Democratically Jeffersonian, Agrarian patterned, Urban cultured, High-density, Off-site fabricated, Fair-wage manufactured, Finish-it-yourself, Up-by-the-bootstraps, Volunteer barn-raising, High porosity, Low-impact, Naturally-ventilating, Solar collecting, Carbon-fixing, Air and Water filtering, Healthy materialed, Happy-peopled, Fruit tree shaded, Vegetable-producing, Child-pleasing, Reuseably recyclable, Community defining, Neighborhood welcoming, Diversely familied

This high-density urban housing landscape will be fabricated almost entirely off-site using a hybrid, steel-frame/structural insulated panel system. The individual building units will be efficiently manufactured off-site in two, road-legal halves per typical three-bedroom flat and then stacked by crane as complete three-story, three-family units on top of semi-buried, prefabricated, composite concrete basement vaults. Earth excavated for building foundations is redistributed as rolling landscape berms creating a unified outdoor common space flowing around the individual house blocks. Earth cut and fill is balanced in order to minimize cost, energy expenditure and existing community disruption, while simultaneously enhancing the rich symbolism of a community rooted in the local Jeffersonian earth. Dwelling units share a common geometric order defined by a superimposed agrarian orchard grid planted with fruit-bearing shade trees. Within the regular orchard grid, the slightly sliding house positions create a readably syncopated rhythm, allowing the common open space to shrink and swell across the rolling berms, creating variously sized outdoor gardening, picnic and play areas. Market rate dwelling units will be fully pre-assembled with finished interiors, while self-build units will incorporate homeowner and volunteer labor at both the factory and on-site construction stages. Self-build and volunteer labor construction process variations will accommodate differential cost structure, rather than overt distinctions in unit size, placement or quality. Within a highly democratic common building language, a wide range of residential, retail, community gathering and child-care spaces are included in the site planning and distribution of system modules, resulting in architectural, economic and social diversity intertwining across the well-integrated site. Community vegetable gardens, picnic and play areas weave as continuously linked earth berms winding among the buildings and gently rolling down the cross-slope site, both defining internal community areas and flowing outward to the street edge as a welcoming integration with the larger neighborhood.

Primary design emphasis is placed on high-quality urban community life, applying a highly economical, energy-efficient, fair-wage manufacturing and construction process accompanied by sustainable land use patterns, siting optimized for solar and natural wind flow ventilation access and control; healthy, green-technology materials; and low energy-consumption mechanical and filtration systems. The cross-slope, hillside home siting is organized to optimize day lighting, ventilation and outdoor access to all living units, and to carve semi-protected outdoor living and play spaces. Primary building faces are composed of generous balconies or sunrooms intended to enliven all street and community garden facades with active, populated and densely planted outdoor living areas. The configuration of the housing blocks step down and adjust to the neighboring buildings, and step back at street level to activate street frontage with outdoor cafes, retail, bus stops, and pedestrian traffic. The site is conceived as a dense urban landscape block, porous to light and air at the residential levels, and carved out at its rolling, earthen core to provide an urban surprise of quiet outdoor space and family gardens in the air. The building itself is detailed as a simple, rational frame armature bringing the life of shops, homes, orchard, and hanging gardens into the forefront as a primary image of the site.

Underground environmental systems will be placed as entirely pre-fabricated utility vaults with primary plumbing and mechanical systems already integrated at the factory. Ground level retail/restaurant, mechanical/utility and parking areas will be swung into place as pre-fabricated steel/concrete composite panels similar to tilt-up construction. Most residential units will arrive as pre-assembled and pre-finished living units delivered as components similar to the arrival of two-piece, doublewide trailer units, and lifted into place by crane. The entire manufacturing and pre-fabrication process can be completed off-site within a 5-month, just-in-time delivery framework, overlapping with a total 3-month on-site construction period. The rationalized, componentized manufacturing, delivery and erection process provides tremendous cost-savings and reductions in urban disruption and site pollution. The building materials are high-recycled content concrete, steel, and recycled wood—inert, healthy and free of off-gassing chemical products. Surfaces are hard and robust concrete, plywood, plantation hardwoods, and cement plaster on composite cement board—there are no vinyl or drywall products. The building is organized and detailed to provide maximum daylight and airflow to each unit, and all primary community spaces, stairways and balconies are open air. All rooftops are designed for maximum photovoltaic energy production or for community and private garden spaces, and all roofs collect and filter rainwater for use as non-potable household water. Household gray-water will be filtered and recycled as garden irrigation. Black water and grade-level storm water will both be pre-filtered and partially treated prior