Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects have broken ground on a modular design for supportive housing in South Los Angeles. Dubbed Isla Intersections, the project is part of a triangular parcel of land next to the freeway being developed as LA’s first shared street. Designed with open public space and 54 homes for some of LA's most vulnerable residents, the project was made to explore the future of housing.
LOHA is working with non-profit developer Clifford Beers Housing on the Isla Intersections development. The 35,000 square foot housing project and adjacent paseo is situated on both a traffic island and a former railroad right of way. It is organized along the spine of Broadway Street as a series of sixteen staggered boxes. Each box is assembled out of three 20-foot-long by 8-foot-wide modular containers that are made with recycled steel and welded together to form a single 480 square foot unit. Each unit is designed to be compact and efficient, with an open plan that includes an ADA kitchen, bathroom, and a living room that doubles as a bedroom.
The units in Isla Intersections are stacked and arranged into towers that are connected by a series of walkways to create a single unified building. LOHA is working with Giant Containers as the fabricators of the prefabricated shipping container structures. The towers are intentionally scattered along the pie shaped edge of the property, enclosing a sequence of pocket parks that connect private residence to the landscape for communal outdoor space within the building. The team is utilizing modular container construction for concurrent work on and off site, condensing construction time to two years instead of four. The ground level along the paseo will provide a number of storefront spaces for retail, incubation and job training and support services, as well as administrative offices.
News via Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects
