Multi-Housing Community in the Mission Neighborhood

This strategy project proposes a multi-housing community where 40 homes are carefully situated on the site according to three main approaches.

• The clear difference in street activity, going from the busiest side of the site (Mission street) to the calmest (Wiese street), different housing typologies cluster around three different courtyards: a dog park, a community garden and a children’s playground.

• Common party walls are widened to create thoroughfares running on the long side of the site for residents. They allow access to the second and third levels and invite neighbors to interact and socialize whenever a cutout provides views to the courtyards.

• Lastly, houses have been purposefully positioned in order adjoin functional spaces (kitchens/bathrooms) together and allow for more restful spaces (living rooms and bedrooms) access to balconies and large windows.

Instructors Christopher Falliers and Darell Fields.
Fall 2011, California College of the Arts.

The research phase consisted in studying Victorian homes on Mission street and decipher the overlay of commercial spaces with residential and the elements that buffer street life. The cumulation provided a site layout strategy that uses boundaries that shift in order to provide access across or space once layered vertically.