Design Concept: Kadre Architects
An elegant urban frontispiece engages the street through sculpted housing, retail and communal terrace, while the hard-working single stair scheme unleashes high-efficiency housing floor plates, four-sided unit orientation and superior quality of living spaces.
STAYING POWER
The scheme offers up to 18 units of varying sizes. Our proposed mix includes 12 market rate units with car and bike parking, retail space, communal street terrace and roof garden. Homeownership of all units could be offered through a cooperative, while the retail space would provide income for the housing association, lowering the homeownership entry cost. This income stream will underpin stewardship and long-term project success.
PERFORMANCE AND REPLICABILITY
The prototype lends itself to 5 floors of wood framing over a concrete podium. Ideally, the developer would elect heavy timber/CLT panels which would reduce the carbon footprint.
One could easily replicate this model by switching out major building components (another unit or community room instead of terrace, or 2 levels of retail, etc.) and altering the character of the structure through program and materiality.
LIVABILITY AND ADAPTABILITY
Each unit has an enviable patio with a shared street-facing terrace over retail and significant rooftop garden for common open space. The project includes a mix of one, two, three bedroom and studio units, necessary for a vibrant and diverse micro community. The scheme’s parti makes this a VERY desirable development model for parcels of all sizes. A wider parcel would allow for an additional row of units off the same stair/elevator tower, making the scheme even more efficient.
RESILIENCE
Developing a strong community within the development through chance encounters at terraces, rooftop bar and garden or the café is a first step toward building resilience. Material choices like fire resistant decking for roofs, cement fiber board siding and/or stucco offer resilience. Fully electric development foregoes natural gas while batteries stored in the parking garage provide power during ever-increasing power outages. The parking lot also offers ability for electric cars to plug in and power the café which can serve as a cooling center during a crisis.
SINGLE STAIR EFFICIENCY
Each studio has three-sided orientation while the remainder of units have views in four cardinal directions. This layout afforded by the single stair parti, significantly improves access to natural light and cross ventilation in all units.
LIVABILITY
From the street, the project presents like a sculpted form, yet relies on simple shift of floor plates, avoiding premiums for expensive cantilevers. The malleability of the frontispiece allows for sensitivity to surrounding structures and neighborhood.
