Our speakers for July will be Jonathan Bolch and Colin Christensen from Woofter Bolch Architecture and they will be discussing their involvement & award from a recent competition, the 2021 Salt Lake City Empowered Living Design Competition, centered on small scale design & affordable housing.

This will be a jumping off point for a discussion on how to leverage design to help curb the local housing crisis by creating opportunities within existing neighborhoods while maintaining the existing housing stock and character of the street frontages. The lack of affordable housing is a crisis throughout the country and this competition was a great opportunity to share ideas between cities.

The birch ADU is a sustainable, affordable Accessory Dwelling Unit prototype that is adaptable to any site but is tailored to take advantage of the rear lot access of residential alley sites. The Grand Award winner for ADU design in the 2021 Salt Lake City Empowered Living Design Competition, it maximizes the potential for new types of urban living within traditionally underutilized backyard spaces, creating density and an affordable housing option within existing neighborhoods while maintaining the existing housing stock and character of the street frontages.

To address the potential of various sites, the design incorporates a limited “kit-of-parts” that includes a main structure for living, an exterior storage shed, and a covered outdoor space in-between. This covered space, the “birch” (BI-directional poRCH), forms the heart of the design by creating a flexible covered outdoor space that extends the living space and is both sheltered and connected. When thoughtfully configured to the unique characteristics of its site, the components can adapt to and engage its specific context and work to create community inside and out.

Our project grew from our ongoing interest in exploring ideas to create affordable and sustainable small-scale infill housing. In Portland, the zoning code changes under the new Residential Infill Project provide tremendous opportunity to increase housing choice in single-dwelling zones and provide a diversity of housing types and prices. The lack of affordable housing is a crisis throughout the country and this competition was a great opportunity to share ideas between cities.