24J Houses

Each house is a three-story structure with a one-car garage on the ground floor that could be repurposed as a workspace or additional living area or bedroom. The second floor includes a loft-like living area, kitchen and bath while the third floor has bedrooms and a shared bathroom. A small basement serves as a storm shelter and utility room. The verticality of the house is visually counteracted by the increased spacing of battens on the painted cement panel siding on successive floors. A shared parking / play court with permeable paving occupies the center of the lot and small semi-private courtyards fill the gaps between the offset structures. The west side of the CLT faces a public bike path along a restored  urban creek.

“Increasing density three-fold on this urban site is an opportunity to address housing costs and experiment with new housing typologies. The individual units are sited to work as a group to provide modulated exterior spaces while also offering each unit four exterior exposures. There are variations for additional bedrooms and office spaces within the same building structure and shell. We hope to see this project deployed on this site”

See FACT’s missing middle and “gentle density” explorations in the NEw Attainable House including the Neighbor-Type House, another example of community land trust. Actual Architecture Co. promotes small scale, high density housing as part of a suite of solutions for the housing crisis that must also include large multi-family buildings. Purchase the NEw Attainable House book here.