Affordable Multifamily Housing

VRT has created an affordable housing plan for an individual or couple the elemental feature of which is a micro-apartment 'duplex', two very small apartments sharing a common utilities chase and mirrored about a central axis as seen here:

Where this design is fine for the individual or couple, a family with young children needs a different and larger design. VRT has devised a multifamily apartment which preserves the boundaries and partitions of the duplex unit - revising them the better to provide for a families needs. The lower king bunk / berth seen above is reworked into three twin size beds - 39 by 84 - which double as a lounge during the day. The kitchen is enlarged and a builtin L-shaped work / dining table is added. Each multifamily unit has two closets and plenty of drawer space to put everything in its proper place. As well there is plenty of shelving, a place to hang coats near the entry and where there are a couple of shoe lockers as well:

Now it is VRT's contention that inclusion of living rooms and dining rooms is inappropriate for affordable housing. The lawn, the living room, and the dining room so common amongst suburban homes are more meant to be seen than used - typically included in the suburban design as markers meant to indicate bourgeois status. As such they are most out of place in affordable housing not so much out of any class consciousness as the fact that they so wantonly squander space. Two of Wright's buildings perfectly dramatize the situation. On the one hand there is the Larkin building illustrating the commercial building designed around open space with its tall slender atrium. On the other is Fallingwater where living room, dining room, hearth, and entry way are fashioned as alcoves situated around a great open space. To be sure this configuration works to grand effect. But it is a mistake to imagine the affordable house can be had merely by shrinking such spatial arrangements. For affordable housing they must regrettably be dispensed with altogether. The affordable house must concern itself entirely with life's practicalities providing places to eat, sleep, bathe, work and store. All pretense to luxury must be put off for the time being - which is not to say that the multifamily apartment cannot be made to feel pleasant and cozy with thoughtfully designed built-ins and finishes.

Affordable housing design must break sharply with the conventional apartment formats of kitchen-dining room-living room-two bath-bedrooms. In its place it must look to the compact yacht for inspiration. Such vessels are an object lesson in pressing every square foot into practical and useful service. To that end all the furniture - beds, tables, sofas, bookshelves, office chairs, and so on should be built in, should be fitted out where possible or otherwise be included in what really ought to be a kind of turnkey occupancy paradigm: Make moving into the affordable multifamily apartment as simple and stress free as checking in to a hotel.

Now of course given its small size and multiple residents good ventilation is essential. The V in HVAC must be given the attention it is due:

The ERV shown is manufactured by Panasonic. As well louvered doors are used for both bedrooms the better to ensure good ventilation while affording some measure of privacy.

With this affordable multifamily housing design, families can at least have the necessities. The shared children's sleeping area should do up to the age of ten - or older if economic circumstances so dictate.