In May and June, Schemata Workshop hosted a summer studio for Washington State University. We had 11 students in the office to study cohousing on an infill lot, incorporating the single stair code provision and mass timber construction.
The students toured and interviewed residents from Jackson Place Cohousing and Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing to learn what they liked about their built communities and what they wished were different to support their community life.
We had lectures from Mike Eliason, a single-family residential expert from Larch Lab, Bec Wilder from Green Canopy Node about cross laminated timber, and Joel Esselstrom - acoustical engineer from SSA. Mike Mariano gave a talk on EcoDistricts, and Grace Kim gave many talks related to cohousing design.
Students had 3 contiguous sites to work on. They were divided up in teams to develop buildings, establish building programs and identify a shared community resource for all 3 sites. They came up with strong design solutions - including a few unexpectedly innovative solution. The students were very engaged in the intense 6-week course. They were also extremely collaborative and collegial - taking full advantage of their physical environment and access to each other as resources.
Thanks to our final reviewers, John Abell (professor at WSU), Barbara Busetti (Allied 8), Susan Jones (Atelier Jones), and Mike Eliason (Larch Lab).