RE-EVALUATING THE AMERICAN DREAM DENSE URBAN HOUSING FOR FAMILES Adam Lawler Spring 2014 Professor Howard Davis June 9, 2014
A rendering for a dense, mixed-use neighborhood
CONTENTS Introduction Existing Scholarship & Projects A Survey of the “Traditional” Suburban Single Family Detached House A Framework for Urbanity Example Unit Design Sources
A public park in Portland’s Pearl District
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INTRODUCTION The American Dream often looks like a high risk of foreclosure (for many), two hours of driving, a highly unsustainable way of living, and poorly designed and cheaply built houses. The average American spends ten years of his or her life in a car. There are functional and experiential reasons why Americans should not be living this way. Though there are currently certain advantages to living in the suburbs, models for dense urban housing exist, when housing and cities are designed thoughtfully. The goal of this study is to explore dense urban housing models that are designed for people with children. Many people would never live in an apartment or a condominium in the city with kids because of a lack of private space for children, and other personal space matters. Existing models of successful famliy housing are explored and evaluated and an appealing alternative to the single-family detached house is sought out. A density of 50-100 dwelling units per acre is the goal. Ideally, the market demand will soon change from a single family detached house to an appropriately designed apartment or condominum in the city. This study aims to find out what is desirable about the detached house and discover models that translate that into a living situation that is more dense. The key to shifting market demand is this desire. People who have grown up in the suburbs or in rural areas need to be convinced that it is possible to live well in the city, but for this to happen, urban planners and architects need to design better cities and better housing. Vitoria Gasteiz puts it this way:
“Need must be converted into desire and we will only achieve this by turning housing into home and each home into our home.�
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EXISTING SCHOLARSHIP & PROJECTS
Moshie Safdie’s Habitat 67 project is a combination of the single family house and an apartment.
The infamous Pruitt-Igoe urban housing project in St. Louis, Missouri
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EXISTING SCHOLARSHIP & PROJECTS Clare Cooper Marcus
Clare Cooper Marcus has found that communal spaces, or semi-public spaces, are becoming increasingly important. Day care centers, spaces near offices, hotels, and offices are shared by groups of people with specific needs and desires, and these spaces are often safer than public plazas. Predictability is also important. A shared outdoor space in a housing cluster or campus courtyard, then, is often more appealing than a town square. The issue of perceived density must be addressed. A development or street might have the same density in terms of units per acre as another development or street, but have a totally different feel. Cooper Marcus acknowledges that many people think of low density single family housing as ideal, and that those people associate dense housing with many negative factors. Designers must then consider creating environments that are perceived as less dense, but have all the advantages and benefits of high-density living. This can lead one to the typology of low-rise, high density housing, which has the best of both worlds: it is dense enough to have urban benefits such as commercial and civic amenities, and access to public transportation, while providing a sense of individuality.
New York’s UDC
New York State’s Urban Development Corporation (active from 1968 to 1975) developed seven design criteria for high density housing - “sense of community, child supervision, security, maintenance, livability, responsiveness to context, and flexibility.”
Urban Land Institute’s Principles for Livable High Density Cities 1. Plan for long-term growth and renewal 2. Embrace diversity, foster inclusiveness 3. Draw nature closer to people 4. Develop affordable, mixed-use neighbourhoods 5. Make public spaces work harder 6. Prioritise green transport and building options 7. Relieve density with variety and add green boundaries 8. Activate space for greater safety 9. Promote innovative and non-conventional solutions 10. Forge “3P” (people, public, private) partnerships
General Principles
Building collective housing as if it were a single family house is important. Anticipating the individual user’s wish list is necessary to consider, also. In some designs, outdoor space occupies over 30% of the floor plan. In other midrise housing projects, wood cladding is used instead of synthetic paneling, a design decision that helps to scale the building and make it feel more like a home. When the immediate vicinity is not visible or audible, an apartment is better than a detached home with small, unusable sideyards, if the spaces and amenities are identical.
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Diagram for “The Garden in the Machine” project - part of Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream
Rendering for “Nature-City” project - part of Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream
Rendering for “Nature-City” project - part of Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream
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EXISTING SCHOLARSHIP & PROJECTS Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream
Inspired by The Buell Hypothesis, a research report prepared by the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University, New York’s Museum of Modern Art invited interdisciplinary design teams to develop proposals for housing that “would open new routes through the mortgageforeclosure crisis” in the United States. This project became known as Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, and was conducted in 2011. The main idea of The Buell Hypothesis is that if you change the dream you can change the city. The goal is to change the narratives guiding suburban housing and their implied priorities, and you can redirect suburban sprawl. MOMA, then, had their five design teams rethink five suburbs around the U.S. in ways that have all of the benefits (abundant open space, etc.) of the suburbs, but incorporated ideas of density and public transit.
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A SURVEY OF THE TRADITIONAL SINGLE FAMILY HOUSE
An example of a traditional suburban house
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A SURVEY OF THE “TRADITIONAL” SUBURBAN SINGLE FAMILY DETACHED HOUSE These amenities are seen as unique to a single famliy detached house: 1. Yard The private yard is seen as the place where kids can run around unsupervised and families can have room to have large gatherings. 2. Private garage 3. Ample storage space in private home 4. A sense of self-expression or architectural uniqueness Some people enjoy living in a home that is “one of a kind”, instead of living in one of hundreds of identical apartment units. 5. Acoustic isolation Due to poor detailing and construction, multi-family buildings can have a reputation for acoustic issues (you can hear your nieghbors and they can hear you), especially for those coming from rural or suburban areas. A single family detatched house naturally provides an acoustic buffer against crying babies or yelling couples. 6. Affordability Many who live in single family detached houses find themselves not able to afford a desirable living unit in an urban area. The suburbs, then, provide a reliable affordable living situation. 7. Safety The increasingly privatized suburbs offer a sense of security, with privatized garages and backyards. 7. Privacy 8. High square footage An obsession over square footage, instead of quality of space, has made the suburban house seemingly advantageous for many. However, a properly designed apartment or condominium with great views and high ceilings at 1,200 square feet has great potential to be a better dwelling unit than a poorly designed 2,000 square foot suburban house.
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A FRAMEWORK FOR URBANITY
PRIVATE
PUBLIC
PRIVATE OUTDOOR SPACE
GROCERY STORE
WASHER & DRYER
DAYCARE
LIGHT & AIR
PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
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A FRAMEWORK FOR URBANITY What is the role of the neighborhood in providing what the house normally does? Which specific amenities, then, are provided in the public realm? A daycare? A grocery store? Findings: 1. One solution will not please everone, as people have different needs and desires. 2. An important aspect of the solution is to market/sell a new kind of living situation well, and to make it appeal to those who are not used to living in the city. 3. A critical time in a family’s life is when a child is about six years old and needs more space to move around. 4. Private space is important as well.
The following make up what should be found in the public and private realms: The private unit must provide the following: 1. Private outdoor space This can be a small balcony 2. Washer and dryer 3. Access to light and air The public realm must provide the following: 1. Public or semi-public open space, such as a park This replaces the typical suburban yard Preferably, a parent can let the child play unsupervised Must be within a 15-minute walking radius of the home 2. Grocery store This allows newcomers to the city to walk to the store Must be within a 15-minute walking radius of the home
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EXAMPLE UNIT DESIGN
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KITCHEN/DINING/LIVING ROOM WITH LOFT/PLAY AREA ABOVE A double height space and an open plan helps the unit to feel spacious, and wood is used as a material to warm interiors and make the transition from suburban to urban situations easier.
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EXTERIOR VIEW WITH ONE UNIT HIGHLIGHTED Outdoor space is extremely important to this design. The kitchen/dining/living space opens to an extensive deck, and there is a secondary outdoor space adjacent to the loft/play area.
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This unit example is primarily south facing, but the unit can face either south or north. The main idea is that there is great access to light throughout all the bedrooms and the living/kitchen/dining room. A play/loft space, a double-height volume in the living space, and about 25% of the unit being outdoor space make the dwelling unique. Also, an extensive storage area as part of the personal unit allows people to either move in from the suburbs with all of their belongings or grow a family in the city. There is a vegetable balcony that protrudes beyond the main volume of the building, which allows for greater views and access to light for growing food. Stackable bathrooms that also coordinate with neighboring units make for simplicity in construction. 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms Living space Kitchen space Dining space
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UP
BATH laundry
UP
CLOSET CLOSET
BEDROOM 2
BEDROOM 1
KITCHEN/DINING/LIVING
STORAGE
LOWER FLOOR PLAN
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DN
BATH
LOFT/PLAY AREA BEDROOM 3
OPEN TO LIVING ROOM BELOW
UPPER FLOOR PLAN
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BEDROOM 3
K BEDROOM 2
SECTION
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BEDROOM 1
KITCHEN/DINING/LIVING
STORAGE
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MASSING ON CITY BLOCK A standard, 200’x200’ Portland block has been shown. In order to not appear too massive or oppressive, the spaces have been broken up into four different volumes. The floor plans shown on the previous pages would make up the plan for one of the volumes. The plan can be repeated vertically as desired, making for a varied block that can take advantage of solar factors.
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PRIVATIZED ENTRANCES Four entrances to the block and to the main courtyard again increase the sense of privacy and individuality, and set up an opportunity for bringing the scale down to human level.
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GENEROUS COURTYARD A lush, green, internal courtyard would allow for parents to watch their children play from their units, as the four entrances could be gated. This provides a safe environment and replaces the kitchen window and backyard that exists in a typical suburban single family house.
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PARK
GROCERY
PRIVATE & PUBLIC REALM A major key is to allow for easy access to grocery stores and open spaces like parks. A generous semi-public space or park must be within a 15-minute walking radius of the home. A possible model for this is a centrally-located park and grocery store within a few blocks that becomes the center of a community.
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SOURCES Fernández, Aurora et al. In Detail: High-Density Housing. 1 edition. München: Basel; Boston, Mass: Birkhäuser Architecture, 2004. “Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream.” Accessed April 24, 2014. http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/ foreclosed/buell_hypothesis. Gasteiz, Vitoria. Density Is Home: Housing By A+t Research Group. Spain: a+t architecture publishers, 2011. Georgopulos, Diane. “Low-Rise, High-Density Housing: A Contemporary View of Marcus Garvey Park Village.” Urban Omnibus. Accessed May 15, 2014. http://urbanomnibus.net/2012/07/low-rise-high-density-housing-a-contemporary-viewof-marcus-garvey-park-village/. Krueger, Robert. “10 Principles for Liveable High Density Cities: Lessons from Singapore.” Jan. 24, 2013. Accessed May 15, 2014. http://uli.org/press-release/10-principles-singapore/. Marcus, Clare Cooper. Easter Hill Village: Some Social Implications of Design. New York: Free Press, 1975. Marcus, Clare Cooper. House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home. Berkeley, Calif: Conari Press, 1995. Marcus, Clare Cooper, and Carolyn Francis, eds. People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space. New York, N.Y: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. “The Missing Link of Climate Change: Single-Family Suburban Homes.” Accessed April 24, 2014. http://www.theatlanticcities. com/housing/2011/12/missing-link-climate-change-single-family-suburban-homes/650/.
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