Flex Housing

August 23, 2017 Gwen Rudosky

“FlexHousing™ is an award-winning concept and a viable alternative in today’s market.”

–Tom Parker

A SUSTAINABLE WAY TO BUILD

We have been talking about accessible housing for thirty years, but I think our aging population will push us to get it done. Baby boomers have the money and influence to make things happen. They will demand something different.

By the time I sit down to design a building or a house, I have already done a lot of homework. The needs of the end users direct my thinking. People who are aging or people with visual and other physical disabilities are topmost in my mind because they tend to be my clients. They influence me. To accommodate them, we need reasonably spaced accommodations, which is also often multi-generational. Working from the inside out as I do is called experiential architecture.

Tom Parker, who helped coin the phrase FlexHousing™ in 1995 when he worked with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, had comparable conclusions. FlexHousing™ is adaptable, accessible, and affordable. According to Tom: “FlexHousing™ is an award-winning concept and a viable alternative in today’s market.” Recently, CMHC has insisted as well on the need for healthy housing. The typical Canadian house is none of these things!

We entered two submissions into the FlexHousing™ Design Competition: one for the single-detached housing and the other for the horizontal multiple housing. In both categories, we were the “Prairie Regional Winner” in Stage 1. Our single detached housing concept later received a National Award of Merit.

The above floor plan drawings and 3D renderings show three phases of the FlexHouse™ design.

As one of four winners across Canada, my design had to produce housing that could be easily adapted to meet the present and future needs of the occupants. As the competition booklet reasoned; “This adaptability will become increasingly important as our population ages. As lifestyle changes, and as we witness an increase in home-based activities and new technologies.” Our designs were cost effective while being both appealing and marketable to the consumer.

As the winner in the Single Detached Housing Category, in the Competition, we explored ways we could most cost effectively build the project. I had already developed a working relationship with many of the non-profit organizations located in Edmonton, especially Habitat for Humanity – Edmonton. In time, we were able to put together a project construction team that included CMHC, Habitat for Humanity – Edmonton, and Ron Wickman Architect.

The experience of working with Habitat for Humanity – Edmonton tested the flexibility of the FlexHouse™ design. Habitat for Humanity had their own dwelling design criteria: keeping space to a minimum.

With the spirit of compromise and co-operation we were able to provide two different house designs that both satisfied the original intent of our FlexHouse™ design and those of Habitat for Humanity. This project promotes a more compact, affordable, and efficient city. Because it is located in the inner city close to a great variety of amenities, it encourages more pedestrian traffic and less automobile traffic by tapping into the city’s existing infrastructure. Located on a smaller lot, the design uses its land efficiently and effectively. This is sustainable design, as called for by the architects who participated in the 15th Venice Architectural Biennale, 2016.

The above image shows the completed FlexHouses™ from the street. Stairs lead to the front doors of both homes. The existing underground service lines were not deep enough to lower the homes to create a no-step entrance. However, we had more space in the backyard to slope a sidewalk to the back door for a no-step entrance.

The two completed houses identify a base two-story, three-bedroom dwelling with the potential for differing addition phases. The corner dwelling represents this base house design, while the mid-block dwelling represents a base house complete with a full bath and separate suite / home office on the main floor.

Both houses can be expanded or added onto over time, as necessary, starting small and taking on future additional space for a variety of needs: teenagers, a home office, or a separate suite. Young couples with children, single parents, seniors, and persons with disabilities can also be accommodated in time.

Designed to accommodate a variety of family types, the starter home, that in time can grow and even be subdivided, allows for an affordable dwelling to be purchased and later expanded to include additions that house office space, bedroom rentals, or garden suites. The project also has the potential to house one family, an extended family, or two separate families. The project is designed to function equally well on a mid-block or corner lot.

The above image shows an exterior view of the homes facing the rear yard. The back entrance to the home on the left is visitable. The one on the right is not. The house on the left will never need money, time, or energy to create a no-step entrance. The gently sloping sidewalk to the back door eliminates the need for steps, providing easy access for persons in wheelchairs. The roof overhang on both houses protects residents and visitors from ice and rain. Both decks are room sized to facilitate future cost-efficient additions with their intact roof and foundations.

The image beside shows an interior view of a second-floor bathroom. To accommodate a wheelchair, a five-foot turning space is provided; plywood backing is installed on the bathtub and toilet walls making it easier to install grab bars anywhere, in the future. Designed to simultaneously satisfy users with varying disabilities and of various ages, the project provides on-grade access, open floor plans, adjustable kitchen counters, lever door handles, adjustable closet rod and shelf heights, easy-to-grasp handrails. Rocker style switches installed at a lower height, have easier-to-reach outlet locations, which benefit those individuals in wheelchairs or using walkers.

The project specified materials and building methods that promoted sustainable construction and healthy housing.

The Habitat for Humanity job site is not a place for a designer with an ego. Everyone must focus on the needs of the families first. For me, working on this project was both humbling and emotionally rewarding.

Whenever I watched the hundreds of volunteers, I felt that I was getting published or promoted. The volunteers were completely selfless.

During the final launch of the CMHC FlexHouse™ Open House, with the Honorable Anne McLellan in attendance, I was invited to say a few words about my experience orchestrating this project. “What started off as an architectural experience ended up being a life experience far richer that I could have ever imagined.”

The project was special. The design was unique and innovative, and the construction process even more unusual with hundreds of volunteers visiting the site every day. The combination of these two made this project one of the greatest challenges I may ever face as an architect. I needed to be on site every day to ensure that the intent of the design was being adhered to. This process was incredibly time consuming while being intensely rewarding.

“The idea of making the next Habitat for Humanity home an R-2000 home is a very positive message, getting away from the image of R-2000 being only for upper-end homes.”

- Joel Nodelman, manager, sustainable development for EPCOR

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The above image shows workers putting up a second-story exterior wall. The man at the back will become the eventual homeowner.

My House

August 23, 2017 Gwen Rudosky

“The home bridges affordability and ecological design and construction, while highlighting green-building materials and methods that are easy to obtain and simple to use.”

–Ron Wickman

MY REWARD!

The above image is a scale model of our new family home viewed from the south. Like most architects, the design and re-design of our family home was de rigueur. In 2000, we completed a second-story addition to our 1960s bungalow. The home modifications were designed primarily to accommodate the growing needs of our family of five. Accessibility and sustainability were also important architectural concerns. The sustainable features include passive solar design; a well insulated building envelope, low-flow toilets, and a green roof. To make the home more accessible, all public spaces are clustered on the ground floor; we poured a sloping sidewalk at the front entrance.

The above image shows the front view of our new two-story home, facing east.

The home is located in a quiet late sixties south-side suburb along a beautiful street lined with elm trees. The existing 1400 SF bungalow doubled in size, with the renovated home providing more room for the family and for my home office. The addition to the home goes up rather than out. Located at the intersection of two back lanes, the home is sited on an east-west axis. Its south side faces one of the two lanes with better access to the sun. The home location is ideal with the added advantage of being located in a mature neighborhood close to a variety of amenities and public transportation.

The above floor plan drawing illustrates the main floor of the home, wherein all the public spaces of the house are clustered, including my home office.

The office has a separate entrance at the front of the house, which can easily be blocked off from, or opened up to the rest of the living space, depending on the family’s needs. In the future, the space could be used as an in-law suite, or for an adult child still living at home. The crisp lines of this design are clearly inspired by the work of the early modernists with the house acting as a backdrop to human activities. A variety of box forms, devoid of any unnecessary embellishments, articulate the various functions of the building. Like later modernists, such as Alvar Aalto, the house utilizes a more human scale and warmer local building materials. Indeed, this house renovation looks to the past for inspiration, although it is more focused on today’s social and political conditions, and on our need to respect our fragile environment.

The above floor plan illustrates the second floor of the home.

The design is straightforward with the house functions clearly divided into their constituent parts and the building’s form derived from the order of the interior and exterior spaces. A northern, two-story block contains the private spaces with four bedrooms on the second floor, and a home office, a sitting room, and a garage on the main floor. A south facing one-story block contains the public spaces on the main floor, topped off by a roof deck. A distinct third block, built at a height between the two other blocks, weaves the private and public realms together. This in-between space contains two levels of circulation complete with sitting areas, and serves to provide a positive connection between the public and private functions. Architects should spend more design time on these in-between spaces, since they are critical in imbuing meaning to the various functions in a single-family dwelling and in an entire city. Carefully constructed outdoor spaces also link the home to the rest of the community. The design of these outdoor rooms—the roof deck, front courtyard, and back play area—are every bit as important as the indoor spaces providing variety and personalization to this design.

The image of the stairs leading to the second floor utilizes color and textural contrast to help persons with low vision in their wayfinding. The stairs are finished in dark slate tile with light colored maple nosings. The high contrast makes it very easy for users to identify each individual stair. My design decisions—to be as accessible as possible— are based on maximizing the experiences of end users. There are no steps at the front door, allowing persons in wheelchairs to access the main floor independently. A residential elevator would be required to make the second floor wheelchair accessible. The home also bridges affordability and ecological design and construction, while highlighting green-building materials and methods that are easy to obtain and simple to use.

The image beside is a rendering by Jared Schmidts of my father moving up the sloping sidewalk to the front door of my house, from my adult children’s book Accessible Architecture: A Visit from Pops. “Buildings should never be designed simply as sculpted objects to be viewed; the design aims to be usable by as many people as possible. When architects design buildings that cannot accommodate people with disabilities and others, the strength of their design is compromised. Accessible architecture is not about limiting design options. It is about bringing value and meaning to design.”

Affordable Housing Demonstration Project

August 23, 2017 Gwen Rudosky

“This concept is a winner. It has a simple yet livable design and makes innovative use of the site... Overall, this design sets a good precedent.”

–The Jury

OFFERING GREATER CHOICE IN HOUSING

The above color-rendered site plan drawing highlights the landscaping and color contrast around and between buildings. The project houses an inner south-facing outdoor courtyard space measuring approximately 24’-0” by 24’-0” onto which each dwelling looks. Everyone is free to utilize this space, a move designed to promote social interaction, bringing people together rather than keeping them apart. Local architects and homebuilders were invited to design affordable, innovative housing for a city-owned lot at Baldwin at 12673 – 72 Street, allowing more flexible land use. At least one unit had to be suitable for families with children.

Eight local teams of architects, designers, and builders submitted proposals that included two or three units of housing on the site. The five-person jury considered each entry’s affordability, effective design, livability, neighbourhood fit, and innovation.

Winner of The Affordable Housing Demonstration Project in 1994, the tri-plex was the result of an open competition, initiated by the City of Edmonton Planning and Development and the Innovative Housing Committee. Its goal was to provide affordable and innovative duplex and triplex solutions for an inner city lot 35’-0” wide by 120’-0” long. Completed in the fall of 1995, it is still fully occupied.

The above drawing identifies the main floor plan complete with the ground floor of the two-story home and the ground floor accessible dwelling. The resident of the accessible dwelling can visit the other home from the back door facing the courtyard where there is a no-step entrance.

A simple flow-through circulation pattern is enabled with the absence of hall in the plan. Efficient use of space is notable in this design, as an outcome of lived experience. Designing to accommodate wheelchairs, which need more turnaround space, challenges architects to produce innovative solutions, which may be just outside the realm of what is considered the norm.

The project was designed to accomplish several important goals not usually addressed in Edmonton’s housing market. It had to accommodate low-income families, single parents, shared accommodations, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. Its flexibility allows one family to occupy both buildings, encouraging multi-generational housing: extended households, which include grandparents, young families with children or young adults living independently with disabilities. Alternatively, two families can each occupy a building, or three separate families can inhabit each unit.

The above drawing identifies the second floor plan of the two buildings. With limited circulation space within the units – the smaller unit is 24’-0”by 24’-0” or 576 sq. ft. and the two-story unit is 24’-0” by 32’-0” or 768 sq. ft. – allows for critical larger closet and storage space.

The integration of a courtyard into the design promotes social interaction rather than isolation. With an aging population and reduced institutional care for the elderly, the idea of an accessible granny suite like this project offers is timely.

The above image shows the integration of this housing project into its existing neighborhood.

It can be seen as an illustration of successful community infill, encouraging inner - city communities, which are often deserted as urban development continues in the suburbs. In my housing models, I try to provide for both privacy and socialization. The future of accessible design in the community is accessible community design: creating communities that are more accessible for everyone. This design fits into the existing streetscape, yet at the same time sets the tone for what future development could look like.

Features like on-grade access, open floor plans, a lower kitchen counter, lever door handles, grab bars, accordion closet doors, and adjustable rod and shelf heights all help a variety of individuals. The strategic uses of color and contrast plus changes in texture of ground and wall surfaces serve as visual and tactile cues for those persons with visual and cognitive limitations.

As architect Bjarke Ingels (Yes is More) wrote in a recent interview, “The task of a city is a practical one: to accommodate many people from all kinds of different backgrounds, age groups, social groups, economic capacities, genders, religions, and so on. It has to enable them to co-habit a limited amount of space successfully, in a way that maximizes the possibilities for each individual, without limiting the possibilities for all the others.”

This project designed with sustainability, adaptability, and flexibility makes it suitable housing for seniors and for people with disabilities. Their maximization of space, incorporation of light and proximity to the amenities typical of inner-city housing enables the residents to age in place, a growing concern among the number of seniors among us. Community, rather than isolation, is an essential ingredient of their continued vigor and mental health, despite their abilities.

The image above shows the street facing home complete with the address sign of high contrast white and black lettering.

The image above shows the kitchen area of the ground level accessible dwelling. Most of the counter height is the standard 3’-0” from the floor. A lower counter, which is open underneath extends into the living space. The counter can serve as a work… — The image above shows the kitchen area of the ground level accessible dwelling. Most of the counter height is the standard 3’-0” from the floor. A lower counter, which is open underneath extends into the living space. The counter can serve as a workspace and eating area for someone sitting in a wheelchair. The sink is open underneath for easy wheelchair access.