Client: Chicago Dept. of Housing, Chicago Dept. of Planning and Development, Chicago Architecture Center
Location: Chicago, IL
Status: Competition (Shortlisted)
Dates: 2023
Sq Footage: 10,400 sf
Program: 6-flat type, multi-family housing prototype
Design Team: Eric Bunge, Mimi Hoang | Jason Kim | Isabel Chun, Yun Koo
Come Home is a design competition and wealth building initiative that will support “missing middle density” infill housing in Auburn Gresham, Bronzeville, East Garfield Park, Englewood, Humboldt Park and Woodlawn. Our juried Request for Qualifications invites architects to reimagine Chicago’s single family home, two- and three-flat, rowhouse and six-flat typologies to better meet 21st century lifestyles.
Our proposal continues the City’s work of re-activating commercial corridors by enhancing the space between home and street: a Middle Ground. Residents will come home to generous outdoor spaces, a luminous building stair, and winter gardens that reinterpret Chicago’s bay windows. As such, Middle Ground connects indoor and outdoor living, and neighbor to neighbor. While the traditional 6-flat locates the entry stair in the center, resulting in narrower/deeper units, our proposal maximizes front and rear facing rooms, emphasizing daylight and neighborhood safety.
A socially resilient mix of two duplex townhouses and four flats accommodates how we live today. Anticipating a variety of household types, the bedrooms are treated equally, with a third room (townhouses) and winter gardens offering the flexibility and acoustic privacy to work from home. A separate front door to the lower townhouse further expands the range of lifestyles accommodated, while living rooms are oriented to the rear, activating this shared space with the second means of egress.
Middle Ground incorporates sustainable measures that don’t require costly application or certification processes, such as cross-ventilation, ample daylight, and a PV array on the roof. We illustrate the use of CLT floor and roof slabs, spanning between traditionally framed unit demising walls. Windows are standard dimensions, and exterior cladding is shown either in metal or brick.
To come home implies a return to the familiar. At the same time, new prototypes offer the opportunity to recalibrate housing for updated lifestyles, economic realities, and sustainability goals. We propose a Middle Ground.
See more on Dwell.
