The non-profit economic development organization Ignite Emporia engaged the studio to develop a prototype workforce home that could be built on the site of a previous mobile home community, which had existing plats of small lots and streets. The project needed to be a 3-bed, 2-bath home of approximately 1200 ft2, buildable for around $150,000, not including land costs. The existing lots available to the project were just 50’ wide and 5000 ft2 in lot area. A possible secondary development site was explored by students.

Five students worked on this project, starting with an analysis of the two sites and surrounding area. Students spent 13 weeks developing their projects from concept through design development. The last 2 weeks of the regular semester, a student’s project (JoBeth Hancock) was selected for further development by the partner the students worked as a group to establish a Revit central model and begin CDs. In the spring of 2022, one student (Enrique Alvarado) was hired as a graduate research assistance to complete the CDs under instructor supervision. Enrique earned AXP credit towards licensure, under work setting ‘O’. The project was not built by the partner.

Students: Enrique Alvarado-Corral, JoBeth Hancock, Max Harrington, Ethan Tschanz, Yingdong Zhang