Affordable housing prototype under development by UDM Design Center

The University of Detroit Mercy's Detroit Collaborative Design Center has secured a $60,000 grant from an anonymous national foundation to develop a unique housing prototype. The best part is, it will be priced to sell, says DCDC director Dan Pitera.

"You can actually do wonderful design and make it sustainable within the budget of affordable housing," Pitera says. He aims to keep construction costs of the prototypes at $100 per square foot.

Because it will first be built in Woodbridge, the design will be developed through a series of workshops with its partner organization, Woodbridge Neighborhood Development Corporation. Neighborhood residents and business owners will take part, as will contractors, bankers and other community development groups from around the city.

Two prototypes will be developed, one for new construction infill and one that details renovation procedures. The designs will use salvaged materials and employ green building techniques like rain water collection and other passive design considerations.

DCDC and WNDC are collaborating on the Quilted House, also made from salvaged materials and employing green building techniques. But the Quilted House will cost about $250,000. What makes this project different? Pitera says that size is one important consideration, but actual design is another. "We will be more restrained, but be more inventive through that restraint," he says.

After the design workshops are expected to be completed in January, construction drawings will be produced, which should take about six months. "The houses are intended to be reproducible, but each house will not be just the same as the last house," says Pitera. "It's sort of an IKEA version of mix and match construction drawings."

Source: Dan Pitera, UDM DCDC
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh