Assignment 4 marks the transition from the residential prototype developed in Assignment 3 toward the design of a disability-forward community.

Building upon research, stakeholder engagement, site analysis, concept development, and prototype studies, this assignment asks students to investigate how architecture can support belonging, autonomy, participation, sensory wellbeing, dignity, and long-term adaptability.

Rather than thinking of architecture as simply a collection of residential units, students considered how individual homes become part of a larger community. How are homes grouped together? How do communal spaces foster meaningful relationships? How does architecture encourage both independence and belonging?

Inspired by Jane Jacobs’ concept of “eyes on the street,” students should consider how architecture can encourage natural visibility, everyday interaction, and informal support through active communal spaces and neighborhood connections. Safety should emerge through community—not surveillance.

Students should think beyond housing as an isolated building type and instead consider architecture as social infrastructure capable of supporting daily routines, community participation, varying levels of independence, caregiving, and meaningful social connection.