SEED CENTER A net zero energy community space
02 Project Statement 02-03 Team + Timeline 04-05 Mission + Goals 06-07 Design Approach 08 Traction + Support
U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2023
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TIMELINE
Fall 2021
First visit to village + intro to residents
SHAC-YSA partnership established
Initial project proposal submitted to DoE
Ongoing design meetings w/ YSA youth + residents
2022 Relaunch of YSA’s Community Organizing Pathway as a space for youth design input
Research & Feasibility
Meetings with the Human Services Dept
Begin collaboration with USF students to develop site plans for SEED’s integration at THEV Presentation to Dept of Energy
TGIF grant awarded
Schematic Design
Meetings with CoO council members + Policy Director for Housing Security
Planning Review
PROJECT STATEMENT The Sustainable Empowerment and Educational Development (SEED) Center is a hybrid studio, working, and living space originally developed in collaboration with local nonprofit Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) for residents of YSA’s Tiny House Empowerment Village in Southeast Oakland. The project program, schematic design, and artistic vision were all generated by workshops held with formerly unhoused residents of the village, YSA staff members, and youth participants in YSA’s jobs and arts skills training programs. The 1400 SF building was designed to provide space for diverse programming for residents + community members: case management, mental health interventions, housing navigation, art as therapy, job skills coaching, & more. 02
YSA youth & staff identified two primary goals to guide the development of the project based on existing infrastructure: I. Expand capacity to provide programming + services for youth at the village II. Create space for interaction with community members + partners Through a series of design workshops, YSA participants also established the project’s key programmatic elements: I. Office Space to support the collaborative, holistic work needed to help youth find & sustain permanent housing. II. A Youth Workspace with amenities for work, study, and socializing. III. A Community Event Space to host arts/jobs trainings & community workshops. Our team proposed SEED as a means of bringing these programs together under one roof. Envisioned as a hub for youth resources located directly adjacent to the village, SEED could fulfill key programmatic goals while also maintaining the village as a safe space for youth. By creating a confluence where both service delivery (more structured, less youth-led, greater outside influence) and arts & cultural activities (varying degrees of structure, often youth-led) would take place, the Center was designed to affirm the importance of building community through shared resources and expression. **Unfortunately, a series of recent obstacles with leasing at the proposed YSA site has led to our reconsideration of the project’s partner(s) and location. The team is grateful for the time spent working with YSA, and is hopeful that we will find a new community partner whose mission aligns with the original goals of the project as described in this proposal.
2023 Planning Department approval
Development of architectural drawing set + coordination with structural engineers
Planning Dept approval
Design Development
Submission to Building Dept
Project paused due to lease renewal issues at YSA site
Search for new project partners begins
Project Redevelopment
PROJECT TEAM SEED is a collaboration between three primary parties -- UC Berkeley’s Sustainable Housing at California (SHAC), architecture students at the University of San Francisco (USF) and a community partner (formerly YSA). The project was initiated by Berkeley students in the summer of 2021 and has grown to include several members of the Berkeley and USF academic communities, as well as over a dozen industry and community partners committed to donating time, materials, and funds.
Industry Partners Department of Energy UC Berkeley
SHAC
COMMUNITY PARTNER
Outreach + Architecture + MEP Systerms Engagement Design
SEED team organization chart, including student team, academic institutions, and community / industry partners
Sustainable Housing at California (SHAC) SHAC is an interdisciplinary team of over 40 students at UC Berkeley with a shared passion for creating a more just and sustainable built environment. Through hands-on design + build projects, SHAC offers an educational experience for students, brings about positive impacts to the local community, and develops innovative methodologies for the world beyond. In each of our projects, students work closely with community partners to identify and meet the needs of the organization and the people it serves. Our design process is grounded in input from our collaborators as well as a deep commitment to sustainable building practices, with a particular focus on designing for circularity and reuse. We believe in plugging into + amplifying the work of existing community networks, whether it be an educational curriculum for young artists, a workforce development program for future builders, or a youth-led pathway for engaging in advocacy work. University of San Francisco - Architecture Program Students in USF’s architecture program have collaborated with members of SHAC to develop plans for development of the site / landscaping around the SEED Center. UCB and USF plan to partner even more closely in the continued restructuring / 03 redesign process.
MISSION + GOALS
Circular principles + disentanglement accommodate the life cycles of a building’s component parts
A sample Continuum of Care from YSA
01 ADVOCACY + ENGAGEMENT
02 REGENERATION + REPAIR
03 OPEN SYSTEMS
SHAC is built on the belief that design has a central role to play in the creation of more equitable and sustainable communities. We believe in designing + building projects that are proactive and forward-looking, whether the issue at hand is climate change or homelessness. Though our team focuses primarily on meeting the specific needs of the organizations we partner with -- for whom a new or improved built space can be transformational -- we understand that our work can and should be transformational at multiple scales. As a student group that has the autonomy to experiment and innovate outside of typical organizational boundaries, we see ourselves as uniquely positioned to take on projects that do good now and are also part of a larger structure of prototyping, research, and advocacy.
Regeneration + repair are core values that guide all aspects of our work. As key reference points for our projects, SHAC looks to urban farms working to restore relationships to land, repair cafes that teach people how to mend their own belongings, and youth spaces that provide access to resources. We’ve adopted a Continuum of Care framework to guide the implementation of these values, both in the programs we uplift in our spaces and the way we design the physical space itself. To us, this continuum represents a long-term engagement with the communities we partner with and the built work we create. We reject the same underlying ethos that allows for the continual discarding of people, things, and ecosystems. Through our projects, we hope to demonstrate alternatives to this way of operating.
SEED is conceived as an open system, a space that evolves and adapts along with its community. By taking on an Open Building approach, the project aims to be useful far into the future -- as a community / resource space, or as a container for other programming beyond the current vision. This open approach has human dimensions and built ones. The process of co-making of the space is essential in fostering a sense of ongoing care for the project. Also important is the separation of built elements with different life cycles to increase the flexibility and adaptability of the building. Detailed documentation of the co-design and (dis)assembly processes will empower future occupants to care for, repair, and eventually regenerate the project.
MISSION + GOALS
Raumlaborberlin’s officina roma, a villa constructed entirely out of recycled materials
The Restorative Justice City, by Designing Justice + Designing Spaces
An exploded axonometric of the built layers in Ledanger Group’s Upcycle House
A sample circular economy network for buildings, from The Manual of Recycling (DETAIL Magazine)
SHAC approaches projects with a multiscalar lens that sees our work as part of a larger ecosystem of community spaces. In working with YSA, we’ve looked for opportunities for concurrent development of programming and design, thus constructing synergies between social service work and built work. We believe that it is the power of broader networks that can alter conditions created and perpetuated by oppressive social structures. For this reason, we see the potential for SEED to plug into planning efforts for a larger network of services, as exemplified by frameworks such as the Restorative Justice City. We also see this network potential in our approach to circular building principles. Our team hopes that through SEED, we can begin to construct a local network of architects, builders, and those involved in the waste economy to further the practice of circular building.
DESIGN APPROACH
Design Day + workshops at YSA’s Tiny House Empowerment Village
The design of the SEED Center draws directly on conversations with the youth about how their needs can be better met at the village. Our team worked with youth during village design days, at monthly youth meetings held at YSA’s studio space in Berkeley, and weekly with a smaller group of community organizing pathway participants. Although the youth expressed many different opinions about what should be included in the project, several unifying themes emerged. Ultimately, youth leaders and staff prioritized the inclusion community gathering and services delivery as a means of expanding YSA’s capacity to engage with partners at the village. The SEED Center was thus envisioned as a commons for hosting events such as visual arts and creative writing workshops, job training programs, and healing mental and physical wellness classes. This space could also be used by residents on a daily basis to study, do work, and socialize. Smaller rooms surrounding the central area allow for retreat into a quieter, more private atmosphere where staff might perform casework or provide 1:1 counseling. The design of the Center affirms the importance of creating space for youth to not only engage with wraparound ser-
SEED design development, from initial meetings with residents to sketches, models, renderings.
vices, but to build community through artistic expression. As SEED continues to develop as a built form and as an infrastructure of ideas, the project team will reformulate this ethic of ongoing care not only in relation to its occupant use cases but in relation to the construction and materiality of the project itself. Analogous to programmatic models which provide services over an extended period of time, the SEED Center’s approach pays particular attention to the way that the space will change over the course of its lifetime. While many project delivery methods end with punch walks and final close out, the SEED project envisions a much longer-term engagement with the built product. This refocusing on the ‘continuum of care’ in a physical sense forms the basis of our team’s approach to sustainability. In our project proposal, this looks like: 1) implementation of formal strategies and systems to achieve net-zero energy and 2) selection of structural systems, connections, and materials in service of eventual disassembly and materials recovery / recycling.
DESIGN APPROACH
SEED’s community gathering space can accommodate a variety of programs and services, including wellness workshops, arts / cultural events, and jobs skills trainings for youth.
SEED also integrates passive strategies to bring down energy use & limit reliance on active systems
TRACTION + SUPPORT The Green Initiative Fund
My City Oakland Challenge
In early 2022, the SEED Center was awarded $125K, TGIF’s largest grant to date. TGIF is UC Berkeley’s premier campus fund for sustainability-focused projects, ranging from habitat restoration to environmental and food justice.
SEED is the co-winner of the My City Oakland Challenge for solutions to homelessness in which Oakland residents were asked to cast their votes for projects they considered most promising for addressing homelessness in the city.
U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2023
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We are grateful for the ongoing time, expertise, and material donated by our industry partners.