How do we produce inclusive, affordable, healthy and sustainable housing? Seemingly universal, there is a distinct L.A. dimension to the discussion especially when seen in the context of the city’s unique history, growth, character and environmental conditions. The questions then become: How do we define L.A.’s housing typology missing middle? What is the best model of delivery and ownership? How can we harmonise inter-generational and multi-cultural living? In what proximity? Is L.A.’s low density a privilege or a drawback? How do we keep out of the sun and make the most of it?

The project aims to address these questions through an architectural, principally spatial, approach and it begins with L.A.’s contentious object of desire: the motor vehicle. The car, whether as a status symbol, a convenience, or a necessity, has historically been a building block for L.A. The spaces it demands and commands, from parkways to driveways have sculpted the city.

The proposal is to embrace the driveway that serves parking areas and invest in its occasional use allowing it to develop a second function as a communal semi-private space and amenity. Referencing the Mews, the driveway would form a row by running along the length of the site. Off-street parking spaces are provided at right angles to the driveway and in the middle of the site. The housing complex runs along the side of the driveway and arches over the parking spaces, covering them acting as a Coach House, as per the original Mews typology.

The building assumes the purposefully familiar form of a simple double pitched roof volume with a solid base of high thermal mass on which rests a lighter, modular, Cross Laminated Timber construction. Green spaces surround and cut into the form, providing a variety of shared and private outdoor spaces.