Shelter ADU

Team: Chentian Liu, Erin Chen

Professor: Andrew Colopy

Role: project design, GH script, Rhino modeling, 2D drawing, lead in perspective visualization

The project is located in the neighborhood of Brays Oaks in Houston, Texas. In Houston, an ADU - backyard home, garage apartment - is defined as a secondary dwelling unit built on a single-family lot. An ADU cannot exceed 900 square feet and need to provide spaces for living, sleeping, cooking and eating therein.

A Shelter ADU is an ADU which not only provides places of residence but also acts as places of refuge to the greater community during extreme weather events. A set of policies is proposed to regulate and encourage the design and the construction of the Shelter ADUs. A Shelter ADU is designed to respond to three kinds of natural disasters: tornadoes, floodings and hurricanes, all of which frequently occur in Houston. Upon a tornado alert, the ADU shelters both its renters and its owners from the primary building. During floodings, the ADU shelters residents in the 500-year floodplain. In the case of hurricanes, it provides temporary housing for evacuees from affected jurisdictions. Different from stadiums and FEMA trailers, the shelter ADU provides the evacuees with more privacy and a more qualitative living environment. To increase the overall shelter capacity of the neighborhood, the Shelter ADU has ten variants to fit onto the maximum number of single family lots, each reaching its largest area possible.

Generously opening its door to the people in need, the Shelter ADU aims at breaking the nuclear family bubble, spurring social interaction and creating a culture of sharing. In this way, the construction of the ADUs not only increases the density of Brays Oaks, but also helps to build a more resilient community against climate change.