Universal Housing

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Universal Housing

ARC605 | Fall 2016
Professors Edward Steinfeld and Peter Russell

Habitat for Humanity’s renovation projects have the virtues of countering blight in vulnerable neighborhoods, reducing waste by re-using existing structures, and providing new homes for deserving families. Their new home construction is providing new housing in neighborhoods with large numbers of vacant homes. This was the second semester of a design-build initiative of the School that has produced ideas and information that can, over time, have a wider application. The design projects addressed all factors in the HfH process of development, including organizing financial and human resources, acquisition of properties, demolition, design, and use by occupants. The first design challenge was to design easily executable renovations for three existing homes that meet all minimum standards of the Residential Building Code of New York and HfH guidelines. The second design challenge was to design a new home prototype for HfH Buffalo. The completed drawings are sufficient for code approval by the City.