Beta Realities’ design for Community First Residences in Austin, Texas, offers a personalized solution to 3D printable, dignified housing. Conceived for a collective design approach, our kit of parts platform for customizable 3D printed homes presents a humanistic approach to technology.
Highly Individual Affordable Housing Solution – From Many For Many.
Participatory workshops and engagement of future homeowners in the design and homebuilding process allow for homes that better fit personal needs. By designing functional objects instead of preconfigured homes, they empower multiple residents to form their community collectively. The design proposal is part of Icon’s Initiative 99.
A Good Neighbor | Site Adaptation and Master Planning
Due to the flexibility of the interactive approach, the design for the Community First! 4.0 site can cater to many diverse residents with various personal needs and preferences.
As a means to reconnect to self and the community, they created a tailormade duplex, ‘Home 99’, arranged as four tiny home apartments in a 360° approach, fully embedded in its surrounding community. Taking cues from and reinterpreting Community First Village’s diverse housing typologies, ‘Home 99’ proposes a natural evolution within the naturally grown village:
A contemporary reimagination of the traditional porch provides a soft transition from public to private spaces. By creating opportunities for chance encounters, shared meals, and neighborly activities, such as communal gardens, we actively cultivate relationships, create connections, encourage community, and establish principles of giving back.
Every Home Tells a Story | Architectural Design
Just as every resident tells a story, each home is designed to reflect it. From program and layout to design and appearance, all elements are designed for permanence, belonging, identity, and flexibility.
The Community First! Duplex ‘Home 99’ is designed to be fully accessible and highly flexible in its open space layout with cross-functional usage and layers of privacy. Prefabricated fit-outs and embedded adaptive furniture for both interior and exterior spaces maximize the advantages of individual 3D printing.
Additional personalization opportunities come with generous embedded interior and exterior storage and display opportunities and a customizable feature wall at the porch where greenery and light are embedded in the print – giving a recognizable face and identity to every home.
Climate Adaptations | Embedded Sustainability Strategies for Community First Residences
Community First Residences are designed with sustainability strategies embedded in their core. Different opening types are protected from views by setbacks and operable customizable screens.
High ceilings and placement of openings allow for passive cooling strategies whilst respecting privacy and security – flexible to be adapted to multiple prevailing wind and site orientations.
An integrated green feature wall cools the exterior and air through evaporative cooling. A generously overhanging prefab roof creates shading for facades and exterior areas and collects rainwater via a shared centralized plumbing wall. A healthy material palette is chosen for recycling, carbon storage, and regenerative performance. With co-creation processes and easy-to-manufacture and assemble do-it-yourself furnishings, the longevity of all fit-outs is increased.
Project Details
Project Name: Community First Residencies
Client: ICON Technologies
Architect/Designer: Beta Realities
Partner: Morean
Location: Austin, TX, USA
Size: from 36 sqm
Program: Residential
Year: 2024
The project description is provided by Beta Realities.
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