Holistic Housing Design Toolkit: Case Study Cards

44 Inspirational Projects, Products, and Programs

Case Study Cards

Which

projects, products, or programs inspire you most?

Hawai‘i Housing Lab was ignited by a collaboration between the Hawai‘i Public Housing Authority and the University of Hawai‘i through the UH Community Design Center

© 2023 Karla Sierralta & Brian Strawn

In this set:

• 44 Inspirational Projects Products and Programs

At a glance

44 Case Studies / 4 Categories

What’s on the card?

Design Strategies & Actions

References to Imagine Your Community Cards

Signature Image

Embodies the design and feeling of the case study

Category

Type of project

Dwelling Unit

Per Acre

Key metric for comparing density

Precedent # & Description

Project name, authors, and key attributes

Think about:

Which projects, products, or programs inspire you most?

Sort by:

• Design Actions

• Categories

Multi-Family Residential Other Buildings

Community/Neighborhood

Infrastructures Digital, Programs, Others

Pair with:

• Imagine Your Community cards

Compare to:

• Density Alphabet Cards

1.1

Plan for Change

Enable co- and multigenerational living

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Oakland, CA

Year: 2016

DU/Acre: ~68

Lot Area: ~26,300 sf / 0.60 acres

Units: 41

Unit Types: 1bdr, 1bdr+den, 2bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: No

CASE STUDY 01:

Phoenix Commons is a 55+ co-housing community, designed by Zimmerman and Associates, on the Oakland, California waterfront.

Hawai'i Housing Lab's Holistic Housing Design Toolkit

Plan for Change Propose adaptable spaces

Category: Multi-Family Residential - Unit

Location: Various

Year: 2015

CASE STUDY 02:

ORI, a collection of products designed to optimize small living spaces developed by the MIT Media Lab, makes it easy for a bedroom to transform into a working area or an exercise space.

1.3

Plan for Change Offer smart storage

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: New York, NY

Year: 2016

DU/Acre: ~344

Lot Area: ~6,860 sf / 0.16 acres

Units: 55

Unit Types: Micro-units

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 03:

Carmel Place, a prototypical micro-unit project for small households in New York City designed by nArchitects combines shared amenities, movable furniture, and compact living.

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2.1

Connect Neighbors Facilitate friendly interactions

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Charleston, SC

Year: 2017

DU/Acre: ~98

Lot Area: 18,274 sf / 1.09 acres

Units: 41

Unit Types: 1-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: No

CASE

STUDY 04:

Williams Terrace Senior Housing, an affordable housing project in Charleston, South Carolina designed by David Baker Architects, introduces deep porches with outdoor seating and a rooftop community room to encourage interaction among residents.

2.3

Connect Neighbors

Open sight lines

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Year: 2015

DU/Acre: ~23

Lot Area: 34,560 sf / 0.79 acres

Units: 18

Unit Types: 2-bdr, 3-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: No

CASE STUDY 05:

Blackbirds is a cluster of 18 residences built around a living street designed by Bestor Architecture in Los Angeles, California. These buildings surround a blend of private, semi-private and public space that serves community functions and play.

3.1

Mix Uses Promote hybrid neighborhoods

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Los Angeles, California

Year: 2019

DU/Acre: ~113.1

Lot Area: ~56,700 sf / 1.3 acres

Units: 147

Unit Types: Studios, 1-bdr, 2-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 06:

Westgate 1515, by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architect, is a student housing project with communal courtyards and patios connecting across multiple levels. A Target store on the ground level serves as a neighborhood amenity, contributing to a more walkable community.

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3.3

Mix Uses

Blend civic spaces into daily life

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Chicago, IL

Year: 2019

DU/Acre: ~85

Lot Area: ~ 20,535 sf / 0.47 acres

Units: 40

Unit Types: 1-bdr, 2-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (library)

CASE STUDY 07:

Independence Library and Apartments, is a mixeduse project in Chicago by John Ronan Architects that combines the civic program of a public library with affordable housing along a busy urban corridor.

5.2

Work with Nature Leverage cross-breezes

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Year: 2015

DU/Acre: ~43

Lot Area: ~6,000 sf / 0.14 acres

Units: 6

Unit Types: 2-bdr

Amenities: No

Mixed Use: No

CASE STUDY 08:

Cloverdale 749, a 6-unit housing complex designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy in Los Angeles, California, celebrates indoor-outdoor thresholds through permeable layers.

6.1

Think Long Term Multiply productive lands

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Almere, Netherlands

Year: Concept 2016, Unbuilt

DU/Acre: ~6.5

Area: 166,840 sf / 3.83 acres

Units: 25

Unit Types: 8 different typologies

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (urban farming)

CASE STUDY 09:

Regen Village, a design proposal for off-the-grid communities designed by Effekt, combines a variety of innovative techniques such as high-yield organic food production, vertical farming, aquaponics/aeroponics, water management, and waste water-to-resource systems.

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6.3

Think Long Term Spark skill-sharing

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: San Francisco, CA

Year: 2011

DU/Acre: ~279

Lot Area: ~18,906 sf / 0.43 acres

Units: 120

Unit Types: Studio

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail w/work-training)

CASE STUDY 10:

Richardson Apartments by David Baker Architects in San Francisco, California, provide permanent supportive housing for low-income, formerly homeless people. It includes a resident lounge, a flexible community space and comprehensive social services.

7.1

Nurture Healthy Citizens Power active lifestyles

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Year: 2010

DU/Acre: ~75

Lot Area: ~277,230 sf / 6,36 acres

Units: 475

Unit Types: Various

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 11:

8 House, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, is a housing complex in Copenhagen that includes a promenade and cycle track.

7.2

Nurture Healthy Citizens

Provide lānais for all

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Milan, Italy

Year: 2014

DU/Acre: ~235

Lot Area: ~74,200 sf / 1.70 acres

Units: 400 (two towers)

Unit Types: 1-bdr, 2bdr, 3bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (office building)

CASE STUDY 12:

Vertical Forest, by Stefano Boeri, is a prototypical building in Milan that houses the equivalent of 30,000 square meters of woodland and 50,000 square meters of single-family houses in just 3000 square meters of urban fabric. Terraces and other outdoor spaces are provided for its residents.

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7.3

Nurture Healthy Citizens Protect views and privacy

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Year: 2008

DU/Acre: ~38

Lot Area: ~90,000 sf / 2.1 acres

Units: 80

Unit Types: 1-bdr, 2-bdr

Amenities: No

Mixed Use: Yes (public parking)

CASE STUDY 13:

Mountain Dwellings, by JDS Architects + Bjarke Ingles

Group (BIG) in Copenhagen is a mid-rise, 80-unit housing and parking development using architectural form to provide ground and sky access for all units while being mindful of privacy.

8.1

Build Responsibly Source regional materials

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Portland, OR

Year: 2018

DU/Acre: ~61

Lot Area: ~9,900 sf / 0.23 acres

Units: 14

Unit Types: 1-bdr, 2-bdr, 3-bdr

Amenities: No

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 14:

Carbon 12, an 8-story residential project with a hybrid steel and cross-laminated timber structure designed by Kaiser Group and Path Architecture for Portland, OR, is equipped to handle earthquakes and other natural disasters and was built using responsibly harvested regional timber.

8.1

Build Responsibly Source regional materials

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Vienna, Austria

Year: 2015

DU/Acre: ~109

Lot Area: ~85,130 sf / 1.95 acres

Units: 213

Unit Types: Studio, live/work

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 15:

Wood Housing Seestadt Aspern, by Berger + Parkkinen + Querkraft, is a 213 unit residential development in Vienna, Austria that celebrates natural and local materials in its prefabricated construction elements.

8.2

Build Responsibly Aim for efficiency

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: San Francisco, CA

Year: 2020

DU/Acre: ~405

Lot Area: 15,537 sf / 0.36 acres

Units: 146

Unit Types: Studio

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: No

CASE STUDY 16:

The Tahanan Supportive Housing project by David Baker Architects are modular apartments for the formerly homeless built by Factory OS in San Francisco.

8.3

Build Responsibly Anticipate future change

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Saclay, France

Year: 2020

DU/Acre: ~159

Lot Area: ~50,590 sf / 1.16 acres

Units: 192

Unit Types: Dorm-rooms and shared flats

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 17:

The Rosalind Franklin Residence, by Bruther and Baukunst, on the EPA Paris-Saclay campus was built with 192 dorms and two levels of parking that hold 425 spaces that can be converted into more housing or into office space depending on the future needs of the university.

9.3

Expand Economic Opportunities

Activate micro-businesses

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Kaka’ako, Honolulu, HI

Year: 2019

DU/Acre: ~122

Lot Area: ~30,000 sf / 0.68 acres

Units: 84

Unit Types: 1-bdr, 2-bdr, 3-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail and non-profit)

CASE STUDY 18:

Ola Ka‘Ilima Artspace Lofts, designed by Urban Works, is Hawaii’s first affordable live/work housing for low-income artists and their families.

Hawai'i Housing Lab's Holistic Housing Design Toolkit

11.1

Develop Diversity Set Aside Flex Space

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Year: 2019

DU/Acre: ~77

Lot Area: ~15,000 sf / 0.34 acres

Units: 26

Unit Types: Studio, 1-bdr, 2-bdr, 3-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 19:

MLK 1101 Supportive Housing, by LOHA Architects, provides gathering spaces and a community room for residents to socialize.

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11.2

Develop Diversity Prioritize flexibility & variety

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: North Hollywood, CA

Year: 2019

DU/Acre: ~90

Lot Area: ~29,000 sf / .66 acres

Units: 60

Unit Types: Studios, 1-bdr, 2-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (retail)

CASE STUDY 20:

11 NOHO, designed by Brooks + Scarpa, is organized around an expansive central courtyard. The five story structure holds 60 rental apartments with a great variety of floor plan sizes and layouts, all of which have private outdoor spaces and are passively cooled via cross ventilation.

12.2

Design for All Support aging in place

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Singapore

Year: 2018

DU/Acre: ~46

Lot Area: ~97,530 sf / 2.24 acres

Units: 104

Unit Types: 1-bdr

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: Yes (pubic facilities, plaza)

CASE STUDY 21:

Kampung Admiralty, designed by WOHA, is a one-stop integrated complex for meeting the needs of Singapore’s aging population.

12.3

Design for All Welcome people of all abilities

Category: Multi-Family Residential

Location: Sonoma, CA

Year: 2013

DU/Acre: ~6

Lot Area: ~121,400 sf / 2.79 acres

Units: 16 bedrooms - 4 homes

Unit Types: 4-bdr homes

Amenities: Yes

Mixed Use: No

CASE STUDY 22:

Sweetwater Spectrum Center, designed by Leddy

Maytum Stacy Architects, is a project that addresses the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorders, maximizing residents’ development and independence.

4.1

Put People First Respect human scale

Category: Other Buildings

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Year: 2018

CASE STUDY 23:

Parking House, a parking structure in Copenhagen re-imagined by Jaja Architects, uses a gradient facade to reflect the scale of adjacent buildings and offers spaces for seating, responding to the human scale.

9.3

Expand Economic Opportunities

Activate micro-businesses

Category: Other Buildings

Location: Various

Year: Various

CASE STUDY 24:

Accessory Commercial Units (ACUs) similar to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are small commercial spaces on residential blocks. Legalizing these small structures would require changes to most local zoning codes.

12.1

Design for All Take play seriously

Category: Other Buildings

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Year: 2016

CASE STUDY 25:

Park n’ Play, is a parking structure and playground, innovative infrastructure, and public amenity hybrid typology for Copenhagen by Jaja Architects.

Mix Uses

Weave in parks and plazas

Category: Community/Neighborhood Infrastructures

Location: Chicago, IL

Year: 2015

CASE STUDY 26:

The 606, designed and planned by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Ross Barney Architects, is a linear park and bike path built upon an extant train line in Chicago, Illinois that connects multiple neighborhoods.

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4.1

Put People First Respect human scale

Category: Community/Neighborhood Infrastructures

Location: Vancouver, Canada

Year: 2017-2019

CASE STUDY 27:

Places for People, is a city program for Downtown Vancouver created by Gehl to improve public life based on how people use and feel about public spaces.

Put People First Democratize the street

Category: Community/Neighborhood Infrastructures

Location: Denver, CO

Year: 2014-2016

CASE STUDY 28:

Gehl has been working for the City and County of Denver and the Downtown Denver Partnership to create an actionable solution for the 16th Street Mall pedestrian promenade through prototyping festivals and measuring the impacts on both the Mall as well as the activated cross streets.

4.2

Put People First Democratize the street

Category: Community/Neighborhood Infrastructures

Location: Paris, France

Year: 2016

CASE STUDY 29:

The 15-Minute City is a vision for Paris, where everything essential to residents is accessible within 15 minutes.

5.1

Work with Nature Foster water consciousness

Category: Community/Neighborhood Infrastructures

Location: New York, NY

Year: 2016

CASE STUDY 30:

NYCHA Red Hook Houses, a community affected by Hurricane Sandy in New York, was redesigned for resilience to future natural disasters, improved livability, and sustainability, by a team including KPF, OLIN, Arup, and others.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

2.1

Connect Neighbors

Sync-up the community

Location: Denmark

Year: 2010

CASE STUDY 31:

Borigo is a neighborhood app for cities in Denmark that allows communication, access to shared facilities, reservations, and neighborhood announcements.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

4.3

Put People First Amplify community mobility

Location: Region Skåne, Sweden

Year: 2011

CASE STUDY 32:

The Evaluation Rose, a planning tool for designing transportation hubs as meeting places designed by Gehl for the Region Skane in Sweden.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

5.3

Work with Nature Mind the sun

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Year: 2019

CASE STUDY 33:

SolarVille by Space10 and SANO in Copenhagen, is a working prototype of a self-sufficient, community driven, micro-grid that utilizes block-chain technology to power neighborhoods with solar energy.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

5.3

Work with Nature Mind the sun

Location: California

Year: 2021

A No-Cost Rooftop Solar Stimulus

How streamlining residential solar installations can jumpstart a green economic recovery

CASE STUDY 34:

SPUR, the urban planning think tank, recently proposed a plan to jumpstart a green economic recovery while bringing solar installations to residences.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

6.2

Think Long Term Redefine waste

Location: California

Year: 2021

CASE STUDY 35:

Zero Waste Design Guidelines for the city of New York developed by a coalition of design organizations, including Kiss + Cathcart Architects, propose waste as a resource rather than trash and encourage circular material flows.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

8.2

Build Responsibly Aim for efficiency

Location: California

Year: 2017

CASE STUDY 36:

Modular housing manufacturer Factory OS in California is working to reinvigorate factory-made housing as a solution to the state’s housing affordability woes.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

9.1

Expand Economic Opportunities

Ensure accessible equity

Location: Kapolei, HI

Year: 2017

CASE STUDY 37:

Kapolei Ho’olimalima, is a Rent-With-Option-ToPurchase pilot program that provides tenants an option to purchase the house after 15 years, developed for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

9.2

Expand Economic Opportunities

Bridge the Gap

Location: Various

Year: 2012

CASE STUDY 38:

AirBnB Open Homes, is a program that allows hosts to offer their space for free to others going during difficult times, such as medical stays, housing refugees and disaster relief.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

10.1

Make Data Accessible Track housing availability

Location: Chicago, IL

Year: -

CASE STUDY 39:

Find HCV Housing, a program by the Chicago Housing Authority, is a platform for finding affordable rentals including Section 8 vouchers and affordable market rate housing.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

10.2

Make Data Accessible Streamline Household management

Location: New York City, NY

Year: -

CASE STUDY 40:

My NYCHA Developments, a portal from the NYC Housing Authority website, facilitates access to work orders and outages per property.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

10.3

Make Data Accessible Map alternative paths to long term housing

Location: Various US states

Year: Founded in 2015

CASE STUDY 40:

Landed is a program that helps essential professionals buy homes and build financial security by providing down payment assistance, a partner agent, and educational resources.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

10.3

Make Data Accessible Map alternative paths to long term housing

Location: New York City, NY

Year: -

CASE STUDY 42:

Digs is an app that helps people plan financial decisions around housing.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

11.3

Develop Diversity

Communicate in multiple languages

Location: Brisbane, Australia

Year: 2013

CASE STUDY 43:

Multilingual Signage, designed by Dotdash, is aimed at the Brisbane, Australia’s growing Asian population.

Category: Digital, Programs, Others

12.2

Design for All Support aging in place

Location: Various (such as New York)

Year: Phrase coined in 1984

12.2, 12.3

CASE STUDY 44:

NORCs (Naturally occurring retirement communities), occur naturally, typically in denser, amenity-filled neighborhoods that allow seniors to access retail, services and importantly, people, easily.