Designing for the climate and homelessness crises

Seeing the dual crises of climate change and homelessness on a daily basis in Portland has me thinking more and more about healthy home design from a birds-eye view. How to get more people in houses, how to ensure homes protect us from disasters like wildfires, earthquakes, and extreme heat, and how to balance the sometimes-competing priorities of using building materials that are eco-friendly vs healthy for humans.

In that spirit, I designed a small ADU for my final project for my Residential Building Codes class last month with everything above code - more light and ventilation than required, but also greater resiliency for frost depth, seismic supports, and much more.

It was really cool to see an article over the weekend about the new Oregon State Treasury building, built with the same mindset on a grander scale. It was created to withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, volcanoes, and wildfires — and has biophilic design incorporated into the interior. My kind of building!

Photo by @mason_trinca
Building by @glumac_engineering
Via @nytimes