It’s the image that launched a thousand architecture student projects, including some of my own, the famous illustration of units being inserted into the “bottle rack” of Le Corbusier’s l’Unité d’habitation in Marseilles:
© Le Corbusier
And now it is the precedent for uhü, or Urban Housing Unit, designed by Addison Godine of Live light with the City of Boston’s Housing Innovation Lab and Boston Society of Architects; the prototype recently toured Boston. It is a 385 square foot prefabricated unit that looks pretty comfortable. And now, Godine and Live Light are taking it to the next level, literally, by developing it into a multi-level sixplex.
© Live Light
Unusually for a unit that small, it is laid out with a separate bedroom area at the entry, separated from the living/dining area by a generous wheelchair-accessible bathroom. It is certainly big enough that it could accommodate a single person in comfort, whether a senior or starter. Or as Godine told Next City,
Now that the traveling show is over, Godine is looking at building multiple unit structures where the units plug into racking.
Most prefab boxes are strong enough that they can be stacked directly on top of each other, which eliminates a lot of structure and the need to weatherproof the top and bottom of every unit. But the ability to pull units out of a rack opens allows for some interesting options, including sending them back to the shop for renovations and upgrades, or even renting the rack space to people who own their own box, and take it with them when they move to another city or even a different part of town. Godine also tells TreeHugger that the three-story version was done for a competition that limited the height to three stories, but by using the racking idea, there are no limits to height:
Of course there is much more to building affordable housing than the design of a prefab box; there are zoning restrictions, land and servicing costs. But Godine sees a different financial model:
This is essentially a trailer park model, where the developer owns the land and leases it to the owner of the home. So Godine is proposing what has been one of our long held dreams: The vertical trailer park.
Godine is the first to admit that this is not entirely a new idea, but believes that things have changed.
As one who tried this kind of thing earlier and failed, I do hope he is right, that we are at a unique moment where things have changed. Will cities allow these? Will neighbors not flip out? Will banks finance? We will stay tuned.
