(Fig 1.) Matrix 2) Adjusted for livability and the particulars of the Vancouver context.

(Fig. 2-4) Site Context: Kitsilano.

(Fig. 5-7) Site: Recently “pedestrianized” portion of Waterloo Street between 4th and 5th avenues, separating the east and west portions of Mcbride Park.

(Fig. 8) Precedent: Villa Verde. Constituciòn, Chile.

(Fig. 9-14) Design Development

(Fig. 15-17) Design: “Customizable Kit House Village” – Modularity based on a grid of 20’x20′ parcels of “platform-land”, composed of 5’x5′ spatial organization squares. Outdoor and indoor space is adjustable according to need.

At this stage in the project, designability rearranged some priorities on my initial matrix. It is true that rent and accessibility influence affordability most substantially. However, within a field of designable priorities that reach beyond finance into well-being, I felt that spatial flexibility was a primary factor in developing a typology.

Though there is tremendous value to shared community space, I wanted to develop a typology that provided private exterior space for each individual resident. Not as an additional ornament, but as an essential room in their living routine. For creativity, entrepreneurship, agency, and dignity. Collective space could be developed at a wider scale once the individual space was established. My inspiration for this idea was the affordable-housing development called “Villa-Verde” in Constitución, Chile.