Designing borderless living to create sustainable communities.

The homeless population in Los Angeles is increasing at an alarming rate. In response to this humanitarian crisis, we worked with various Los Angeles County Departments, with leadership from Supervisor Hilda Solis and Assembly Member Richard Bloom, to develop a solution for the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU).

Our solution was a multi-scale approach, providing a paradigm-shift at a macro level for the City of Los Angeles to embrace living more communally and less individually. At a micro scale, we designed smart, prefabricated ADU units that can grow, depending on family size, and use greenery and art panels as their outside shells.

Single-family living as we know it today is one house per plot, resulting in isolation of properties, their owners and their neighbors. Our design maximizes single family plots, eliminating these borders and fences, resulting in shared land and space. We are developing micro-communities with local socio-climates. The ADU integrate into the existing city grid, producing a more diverse and unified block. Through community workshops, discussions and panels, we identified plausible block initiatives, such as farmer’s markets, child care, and small businesses, that can contribute to sustainable communities.

Our ADU have been designed using a prefabricated modular system. Through our system, we can pre-build the units instead of constructing onsite, minimizing the cost of labor, material and resources.

Once the units have been prefabricated, we are able to deploy rapidly and customize the units with an art and technology paneling system, increasing the energy efficiencies and the user experience throughout the City of Los Angeles.

The prototypes we have developed respond to both an above-garage site condition and on-grade site. With the base unit able to accommodate 1-2 people in 524sq.ft., it can be quickly expand to accommodate a family of 3-4 by adding modules, totaling to just under 700 sq.ft. and up to 1,000sq.ft.

Clients: LA County Arts Commission, LA County Homeless Initiative,LA Community Development, LA County of Regional Planning, Supervisor Hilda Solis and Assembly Member Richard Bloom.
Our Role: Research & Strategy, Architectural Design, Graphic Design, Print Design.