Principal Investigator: Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg (Architecture)
Project Summary: Despite significant public interest and investment, housing demand vastly outstrips supply. Our transdisciplinary team is pursuing three primary avenues of addressing aspects of this problem. We are in the process of piloting new models of housing design using panelized timber products that can be premanufactured and assembled quickly on site. These novel housing design and construction techniques will explore how incorporating integrated renewable power with battery storage, all-electric systems, reclaimed water, and container-based sanitation infrastructure can potentially decrease costs associated with expanding and maintaining the utility grid while increasing resilience. Finally, we are working with members of the community and representatives from the UO Law, Business, and Planning departments to explore new approaches to financing and ownership of residential development. The modular, premanufactured approach to construction with integrated utility capabilities will facilitate housing development in areas which lack infrastructure or have been disrupted by natural disasters and add affordable, flexible infill in urban neighborhoods while increasing the efficiency and resiliency of the surrounding grid. Utilizing new manufactured timber products will improve the environmental impact of the housing itself while also supporting more sustainable forest management strategies, as the panels can be fabricated from small-diameter trees taken from suppressed, second-growth forests. By tackling design, operational, and financial aspects simultaneously, we hope to make housing more accessible and sustainable while demonstrating how housing development can provide direct, secondary benefits to the surrounding community.