大象视频

THE NEIGHBORWOOD.

Filling in the missing middle in OKC.

What is Missing Middle Housing?

Missing Middle housing refers to a variety of housing types that range anywhere between traditional single-family homes and larger-scale multifamily developments. These housing types can include duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), townhomes, cottage courts, and other small to medium scale residential forms that can increase housing density while maintaining a scale that resembles a typical neighborhood feel.

The Neighborwood, a missing middle housing project located in the SoSA neighborhood just outside downtown Oklahoma City, is designed to respond to the demand of its specific users and the character of its surrounding context. The project specifically caters to remote workers and dual-income, no-kids (DINK) households, addressing the demand for flexible, community-oriented housing within an urban neighborhood.聽

The design employs cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction for both sustainability and efficiency, while maintaining alignment with the neighborhood鈥檚 material language through the use of corrugated metal exterior finishes. The result is a balance between innovation in building systems and respect for the contemporary identity of the SoSA district.

A key driver of the project is the integration of shared spaces that foster community and enhance livability. These include a ground-level outdoor patio, an outdoor kitchen, and other communal areas that encourage interaction among residents while providing spaces suited for work, relaxation, and social activity. Through its scale, materiality, and program, the project demonstrates how missing middle housing can deliver density, community, and livability while preserving the character of a distinct urban neighborhood.

The duplex uses a CLT panel system that makes up the main structure, with multiple possibilities for the exterior finish, like corrugated metal, brick, or wood cladding, to give the exterior a unique personality for each user. These finish opportunities help to give the building a more rugged, low-maintenance shell that is contrasted against the wood.

Using CLT helps with the possibility of prefabrication of each wall off site. The panels are made in a controlled setting, then shipped to the site ready to be put together. This cuts down on construction time and reduces the amount of work on site. Another benefit is quality control and waste management. Having them built off site helps stop unreasonable waste and ensures that the construction of each panel is overseen and approved. Keeping the work on site to a minimum helps also with keeping the cost low, which is a major priority for home buyers.

START TO FINISH

The wood used in mass-timber construction comes from sustainably managed forests, where trees are planted, harvested, and replanted under forestry systems that safeguard biodiversity, water quality, carbon storage, and long-term forest health. A large portion of this material originates from plantation-managed pine forests in the southern United States, where more trees are planted annually than are removed. At the harvest site, trees are mechanically felled, limbed, and bucked when they reach maturity, which is usually between 25 and 35 years of age. After that, the logs are put onto logging trucks and sent to a nearby sawmill, often within 50 to 150 miles. After being debarked and sawn into rough boards at the sawmill, the logs are kiln-dried to a moisture level of about 12% in order to stabilize the wood and stop warping. The boards are planed and strength-graded into dimensional lumber, such as 2x6s, 2x8s, and comparable structural members, once they have dried. Depending on drying schedules and mill capacity, this stage of milling and drying usually takes 2-4 weeks. After being graded, the dimensional lumber is packaged and sent by truck or train to mass-timber manufacturing plants like SmartLam in places like Dothan or Columbia Falls. Depending on the distance, this procedure typically takes three to ten days. To enhance structural performance and dimensional stability, the dimensional lumber is strength-sorted, re-dried for precision control, and then placed perpendicular to neighboring layers at the CLT manufacturing facility. Large structural plates of cross-laminated timber are created by applying structural adhesives and hydraulically pressing the panel stacks. For openings, door penetrations, connection points, and precise tolerances needed for quick on-site assembly, these panels are subsequently CNC-machined. Depending on project volume, customization, and facility backlog, CLT manufacturing usually takes 2-4 weeks. The completed CLT panels are wrapped, labeled, and delivered straight to the construction site by flatbed trucks after production; they typically arrive there in 3-10 days. The entire procedure typically takes 6-12 weeks, from the first tree harvest to the delivery to the job site. Mass timber is one of the most efficient low-embodied-carbon construction methods available today because sustainable forestry practices guarantee that forests are continuously regenerated, wildlife habitat is preserved, soil and water systems remain healthy, and carbon absorbed by trees during growth is stored long-term within the building structure for decades.

Using prefabricated Cross-Laminated Timber panels for housing allows for a high level of exterior finish customizability because the structural system and the fa莽ade system are separate, meaning the CLT carries the load while the exterior skin can be treated as a customizable, layered assembly.

Situated within Oklahoma City鈥檚 SoSA district, this duplex inserts itself into an evolving urban fabric that鈥檚 rapidly balancing preservation and growth. As an infill project, it reinforces the neighborhood鈥檚 walkable, mixed-density character.

The 30鈥� x 140鈥� footprint becomes a duplicable prototype for countless narrow lots across SoSA and other Oklahoma City neighborhoods. This model offers a blueprint for gentle density, a missing typology that feels contextually represented by the growing use of mass timber construction, a shared living environment that redefines what community can mean within a compact urban lot.

Two mirrored dwelling units frame a central courtyard, forming a spatial dialogue between neighbors that is neither isolating nor intrusive. The inward orientation transforms what could have become a leftover separation into a shared space. At its center, a shared NLT 鈥楶od鈥� can be adapted to users鈥� changing needs. Landscaping around the courtyard softens the mass timber architectural finishes, blurring boundaries between built form and nature, and between private dwelling mixed with shared experience.

Each unit extends its life toward the courtyard with shared balconies that encourage conversation and subtle exchanges between residents. The intent is to use community not as an imposed condition but as something that emerges naturally through proximity.

The project employs a hybrid CLT and NLT structural logic, emphasizing the clarity and efficiency of prefabricated timber construction. The exploded axonometric diagram highlights key shear wall placements in the organizational logic. CLT shear-wall lines along the east sides provide a lateral system for wind and seismic loads.

Additionally, the exploded CLT wall section above illustrates how the full detailed assembly has been curated to provide thermal insulation, a continuous WRB / air-control membrane, and vertical construction details to blend into its specific SoSA district in OKC and support sustainability goals.

Named after Oklahoma鈥檚 state tree, Redbud is a mirrored duplex located in Oklahoma City on the corner of NW 5th Street and N Lee Avenue. The form is derived through a series of exercises where existing floor plans designed for the specific user groups were overlapped to create a new stackable floor plan that not only utilizes the successful elements of previous designs but also responds to the site in a respectful and efficient manner. The result is a bright shingled home that is mirrored evenly across the site creating an intentional public (forest) courtyard between the two units. Each unit was designed with a separate private courtyard for the residents. This creates a successful separation of public, semi- public and private spaces.聽

The biggest design consideration came from studying the site. The site primarily faces the SW with the main view facing the south and public streets on both sides. The goal was to limit the views into the site, and the solar gain of the SW orientation while also maximizing the views to the city and the access of the corner lot. This led to design decisions such as a central entrance to the public courtyard, a deep inner courtyard that acts as a cooling agent for the units, skylights that effectively transmit light to the interior and a small front garden for each unit. Materials such as red shingles and brick correspond to the historic context of the cottage design district where the site is located. The use of CLT was addressed through the panelization of interior and exterior walls into modules that would easily be pieced together, this, along with the context of future neighbors to the east led to the design of a systems wall that will carry all primary systems into a 鈥渢ray鈥� that will provide MEP to each unit efficiently. The design’s user-centered focus and its contextual sensitivity combined with strategic spatial organization, careful solar orientation, and contextual material choices, and the use of modern construction methods like CLT results in a cohesive duplex that celebrates both individuality, community and innovation.

GENERATIONS FOR TIMBER

A TIMBER APPOARCH TO MULTI-GENERATION LIVING

SOSA DISTRICT IN OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

This project explores multi-generational living as a response to contemporary social and economic pressures. Located in Oklahoma City鈥檚 Sosa District, it brings together fixed-income elderly and single-parent households in a dual occupancy stacked unit. The design fosters community, adaptability, and mutual support, promoting a lifestyle rooted in connection. Architecturally, the massing uses push-pull gestures to define shared and private zones, while Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) provides a sustainable, cost efficient structure with a warm, calming interior. The design emphasizes integration with nature and the city through shared courtyards, terraces, and framed views supporting both solitude and social interaction. Overall, the project reimagines housing as more than shelter encouraging resilience, emotional wellbeing, and intergenerational relationships within the built environment.

Located in the heart of Oklahoma City鈥檚 SOSA district, this home embraces the architecture of the neighborhood, while responding to the needs of its inhabitants. Its hilltop location offers views of downtown, offering a blend of serenity and connectivity with the urban environment. The surrounding area within the district pulses with life of locally owned restaurants, creative enterprises, and cultural venues that reflect Oklahoma City鈥檚 ongoing urbanization.

The project is organized as a dual-occupancy stacked residence, providing housing for both a fixed-income elderly household and a single-parent household. The program includes approximately 1,000 SF of total living space, with the first-floor fixed-income elderly unit occupying 500 SF and the second-floor single-parent unit occupying 500 SF. Each unit includes one bathroom and is supported by shared communal spaces that encourage interaction between residents while maintaining individual privacy. The primary differences between the two units are the additional bedroom provided for the single-parent household and the increased accessibility and clearance requirements within the elderly unit. The program is further complemented by shared outdoor spaces, including an elevated patio and an outdoor room with swings and vegetable-growing areas, creating opportunities for gathering, recreation, and connection to nature.

Rooted in the warm nature of Mass Timber construction, this collaborative housing concept explores the intersection of nostalgia and optimism as emotional and architectural frameworks. Designed to bring together two seemingly different user groups, the project creates a shared living environment where memory and hope converge in a stacked two-unit ADU in Oklahoma City. By weaving together past experiences and future aspirations, the space fosters opportunities for intergenerational or inter-perspective exchange. Through architectural gestures and spatial narratives,聽聽鈥淚nterwoven鈥� enables DINKs and Fixed Income Elderly people to coexist, connect, and learn from one another, bridging cultural divides and cultivating a shared sense of home.

Wood remembers its grain. Cross-laminated timber carries within it the logic of the forest: layered, load-bearing, and organized through relationships rather than isolation. Much like the phenomenon of crown shyness, where neighboring trees grow into a canopy that preserves space for light and air, Vertical Grain is structured around a balance of privacy and community. This material intelligence informs a missing middle housing intervention in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood.聽

The need is acute. In 2025, 2,715 people in Vancouver were identified as experiencing homelessness, many entirely unsheltered. Research is unambiguous: housing alone is insufficient. Long-term housing stability requires community, routine, and the quiet accountability of people who know your name. Vertical Grain is designed around that understanding.

Occupying a site only 16 feet deep and 227 feet wide, the structure transforms the constrained, unkempt lot into an intimate community. Ten units bearing sixteen rooms stack to form a vertical neighborhood. Exposed CLT interiors, a familiar gable roofline, and compact, carefully proportioned rooms give the building the warmth of a cabin rather than the anonymity of a facility. The timber is structural, environmental, and experiential. It enables efficiency in building, reduces embodied carbon by drawing from nearby resources, and fosters a sense of warmth and comfort, supporting residents鈥� well-being.聽

Communal space is treated as essential infrastructure. A rooftop garden, communal laundry room, and fitness area are the mechanisms through which residents encounter each other daily, build routine, and remain visible to one another.聽

This is attainable housing that takes seriously what attainability actually requires: not just a room, but a place worth coming back to.

Timber Stitch proposes a mass timber system that brings higher housing density along聽

Chicago鈥檚 commercial corridors without displacing existing neighborhood businesses. Through a strategy of building above existing structures, the project infills the unused air space between the three- and four-story buildings that define Chicago鈥檚 commercial streets.聽

Timber Stitch addresses untapped housing resources by increasing density while preserving cultural richness and local businesses that survive amidst redevelopment pressure. Rather than relying on demolition and replacement, the project introduces an incremental strategy that combines a vacant lot with its adjacent low-rise to create attainable missing-middle housing.聽

The vacant parcel becomes the primary point of intervention, accommodating circulation, services, and public ground-floor program that activates the street. Above, lightweight modular timber housing extends across both properties, utilizing air rights of the neighboring building. Leveraging Chicago鈥檚 tradition of overbuilt masonry construction, new steel transfer elements work together with existing brick walls to support additional housing while allowing businesses to remain operational throughout development.聽

The housing system is based on standardized mass timber components sized for conventional transportation and rapid assembly. CLT floor panels, glulam structural elements, and prefabricated envelope systems reduce construction time, lower embodied carbon, and minimize disruption to surrounding communities. A simple structural grid enables multiple unit configurations, creating a diverse community while remaining adaptable to changing needs.聽

A shared courtyard introduces daylight, cross-ventilation, and collective outdoor space, while a community roof terrace connects residents to public uses below. The fa莽ade reinterprets the rhythm of Chicago鈥檚 historic commercial corridors through a contemporary composition of wood and metal-framed openings. Deep window reveals become inhabitable seating niches, integrating the architecture of the fa莽ade into the interior experience.聽

Designed for disassembly and future reuse, Timber Stitch demonstrates how circular construction, incremental density, and community preservation work together to create a resilient urban future.

As Charlotte continues to experience rapid population growth and escalating housing costs, Three Ply proposes attainable, scalable, and sustainable housing centered on mass timber construction. The project leverages Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) not only as a structural material but also as an organizing logic for adaptable urban living.

Inspired by the layered composition of CLT, Three Ply translates laminated timber into a modular kit-of-parts system. Just as individual wood layers are cross-assembled into a unified structural panel, timber components are configured into flexible spatial assemblies. Rather than fixed layouts, the system allows units to be uniquely composed and customized, scaling from studios to duplexes and triplexes.

The module sizing is directly informed by CLT fabrication dimensions and standard truck transportation limits, ensuring each unit can be efficiently manufactured off-site, transported without modification, and rapidly assembled on-site. This logistical constraint becomes a generative design driver, defining the proportions and scalability of the system.

At the core is a timber-based integrated module composed of prefabricated CLT wall, floor, and roof panels paired with a centralized Serviced Spine (MEP Core). This spine consolidates mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems into a continuous infrastructural line, reducing redundancy and maintaining clarity.

The kit-of-parts logic enables housing units to aggregate, separate, and reconfigure in response to shifting household structures, social conditions, and market demands. Each unit becomes a flexible system rather than a fixed plan, supporting adaptability and customization. Prefabricated off-site, CLT modules are engineered to transportation constraints, allowing rapid on-site assembly and reduced material waste while maintaining precision in fabrication. Beyond structure, mass timber defines environmental performance. CLT reduces embodied carbon while storing carbon within the building fabric.

Exposed timber interiors create warm biophilic environments connecting occupants to structure. Three Ply positions mass timber as structure and system for Charlotte鈥檚 evolving urban landscape of the city now.

The project is a multi-family residential development organized into eight clusters, each composed of two floors. The program includes a total of 32 units with a balanced mix of housing types to accommodate diverse occupants. The unit distribution consists of eight three-bedroom units (1000 SF each), eight two-bedroom units (800 SF each), eight one-bedroom units (700 SF each), and eight micro units (350 SF each), resulting in a total residential net area of 22,800 SF.

Each cluster includes a dedicated vertical circulation core (320 SF), for a total of eight cores and 2,560 SF of vertical circulation. The combined net building area is therefore 25,360 SF. Applying a grossing factor of 1.20 to account for walls, structure, and internal circulation, the total gross building area is 30,432 SF. With two floors per cluster, the total building footprint is 15,216 SF.

The total site area is 97,104.09 SF. Parking occupies 25,686.04 SF. After subtracting the building footprint and parking area, 56,202.05 SF remains for exterior program elements.

This remaining area accommodates exterior circulation, shared courtyards, landscape, and open space. The site strategy distributes open space across the clusters to create a network of shared and semi-private outdoor areas, improving accessibility, environmental quality, and community interaction.

FOLDED TIMBER聽

Located in Vancouver鈥檚 Chinatown, this 20,000 sq ft housing proposal explores missing-middle housing through a modular mass-timber system that balances affordability, constructability, and spatial quality. The project is built from four prefabricated modules made from CNC-cut CLT panels, allowing for efficient construction while maintaining strong spatial performance.

A dual-grid system, one orthogonal and one slightly rotated, creates moments of compression and release within each unit. This approach allows a standardized set of modules to produce a range of living conditions, including one, two, and three-bedroom units. By stacking and shifting the modules, the design introduces spatial variation through double-height spaces, private patios, and integrated skylights that bring in natural light.

The building is organized into two towers around shared cores, where modules are pulled apart at key points to create communal spaces that encourage interaction among residents. A mixed-use podium activates the street with a public caf茅 and resident amenities, while a shared outdoor landscape incorporates tree cutouts and skylights aligned with the modular grid. The board-and-batten facade reflects the project鈥檚 internal logic, with shifts in density that express moments of compression and release.

Sitting at the vibrant intersection of Ball State University and the Village, a community鈥恟ooted district that connects campus and city, the Joinery is an architectural idea that creates a physical and social link, offering a bold and inviting welcome to students while supporting neighborhood revitalization within the Village. The Joinery creates an opportunity for shared living, shared identity, and a more dynamic future by giving both communities a place to create and belong.

As the Village faces change through new development from Ball State, the Joinery responds to the changing conditions. The project aims to fit within the context while using durable and resilient materials. Wood is expressed by giving prominence to the glulam columns and beams, pulling back portions of the facade to reveal the structure. A slat鈥恮ood rain screen wraps the building in a warm, inviting material presence that brightens the neighborhood. The project also aims to support an active and shared neighborhood, creating a stronger sense of life between the two communities.

Within the current context, the majority of housing is limited to single鈥恌amily homes or large student apartments; growth near campus prioritizes students, displacing locals and creating a divide between communities; and inactive ground levels reduce overall neighborhood vibrancy.

Our response was to introduce diverse unit types, increasing density while maintaining neighborhood scale; integrate retail and shared spaces to encourage daily interaction; and design transparent, active edges and outdoor spaces.

Across the country, there is a rising mental health crisis among young people. Many students transition from a highly structured college environment with dorms, meal plans, schedules, and built-in social circles into a reality defined by financial responsibility, isolation, and self-management. My project responds to this transition through one central idea: independence does not mean isolation. The goal is to create housing that helps young adults move from structured student life into independent adulthood while still feeling connected. Architecture can become a stabilizing force through scale, orientation, materiality, and social infrastructure. This idea is rooted in Memphis, where community is deeply embodied in front porches, block parties, neighborhoods, and shared history. The project reinterprets these familiar patterns of porosity, visibility, and adjacency within a multifamily housing model. The project begins at the Highland Strip, where buildings engage the street edge and create a continuous urban frontage. A commercial bar reinforces this condition while also acting as a noise buffer from Highland. At its center, a double-height passage becomes a contemporary dogtrot, creating a threshold between the busy street and the quieter residential interior. It also reinterprets the Memphis front porch as a shared space between public and private life. Beyond this threshold, the site rises onto a plinth that creates a shared communal landscape. Openings allow planting to penetrate the architecture, creating a gradual transition from public street, to threshold, to communal landscape, to private residence. Within the units, double-height spaces create variation and bring more daylight and air into the interiors. Rather than treating square footage as the primary luxury, the project values height, light, and air. A limited kit-of-parts using four primary CLT panel types allow the system to be repeated and adapted. CNC-prefabricated CLT panels reduce waste, labor, and construction time, making the system more attainable for missing-middle housing. This construction logic continues into the fa莽ade through repeated dimensional lumber. Rather than adding unnecessary decoration, repetition and offsetting create depth, shadow, and variation from a limited material palette. Environmental performance is integrated throughout the project. Units are oriented through solar studies to create changing conditions of sun and shade along the circulation spine. The landscape is embedded into the plinth through planted voids that collect and filter rainwater. Native Memphis grasses and wildflowers create resilient, low-maintenance outdoor spaces that function as shared front and back yards. Finally, the elevations are organized as a continuous field of gabled forms, allowing the project to read as a community of houses rather than one large multifamily building. Each unit maintains a house-like identity while remaining part of a larger collective system.

Ultimately, the project is built around one core premise: independence does not require isolation. Through familiar Memphis forms, shared spaces, environmental strategies, and a repeatable mass-timber system, the architecture creates a transition into adulthood that is both autonomous and connected.

Located along the Duluth waterfront, this project explores architecture as a continuous experience shaped by movement, material, atmosphere, and transition. The overall form developed through the shifting and rotation of three linear bars that respond directly to the geometry of the waterfront, circulation paths, and views toward Lake Superior. These bars create moments of compression and release while framing outdoor spaces, public gathering areas, and visual connections to the water. The resulting composition allows the project to flow with the site rather than resist it. Angled forms guide movement naturally across the landscape while reinforcing the idea of continuity between program, structure, and environment. At the ground level, the project establishes a public wellness and gathering destination composed of sauna pools, thermal experiences, restaurant spaces, fitness areas, and administrative functions. These programs activate the waterfront while creating a social foundation for the residential community. The public level is intentionally porous and landscape-driven, allowing circulation paths, vegetation, and outdoor gathering spaces to move through and around the architecture. Instead of separating the building from the site, the ground plane extends into the project and becomes part of the architectural experience.

Above the public base, the residential program is composed of prefabricated modular housing units organized along exterior circulation paths. The residential circulation system wraps continuously around the project and becomes an architectural extension of the concept itself. By placing circulation outdoors rather than within enclosed double-loaded corridors, the design reduces unnecessary interior square footage and creates a more efficient building footprint. This strategy allowed additional areas to be reinvested into shared amenities and wellness-focused spaces that directly benefit the residents. Materially, the project responds directly to the character and climate of Duluth through the use of mass timber construction, wood rainscreen systems, and warm interior finishes. The structural system is composed of glulam columns, beams, and girders that establish a clear structural grid across the project. This grid was directly informed by the organization of the prefabricated residential modules above. Wherever floor plates overlap between modules, glulam columns are positioned below to create direct and efficient load transfer paths. The load-bearing walls of the housing units align precisely with these structural points, allowing gravity loads to transfer continuously through the structure into the foundation system below.

The use of prefabrication reinforces the project鈥檚 concept of continuity and efficiency. Residential modules are designed as repeatable systems that can be fabricated off-site, transported to the site, and installed within the structural framework. This approach improves construction efficiency while creating a clear relationship between architecture, structure, and assembly. The repetition of modular units establishes rhythm throughout the project while still allowing variation through shifting forms, changing views, and circulation experiences.