'VERDE'
Working within an existing parkland site, a new scheme for affordable housing emerges that emphasizes joy, community, and privacy as drivers for personal growth and healing among all its residents.
A former orchard, Verde’s site has been used for public housing for decades. However, with only 72 one-bedroom units across six acres, its aging structures are in dire need of replacement and densification given Portland’s housing emergency. In addition, the past has also taught us that cramming as many people as possible into a space without regard for their mental and physical health is a recipe for disaster.
Verde maintains the parkland-like qualities of the existing site and its many trees, while boosting unit counts to 153 and focusing on larger, family-sized units. These units are dispersed across three separate buildings, with a number of community notes created at intersection points as both formal spaces and as landscaped spaces. These community spaces form one end of a privacy gradient which extends into the individual units, buffering the most intimate spaces to allow residents to choose the level of connectivity they desire from moment to moment.
In doing so, the scheme works to promote joy and community among its residents, crucial components in the healing and growth processes for the many residents whose trauma comes with them to their new homes. Additional supportive services, such as communal gardens and a neighborhood Headstart pre-school, work to ease some of the burdens on these families.
Location: Portland, OR
Year: 2022
Type: Studio Project
Collaboration with Sofia Chavez and Steven Cagle.
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