by ArchitectureWeek
Urban Infill 02 is a prototype for affordable single-family housing designed by Johnsen Schmaling Architects for a small urban lot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Two interlocking modular forms compose the house: a two-story wood-clad cube and a bar-shaped, single-story concrete block.
It's among the 19 housing projects recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in its annual housing awards. The 2008 honorees range from a barnlike home on Long Island to a bright multifamily building in West Hollywood.
Production Housing
The award for the Urban Infill 02 project was given in the category of design excellence in one- and two-family houses built for the speculative market.
In the prototype house, windows and fiber-cement louvers alternate in bands around the cube, which is otherwise clad in grooved panels of Okoumé wood. The concrete block offers privacy to a bedroom suite and kitchen, and extends beyond the cube to form a small front porch and a rear terrace.
The modularity facilitates adaptation of the design for different sites. Without changing the basic set of construction details, the concrete bar could be elongated, separated from the cube, or moved to the opposite side of the cube.
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