Modular unCommons is a low-rise, high-density housing project located in the Detroit neighborhood of Islandview. The project sits along Kercheval Avenue and bleeds into the existing Butzel Playground. The four conceptual ambitions of the project and key design elements are the split level, attainable construction process, common space, and middle ground. Beginning in the initial design process we focused on interior spaces as volumes that relate to one another in their sectional qualities. In response to the attainable housing prompt, we pursued split level units, which allow for the view of double-height spaces.

Throughout the design, we have identified a variety of common spaces that range in scale, public/private characteristics, and program. The negative space in between buildings has become a catalyst for commoning. As you enter the void from the public street, the framed elements create a sense of exterior enclosure. Within the framed core, residents navigate to their respective units, and private balconies stem off the structure into each individual unit. These framed void spaces become the social infrastructure of the project, where public walkways, semi-public circulation cores, and private balconies create an ecosystem of programs. Creating a commons that is flexible, and can be defined or redefined by the user. Finally, our project bridges the gap between the mixed-use urban scale along the main road, Kercheval, with the residential, more intimate scale of the urban fabric as you move down Townsend. Our built structures respond to this contextual shift, dissolving away as one moves further into the site to meet a more human scale.