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| Local housing, Pittsburgh |
Elizabeth Shotton | architect
1997
The objective of this open competition was to provide affordable urban housing which could be easily adapted to accommodate a variety of living situations. Siting of the units enhances the existing dense urban street edge with porches and stairs while encouraging community spirit by enclosing an interior block park containing a shared community service building, to be used as a day care, laundry mat or other shared facility.
Individual units are adaptable to owner or renter status with the flexibility to occupy the units as; single homes, apartments, rooms with shared facilities, housing combined with work spaces. This was achieved through a series of movable walls and heavy doors which enabled occupants to reconfigure spaces without the need for further construction. Affordability was maintained through repetition of basic unit plans, minimization of excavation and site costs, use of economic construction techniques and materials.
