University of Illinois BSAS: Spring 2022

 

Portland, Oregon is an up-and-coming city for young families but, due to its high price point and lack of affordable housing options, many young families are deterred from living there. Portland's neighborhood houses are unique; no house is uniform and everything has its personality. Thus, this was the multi-family housing project's inspiration. Sample houses in town were reduced to their basic forms, combined, and used as inspiration for the forms of each multi-family "cluster". Clusters were placed in empty lots interspersed in the single-family residential area of Sunnyside, increasing the density of the existing neighborhood while providing an affordable housing option. 

​

Each "unit" within each cluster is unique with its own spaces. Additionally, CMU construction was used for its durable and energy-reducing properties and its contribution to achieving the passive housing standard, therefore reducing utility costs for its residents. Portland's moderate climate allows for more experimentation within CMU construction and exploration of how it is better at reducing utility costs than typical wood-framed construction.