COURSE DESCRIPTION
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Embedded Files
This studio focuses on disability-forward design, moving beyond the minimum requirements of code compliance to engage people of all abilities in community with dignity, autonomy, and independence. As disability rights activist Judy Heumann famously observed, able-bodied people are only “temporarily able-bodied.” Universal design is therefore not simply a strategy for accessibility, but a broader approach that supports people across all stages of life and enables aging in place.
The studio approaches accessibility not as a checklist of technical accommodations, but as a larger architectural and social question involving agency, comfort, orientation, participation, belonging, and care. Students will work collaboratively with CHInyc and JSDD to investigate new models of inclusive micro-communities and supportive housing for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities across both suburban and urban contexts.
The studio operates at two interconnected scales:
• A suburban supportive housing prototype developed for sites in Livingston, New Jersey
• An urban inclusive micro-community located in New York City
Defining Disability-Forward, Supportive, and Inclusive Housing This studio distinguishes between three related but distinct concepts that structure the work of the semester.
Disability-forward design serves as the overarching design philosophy of the studio. Disability-forward design moves beyond minimum code compliance and treats accessibility, sensory experience, autonomy, dignity, orientation, care, and participation as central architectural design generators rather than technical accommodations added after the fact. The approach recognizes disability as a fundamental aspect of human diversity and understands inclusive environments as beneficial to people across a broad range of physical, sensory, cognitive, and social conditions throughout all stages of life.
Within this broader framework, the studio investigates two distinct housing models:
Supportive housing refers to residential environments that integrate varying levels of caregiving, staffing, and support services into daily living environments for residents who may require ongoing assistance. In this studio, the suburban supportive housing prototype explores smaller-scale residential models organized around domesticity, caregiving relationships, safety, sensory comfort, aging-in-place, and family-like living environments.
Inclusive micro-community refers to a broader neighborhood-integrated housing model in which residents with disabilities live as part of a larger mixed-use and socially diverse community rather than in isolated or specialized facilities. The urban inclusive micro-community explores how disability-forward housing can be integrated with market-rate housing, shared amenities, employment opportunities, public life, and community infrastructure to support social inclusion, autonomy, and long-term participation within urban neighborhoods.
Rather than treating these approaches as oppositional, the studio examines how supportive and inclusive housing models may inform one another across different scales, densities, caregiving structures, and urban conditions.
Program
Program
Suburban Supportive Housing Prototype
Suburban Supportive Housing Prototype
The suburban project focuses on the design of a supportive residential house for three to four individuals living together in a family-like setting with integrated caregiving support. The prototype must be adaptable to different site conditions and capable of aggregation into larger residential systems.
Urban Inclusive Micro-Community
Urban Inclusive Micro-Community
The urban project focuses on the design of an inclusive mixed-use residential community in which approximately 25% of units are intended for residents with disabilities. The project explores how disability-forward housing can be integrated into broader urban life through shared amenities, community infrastructure, employment opportunities, and social support systems.
The emphasis of the urban proposal is the development of inclusive architectural systems, community relationships, and spatial strategies rather than complete technical resolution of a large-scale mixed-use building.
Both project types move beyond minimum ADA compliance to consider a broader range of physical, cognitive, sensory, and developmental disabilities. Students will work with principles outlined in the Kelsey Inclusive Design Standards, developed collaboratively by The Kelsey, Mikiten Architecture, and the Inclusive Design Council.
Currently, approximately 75% of adults with disabilities live with family members in New York City. For many individuals, long-term alternatives have historically been limited to institutional models that often fail to provide meaningful independence, safety, or quality of life. This studio investigates alternative residential models that support autonomy, dignity, inclusion, and long-term community integration.
Students will work through a collaborative design structure in which suburban and urban proposals inform one another.
The suburban supportive housing prototype will serve as a modular residential component that can be adapted and aggregated within the urban micro-community model. This process asks students to examine how architecture transforms across shifts in:
• Scale
• Density
• Infrastructure
• Public and private relationships
• Caregiving systems
• Neighborhood context
Through interviews, observation, participatory exchanges, and direct engagement with individuals, caregivers, and advocacy organizations, students will translate lived experience into spatial and programmatic proposals.
The urban inclusive micro-community will explore neighborhood-integrated housing models that combine marketrate and disability-supportive housing with shared spaces that foster interaction, mutual support, and civic participation. Projects may include a range of housing types, including studios, co-housing arrangements, and oneto four-bedroom apartments alongside community-oriented spaces such as gardens, event spaces, kitchens, gyms, and employment opportunities.
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