Los Angeles-based architects Brooks + Scarpa and factory home builder Plant Prefab have partnered on a new line of adaptable apartment modules that aim to provide streamlined responses for  creating much-needed high-density in Los Angeles. 

The kit-of-parts-style Nest LivingHome toolkit is a research-led design paradigm crafted to fit into Los Angeles's average residential parcels. Dimensions for the prototypes correspond to the buildable areas of L.A.'s standard-sized 50-foot-by-150-foot residential lots, for example. Meanwhile, the architects have designed a series of potential unit plans that vary between rapid-rehousing, single-room occupancy (SRO), and conventional multi-family configurations.

The team's Blue Jay configuration, for example, presents a spare 11-foot, 4-inch-wide room that's 28-feet-deep and can be laid out as a one-bedroom unit or in various multi-bed shelter designs. The Dove line groups multiple modules around a central living area to create a four-bedroom SRO unit, while the Osprey type encompasses either singular or grouped units to produce studio, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom configurations. 

The different types can be mixed and matched on a given site to facilitate mixed-income while variable finishes and facade panel systems provide unified exposures for the developments. The Nest design is based on Plant Prefab's patented, "component-based" Plant Building System that is at the root of the company's other designs.

Angie Brooks, managing principal at Brooks + Scarpa, said via press release, "As the demand and cost for housing continues to rise, Nest was conceived to provide a scalable, cost-effective, high-quality solution to multi-family housing," adding, "Like the nesting habits of birds,  the toolkit is based on the different ways people live with the objective of giving everyone an affordable place to live."

The project partners recently won a $1 million grant from the 2018 LA County Housing Innovation Challenge that is being put toward a forthcoming development in Santa Monica, California that will make use of the units.