architects in a statement. "Political, time, and cost constraints were severe—demanding extreme design discipline and chops. Our focus was to honor, nurture, and restore a modicum of wholeness and delight to our fellow our citizens without homes."

Lehrer and the team worked closely with multiple city agencies led by the Bureau of Engineering and the Department of Public Works. One of the most intense constraints for the project was the mandated use of pre-fabricated trailers, a stipulation that forced th...

Berkeley to open municipally-owned homeless encampment

2020-01-27T13:55:00-05:00

The Berkeley City Council has voted to create a new city-run homeless encampment to help provide a safe and clean place for some of the city's unhoused residents to live temporarily.

According to a report from Curbed, the measure was supported by a majority of the City Councilmembers and will bring wind-resistant tents, bathroom facilities, and trash collection services to a yet-to-be-determined city-owned site. The services are set to be administered by city employees and is billed as a "stopgap" measure to help establish a certain level of cleanliness and safety for these types of camps while other permanent and transitional housing facilities get under way across the city.

According to the report, the temporary facility would be able to accommodate 50 residents for "less than a year."

The nearby city of Modesto launched a similar effort in 2019 that contains roughly 150 tents located underneath a bridge in the city, The Modesto Bee reports. The facility there is operated by a ...

AIA|LA chapter issues nine point plan to help address homelessness in Los Angeles

2019-08-16T12:00:00-04:00

Due to many factors, now more than ever, LA architects have a responsibility to offer solutions and creative resources to solve this crisis immediately — as if our currently 59,000+ unsheltered Angelenos were displaced by an earthquake or a wildfire.

Yale students upgrade the "triple-decker" type

2019-07-11T15:20:00-04:00

First-year professional degree students of Yale School of Architecture are hard at work designing and building a new three-unit affordable housing complex in New Haven's Hill neighborhood.

Formally known as the Jim Vlock First Year Building Project, the year-long studio has been an annual ritual at the university since 1989 when then-dean Charles Moore instituted the program. Since then, Yale students have worked to design and build homes for over 50 New Haven families, according to the university. This year's run of the program is being carried out in partnership with Columbus House, a non-profit organization that works to address homelessness in the New Haven area.

View of project model. Image courtesy of Yale School of Architecture.

Initially divided up into competing teams, the students in the studio started by tackling a series of fundamental conceptual exercises to develop approaches for addressing issues of inhabitation, enclosure, unit aggregation, and interior design.

For...

Peter Barber: reinventing affordable housing in London

2018-10-10T15:42:00-04:00

[...] Peter Barber, one of the most original architects working today. Over the past decade he has built a reputation for his ingenious reinventions of traditional house types and his ability to craft characterful chunks of city out of unpromising sites. [...] He is a master of humane high-density, designing that rare thing: new housing that feels in tune with the grain of London, in the form of neither alienating slabs nor tacky towers, without resorting to pastiche.

The Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, has nothing but praise for the award-winning firm Peter Barber Architects, a small practice that seeks to integrate social activism ideals when designing better, and more humane, housing for London.

Holmes Road Studio, a whimsical housing project for homeless people, was the overall winner of the New London Awards in 2016. Photo: Peter Barber Architects.

"When you visit one of Barber’s projects, you get a sense that it is a fragment of a much bigger urban idea," writes Wainwright. "There is an indication that housing, as the physical stuff that makes streets, might offer more than just private shelter behind the front door."

Dubai aims for one-quarter of its buildings to be 3D printed by 2025

2018-08-27T13:31:00-04:00

Now, Dubai has taken a step further along the road to making such dreams a reality by announcing that 25% of the city-state’s new buildings will be made using 3D printers by 2025. The move is part of an ambitious 3D-printing strategy announced in 2016 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai.

According to the Dubai Future Foundation the city aims to reduce labor by 70% and cut overall costs by 90% with their 3D-printed construction plan. The strategy not only aims at addressing the UN's projected density for urban areas in the future, but also holds potential to solve Dubai's severe homelessness crisis.

Two-family house designed and built by Yale students opens in New Haven

2017-09-29T15:33:00-04:00

This year’s house marks the 50th project built by first-year students in the Yale School of Architecture’s professional degree program. Since it started in 1967, the building project has produced structures for communities around New Haven, including the Bridgeport band shell, pavilions in East Rock Park and Lighthouse Point Park, and since 1989, affordable housing units for over 30 families.

First-year graduate students at Yale School of Architecture and Design have built a family house in New Haven. The two units are separated by a walkway but under the same roof. The project was realized in collaboration with Columbus House, a New Haven-based homelessness services provider. Most of the house was prefabricated on Yale campus.

How the homeless create homes

2017-08-23T03:04:00-04:00

It’s no paradise, as the rats, garbage, arson and violent backstories make clear. Yet against all odds, the men and women we meet in the film have managed to domesticate their underground wilderness. Hardworking and innovative, they cobble together the necessities and even a few small luxuries: a dartboard, toaster oven, dogs, cats and a gerbil named Peaches.

"The number of people facing housing insecurity, already on the rise, began to climb more steeply as a result of the Great Recession. This upward trend will likely be exacerbated if President Trump’s proposed cuts to food stamps, Medicaid and housing subsidies are enacted, which will force even more to make a choice between food on the table and a roof above their heads.

To those who are safely housed, a homeless person is apt to inspire feelings ranging from fear and disgust to pity and guilt.

Such negative responses are rooted in longstanding myths about “hobos,” “Bowery bums,” and “bag ladies.” Some may believe that homeless people are free spirits who simply prefer to live outside. More likely, they’re viewed as misfits – dysfunctional, threatening, potentially criminal.

Above all, they are not like us."

The Danish government looks to the Skaeve Huse as a solution to Homelessness

2017-07-17T19:32:00-04:00

The Danish term “Skaeve Huse” roughly translates to special houses for special people. Since the early aughts, the government has been using this form of temporary housing to help shelter individuals who suffer from mental illness, drug addiction and/or have trouble adapting to normal living environments. Tiny house villages have become a common solution for cities experiencing high rates of homelessness. Even in the U.S., cities like Portland and Seattle are piloting similar programs.

Placed in settlements of 8-12 small single-family homes, residents are provided with homes through a conventional tenancy agreements. Social workers pay regular visits with the underlying idea being that with some supervision, residents can come to themselves and social frictions will disappear from the neighborhood. While most Skaeve Huses are temporary, Trudo Housing Corporation wanted to create a community that offered permanent, energy-neutral homes that could offer long-term benefits.

Studio Elm...

L.A.'s Skid Row Housing Trust C.E.O. Mike Alvidrez will step down in 2018

2017-07-06T17:29:00-04:00

After nearly three decades of involvement with the L.A. Skid Row Housing Trust (and working relationships with architects including Michael Maltzan and Brooks + Scarpa), C.E.O. Mike Alvidrez has announced his plans to step down next year.

Brooks + Scarpa's homeless housing "The Six" developed in conjunction with the Skid Row Housing Trust. Image: Brooks + Scarpa

He will remain in an "ambassador" role to help the new leadership, although applicants for that position will not be formally reviewed until later this year. In a statement to The Architect's Newspaper, Alvidrez noted that "the public perception of supportive housing has forever changed thanks to our partnerships with renowned architects to design beautiful residential and community spaces that foster reconnection, healing, and dignity.”

Brooks + Scarpa's homeless housing "The Six" developed in conjunction with the Skid Row Housing Trust. Image: Brooks + Scarpa

Amazon's new Seattle headquarters will permanently house a homeless shelter

2017-05-16T14:30:00-04:00

The current shelter can house up to 200 people and features 60 rooms, which each have bathrooms and showers. The new, 47,000-square-foot space will be a little larger. About 220 people in 65 rooms will be able to live there. As in the current shelter, rent and utility will be free, and residents will need to meet housing goals, like filling out employment applications, scheduling interviews, and enrolling in school or job-training programs.

In 2016, when Amazon let Mary's Place, a homeless shelter, move into one of their properties, the arrangement appeared as a temporary favor. Nevertheless, as the company is completing the construction of its new headquarters in Seattle, the shelter is promised a permanent home inside of one of the new office buildings.

"In Seattle, the plan could also help burnish Amazon’s image, which has taken some hits. It has been targeted by anti-gentrification activists, and its high-pressure work culture was the subject of a New York Times investigation two years ago.

...Amazon has also been bashed for being disengaged from civic life relative to local stalwarts known for their philanthropic giving, like Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks. More recently, that has begun to change, with gifts like Amazon’s $10 million donation for the construction of a new computer science building at the University of Washington." -NY Times

According to Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness annual report, mo...

Gimme (customizable) shelter: pop-up modular homeless housing project tailor-made for each community

2017-03-23T12:44:00-04:00

Assembled from containers placed within a scaffolding net, WE Architecture's Jagtevj 69 aims to create alluring public space while simultaneously providing temporary housing for the homeless.

The proposal stresses that it's a temporary solution; by creating a variety of different spaces for different activities, the project ultimately provides an opportunity for social networking for both the community and the homeless population in "urban gardens and semi-public activities." These activity-specific spaces, which include workshops, yoga studios, and offices, form each modular unit, making it easy to swap out or add different functions as needed.

Currently envisioned for a site in Copenhagen, the proposal is designed to be disassembled and then reassembled in different locations, making it a kind of traveling social aid that is also custom tailored to the needs of its particular community.

Homelessness decreased this year in the US, but increased in cities including LA

2016-11-21T13:40:00-05:00

Accurately tracking a population that has no permanent home has always been a challenge for those who attempt to put together figures on homelessness. Many studies elect to count transients one night each year in order to create some form of consistency. Using that method, a study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that figures for homelessness seem to down overall across the nation as of January 2016, while certain cities such as Los Angeles and Washington D.C. have experienced significant upticks. As NPR explains:

"But some areas bucked the trend. Washington, D.C., saw a 14.4 percent increase in homelessness, over 1,000 more people, and there were an additional 2,680 homeless people in Los Angeles County, an increase of 6.5 percent. The Dallas and Seattle areas also had big increases, 21.3 and 6.0 percent, respectively."

For more on homelessness:

Increasing development translates to more homeless housing

2016-05-18T13:06:00-04:00

When Amazon donated an empty South Lake Union hotel for use as a homeless shelter, it was investing in a model that Mary’s Place, the service provider, has perfected: turning vacant or transitioning buildings into temporary shelter.

According to decades of research conducted on real-life case studies, providing housing for the homeless is actually cheaper than not doing so. Thriving real estate markets also make it easier to provide permanent shelter, as noted in the article:

It’s perhaps counterintuitive, but Executive Director Marty Hartman says the boom times for the local real estate market have created more opportunities for Mary’s Place than the recession. As companies expand, it’s development more than abandonment that stocks the vacant building pool.

Seattle officials have begun to pivot toward 24-hour shelters as a new approach toward the issue. This is modeled after San Francisco’s Navigation Center, which houses people so they can devote their energy away from survival and toward creating stability in their lives.

For more on homelessness:

A closer look at riza3's low-cost housing plans for the homeless

2016-04-14T18:22:00-04:00

Last year, the team took part in the 'Tiny Home Community' competition, set up by members of the North Carolina branch of the American Institute of Architects. The competition was asking participants to design low-cost homes with prefabricated elements, that could house the homeless folk of Raleigh, North Carolina. More than 100 architectural offices from all over the world answered the call, including some well-established companies, but first prize was eventually awarded to riza3.

Although Elemental, the firm of Pritzker Prize winning Alejandro Aravena, released plans for "incremental" low-cost housing meant to be assembled partly by individuals and partly by a larger social infrastructure, they're not the only ones with ideas for long term sustainable housing. Greek firm riza3's competition winning ideas for low-cost houses differ in that they use prefabricated elements, and assume that there will be some integration into a preexisting urban fabric. Here's a look at a few plans and renderings:

The individual units, which measure 20'4" by 9'8" can be integrated into a community plan, with a separate work space and common area.

For more on homelessness and its possible solutions:

Seattle builds village for the homeless

2016-01-21T12:54:00-05:00

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, volunteers put the finishing touches on small houses with the kind of basic amenities you don't see in Seattle homeless camps. "The difference is you have electricity and a lock on the door," said Steve Tucker, a member of the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, which is hosting what organizers are calling Seattle's first tiny house village.

Seattle joins several other pioneering cities and states across the U.S. that have chosen to provide housing for the chronically homeless. These programs have shown that the housing actually saves governments money and eventually reduces the overall rate of transient recidivism. Here's a sampling of our coverage:

Archinect's comparison of transient-oriented architecture

2015-08-26T21:55:00-04:00

In 2003 in Utah, government officials decided to try a radical solution to homelessness: giving people who would otherwise be on the street permanent housing. Twelve years later, the surprisingly cost-effective program is a success: almost all of the people given homes remained in them, and the number of people out on the streets in the state has dropped nearly to zero. So what works and what doesn't architecturally in homeless housing?

James Furzer, a 26-year old architectural technician for the U.K.-based Spatial Design Architects, is currently crowdsourcing funds to build single-person housing modules that attach to preexisting buildings in dense urban centers like London, where 7,500 people routinely sleep on the streets.

The Fakro’s Space for New Visions award-winning design is a great emergency shelter idea, but doesn't foster a sense of permanence, unlike Utah's Sunrise Metro Apartments, which take the form of a traditional (relatively aesthetically boring) apartment building ...