For the 2014-2015 academic year, we enrolled 70 high school and 150 middle school students in our Studio H class to build public architecture with our team. The challenge this year is housing: How is housing influenced by social and economic context?
How does affordable access to housing empower communities or families? How does the design of a home uplift and inspire positive change in a person’s life? With these questions in mind, our team and students took on the design and construction of two (identical) tiny homes, approximately 7×16 feet, built on trailers. One home would be donated to Opportunity Village in Eugene, Oregon, a wonderful transitional housing organization that provides a home and job training to the unhoused or homeless (while we had hoped to donate the home locally, Bay Area city zoning codes do not permit the legal occupancy of tiny homes, but the city of Eugene has embraced the tiny home movement as a viable housing option).
The other home would be auctioned off at the end of the year to fund the project in years to come. All this will take place during the academic school year, with final delivery and auction taking place in early June 2015.
Link to project page: http://projecthdesign.org/projects/tiny-homes/
Link to eBay auction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331570546106?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
