The ADU project worked with the City of Gainesville's city architect to develop affordable housing units on predetermined sites to add to their catalogue of ongoing projects. I shared a site with my classmates Cera Stamm, Gianna Conterior, and Cecilia Muniz to develop a common site strategy of incorporating a stacked duplex and a detached accessory dwelling unit (ADU) onto a very small site. The group was split in half to develop two site strategies for our shared site, in which I worked with Cera Stamm. Cera designed the stacked duplex, while I designed the detached ADU.
We were tasked with considering the relationship between the site and living units to benefic the collective and the individuals living on the site. Thinking about circulation and ADA accessibility was a priority for the site and my living unit in particular. Another overall challenge of the project was considering an affordable budget. Our class was fortunate to meet with the city architect, Sarit Sela, throughout this project to discuss the balance of value engineering, function, and aesthetics. With these considerations and the city catalogue in mind, our designs were also expected to be simplified enough to serve as prototypes that can be reused in several locations.
