Los Angeles Affordable Housing

Responding to the unsuccessful densification of public housing in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Affordable Housing project reimagines gross enclaves generated by the notorious highway systems that intersect neighborhoods and segregates population and public resources.

The extremely thin 17-feet structure challenges the deep plan of Los Angeles residential units. It introduces a new type of densification that defines space by surface rather than volume, through which increases the communication of public and private. At the same time, the structure connects the two sides of the highway by bridging with public space such as recreation space, garden, and market, to create a porous and pedestrian friendly environment and provide plenty of public service to both the existing neighborhood and the new occupants in the affordable housing.

At the micro scale, the flexible and repetitive structure not only facilities future densification, but also satisfy a variety of convertible housing units, ranging from 3-bedroom duplex that could satisfy multi generation families to studio units that could also be an office for local artists. Sliding doors in the kitchen and living space create opportunities for food sharing and multi-family events.

The project is a radical and sustainable respond to the dilemma of highway and the preceding experiments of multi-family housing in Los Angeles, in the context and booming population and limited public facilities. The project is a typology that could be applied at different highways and locations in the city. It mitigates the repercussions of pedestrian unfriendly infrastructure and provides an alternative densification for both public space and collective living units.