Homes for Sonoma

Design Challenge

After a natural disaster, the solution to temporary housing is familiar: white, boxy, unhealthy and plain-looking trailers lined up in rows on a non-descript field. The materials are unsustainable, in some cases toxic (as seen in post-Katrina issued homes), and meant to be used for three to five years and then discarded. They’re also immensely unpleasant to live in. This is an example of the challenge communities face for temporary housing that Homes for Sonoma seeks to address. The Homes for Sonoma design team wanted to create a contrast to the design by addressing the following features: Longevity, safe and healthy housing, and sustainability: The cottages were specifically designed with permanence in mind. While the location of the homes may change, the building standards and materials used would last into perpetuity by ensuring that the homes meet state and regional building codes for permanent homes. By meeting California energy efficiency standards, green building codes, and the Wildland-Urban Interface requirements, longevity and the sustainability of the homes, no matter where they’re moved, is guaranteed. Going through these processes also ensures the use of safe, healthy, non-toxic, and fire-resistant materials by going through the standard ADU permitting processes. Mobility and flexibility: The design also incorporates mobility so the cottages can be constructed, disassembled, moved and re-constructed numerous times. The homes are also designed to be fabricated by modular home builders or can be built conventionally on site, so there is not only flexibility around the location of the home sites, but flexibility around who builds the structure and and how it’s built. Cost-effectiveness: Because affordable housing is an enormous challenge in the region, cost-effectiveness was an important element to the design. The design team was able to incorporate the use of less expensive materials that are still attractive and fit into the simple, modern look and off-site modular construction. This way, the homes—which cost between $100,000 to $150,000 to build—would be accessible to non-profit organizations focused on affordable housing or lower-income individuals in need of temporary housing. Beautiful design: The team's goal was to design a home where people wanted to live, rather than a home where they had to live. They did this through a sleek, minimalist, modern aesthetic familiar in higher-end ADUs. With modern flooring, high-end-looking cabinetry and finishes, flexible indoor-outdoor space, the homes are anything but the standard mobile home. The slightly pitched roof, modern siding, and the wood-paneled wall next to the entry also accentuate the homes’ curb appeal. A community-oriented design: The design considers these homes as part of a community as opposed to being envisioned in isolation of other residents. The design takes into account privacy (such as through window placement and a privacy wall on the front porch) and community (such as through the placement of the side porch that could face other homes’ porches to instill a community-engaged atmosphere). The hope is that the homes would be built as neighborhoods.

Physical Context

There are two important contextual elements taken into account in the design: the increasing risk of wildfires in the region and the growing opportunity for ADUs as solutions to the affordable housing crisis. The following provides details on how these elements were incorporated into the design. Adapting to wildfire prone regions through design: The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) are designated areas where residential communities are built near or among wildfire-prone lands. These areas are increasing due to housing development growth and the increased prevalence of wildfires due to climate change. The North Bay Fires in 2017 are an example of this where more than 7,500 structures in Sonoma County were destroyed by wildfire. Because of these natural elements facing these communities, integrating WUI requirements into the building standards for new homes in regions such as Sonoma County, is essential. By incorporating the WUI requirements into the design, the Homes for Sonoma team is responding to the natural environment by utilizing materials and detailing that makes the buildings more resistant to future wildfires. These considerations for the wildland-urban context is incredibly important to ensure longevity of the structures so they can adapt to fit into the natural environment. Designing as an Accessory Dwelling Unit: While it’s not necessarily the physical context, it’s important to consider the cultural and societal context that has made ADUs not only popular among property owners, but also promoted by affordable housing advocates. The region’s housing crisis is only getting worse—only exacerbated from the homelessness created by the North Bay Fires—and small ADUs are becoming an increasingly viable solution because of legislative changes to building standards in California and across the country. By designing the homes that meet these updated ADU standards, Homes for Sonoma is seizing an important opportunity to provide affordable housing for community residents in a unique and innovative way. The design team creatively addresses all the challenges illustrated above to make affordable housing beautiful, adaptable, and enduring, ultimately making these cottages a desirable and appealing place to live either temporarily or permanently. Additionally, Homes for Sonoma is paving the way for other similar projects across the country. By navigating the challenges and opportunities of the ADU permitting process, they’re able to become leaders in the ADU-affordable housing movement across the country. This important work will hopefully make projects such as this easier for other communities to implement.