Reclaiming 7th Street: Designing Reconfigurable Housing, Economic Prosperity, and Community Equity

Hello!! My name is Shriya Nedumaran, and I am a junior at Leigh High School in San Jose, California. I am a student designer and an aspiring mechanical engineer who loves to bring unconventional ideas to life in equally unconventional ways. Throughout my own academic career, I've been really heavily involved in super technical STEM topics like robotics and math. At home, I am an avid hobbyist who is always building something (like a fully-functional supernumerary robotic limb).

But kind of on the flip side, I also have a great passion for people---how they work, interact, and care for each other in such amazing ways. So, when I discovered this contest, I thought it would be a great way to build something bold and meaningful while also exploring and augmenting the lived experiences of everyday people.

After staying with my Aunt in Oakland for the summer, I found I was drawn to the city's complexity. It was both a hub for activism and change, but also a place that struggled with displacement, homelessness, and systemic inequality. I realized that this contrast was something that needed to be fixed. And so, I took it on.

In this instructable, which has taken me months of long nights and way too many GB of space on my computer, I include my full documentation of how I created, designed, and prototyped this project, an adaptable and dynamic home for a real community and for real people.

Software: Fusion 360, AutoCAD, Bambu Studio

Tools: Gloves, Glasses, Screwdriver, Tweezers, 3D Printer

Materials: PLA, Superglue, Paint, Fake Moss, Cardstock

I initially knew that I wanted to create a building design in Oakland, California. But, before getting straight into architecture and designing the structure, I wanted to focus very specifically on what makes this home successful or not: the people.

When I began this project, I realized that designing a home wasn't just jumping straight into software and building what I think looks right, but it's about making decisions that will actually have a positive effect on the housing residents.

So, I asked and investigated a series of questions.

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What are the biggest issues that people in Oakland face? What kind of living arrangements are common? What populations in Oakland have been most affected by displacement and racism? How does race and income level affect a citizen of Oakland? How does race affect access to housing and public services in Oakland? What job opportunities are available to low-income Oakland residents? How can housing design support small businesses, artisans, and other workers? What is the history of specific housing lots/areas? How do residents currently share public resources?

I attached a PDF of all the sources that I came across. One thing to note is that some of these links are social media posts/non-professional articles, so take everything with a grain of salt!

When building something, I always start with the most important part of any project: the people. I talked to several people, read many articles and posts, and so much more to understand Oakland.

And throughout my research, I came to the conclusion that Oakland is, if anything, multi-dimensional. The city has many facets that together make it particularly unique.

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One important aspect is its geographical location. The city is situated in the Bay Area, directly across from San Francisco, placing it close to tech hubs and centers of great innovation. There are However, this causes an uptick in wealth, which often leaves many behind, resulting in a significant disparity among the population.

Oakland is right next to the water and has a lot of nature throughout the city. This gives the city great access to land and sustainability.

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Another aspect is the diversity of the people within the city. Oakland is home to over 430,000 people, with no single race making up the majority:

1. 29% Hispanic
2. 28% White
3. 21% African American
4. 15% Asian
5. 7% Other racial and ethnic groups

The mixing of cultures and traditions is what makes Oakland an amazing place. There is a Chinatown, Koreatown, Fruitvale (which is a hub of Latinx culture), and so much more. One really cool fact is that Oakland was the birthplace of the Black Panther Party: an organization focused on addressing systemic racism against African Americans and marginalized communities.

While this is a great thing, many people in Oakland still face systemic marginalization.

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One of the biggest notions about Oakland is that it's very violent. Many of the people I talked to about Oakland have concerns about crime in the city. But, it is important to recognize that, while in some neighborhoods, residents experience unsafe conditions, this is not because the community doesn't have any care, but because basic needs (like housing and stability) aren't being met.

Last summer, I visited my aunt in Oakland, California. It was my first time visiting the city, and so much of it was beautiful. We visited museums, hiking trails, the lake, and so many other great spots.

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But along with the good, there was one thing that really stood out to me: the contrast. While one street housed cloud-reaching high-rise apartments, the next street was lined with tents and homeless encampments. My aunt, who has lived in Oakland for most of her adult life, told me how the city struggled with rising costs and an increase in violence.

For my design, I really wanted to focus on a neighborhood that was deeply affected by the problems that I researched and had witnessed firsthand during my trip.

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This is 7th Street in West Oakland. This neighborhood was once a historic epicenter for Black culture and civil rights activism. But, after WWII, it became very affected by redlining, freeway construction, and displacement. There is a lot of vacant land and underused lots in the area. Today, the landscape tells a story of erasure where most people in the community are left behind: vacant lots, underutilized land, and a lower amount of economic opportunity.

One of the biggest things that this neighborhood deals with is feeling almost 'invaded' by the railway and freeway development that cuts through the surrounding area. I want to accommodate the city's transportation infrastructure while also reclaiming the area by building a housing development around it.

For my housing development, I want to help reclaim 7th Street for what it once was and what it can possibly be.

I got this image from Google Earth. You can find this image by searching up '7th Street, Oakland' in the application and zooming into this location.

Oakland is not perfect. Along with just providing a permanent home for citizens, I really wanted this design to target and help solve some of the many challenges that the West Oakland and 7th Street area faces. Based on my investigation, here are the 3 people-based problems I want to focus on.

1. High crime rates
2. Instead of treating crime like a policing issue, my design is going to address the root causes behind these high rates of crime. I'm going to look at isolation, instability, and the lack of community trust within my housing structure and outside of it.
3. Systemic marginalization
4. To help the many marginalized communities in Oakland, I am going to push back against displacement and underinvestment in these communities, focusing on a design that is centered around equity.
5. Economic Prosperity
6. The housing can include real modules and areas for economic growth, offering employment for those in the housing. I think that economic independence will help break these long-term cycles of poverty and dependence.

Throughout the construction process, I also wanted to focus on environmental problems like permanency and sustainability.

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To do this, it became clear that I had to think bigger than just a single home. Solving these deep-rooted social and environmental issues requires community infrastructure. So, I shifted my focus to designing a full-scale housing development with commercial floors, residential areas, and spaces for the community to flourish.

Designing for a real community in a real place made me start to consider the actual real-world limitations. But I didn't let these constraints limit my creativity. Instead, I let it lead me to new solutions and new ideas.

1. Urban Infrastructure and Site Fragmentation: Throughout West Oakland's 7th Street, multiple layers of infrastructure split apart the neighborhood and disrupt walkability, noise levels, and land usability. A lot of cities place these unfavorable infrastructure pieces in low-income neighborhoods that can't fight back.
2. Poor Walkability and Connectivity
3. Too loud and air disruption
4. Not aesthetically pleasing or inviting for businesses
5. Climate and Environmental Pressures: West Oakland is very vulnerable to air pollution, rising temperatures, and sea level rise.
6. A major health risk for so many
7. Since Oakland is near the ocean, people and homes are at risk
8. Geolocation: West Oakland is right next to San Francisco Bay, which makes the soil soft and unstable. This is especially problematic since there is a high amount of seismic risk.
9. Health Risk
10. Earthquakes must be prevented

To really consider this idea of cutting overall costs for tenants, I looked into existing models of modular housing that has been used in urban environments. What I found was systems that allowed units to be built off-site and then transported easily to the actual site of the house.

Looking into several articles and research papers, I learned the following statistics:

1. According to a National Association of Home Builders 2017 survey, costs and availability of labor is the number-one challenge for developers.
2. Modular construction can cut costs by 20% and speed up production by between 20% and 40%.

Pictured above are some of the specific examples I looked at:

1. Place Ladywell: a temporary modular housing scheme for homeless families in London. I was really inspired by the way they were able to do 95% of the construction off-site, which reduced production costs by over 50% and the time to construct by over half.
2. The Farmhouse: created by Chris Precht, was incredible in the way that it combined residential homes with vertical farms. Not only did this promote sustainability within the housing development, but it fostered community between tenants who were able to share food and space with each other. Not only that, but the housing development was made up of smaller pyramid-like structures that were able to be stacked on top of one another to create a bigger development.

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Now, the idea of modular housing has been explored and addresses a lot of the problems on the housing development side of things. But, for the tenants, modular construction still doesn't tackle this idea of permanency.

It is important to consider the lifecycle of humans and how their needs, family structures, and responsibilities evolve over time. A young adult living alone may eventually start a family; an elderly resident may need live-in support, and families may separate. Traditional housing often forces people to relocate as their lives change. This leads to an important question:

What if housing can change and adapt to the tenant's specific needs?

That's when I began to think about how it's possible to make modular housing rearrangeable and responsive to residents. Is it possible to have expandable units within a housing development? Or is reconfiguration between two units possible?

I looked into further examples of this idea of reconfigurable housing and found these.

Going off of this idea, I looked into several examples of modular housing, such as 'Participatory Housing - A system of reconfigurable spaces' designed by Kelvin Ma. This was an amazing showcase of how a living environment didn't have to be limited to the original space that the tenant moved into, and could be customizable to specific needs.

Based on my research, this type of housing could be very beneficial to tenants. Here are all the 'pros' I accumulated:

1. By offering long-term shelter and not just temporary fixes to a tenant, this type of reconfigurable housing can help solve the problem of chronic homelessness and displacement
2. This development reclaims land that was once predominantly owned and inhabited by very marginalized communities in Oakland. Thus, it gives back control to these communities and fights against redlining.

In many historically underinvested areas like West Oakland, especially along 7th Street, residents often face several issues that lead to cycles of poverty. These issues are not random, but are the result of decades of disinvestment, discriminatory zoning, and systemic expulsion. Throu my research and personal observations, I identified four key challenges that continue to affect the economic health of the neighborhood:

1. There is a large lack of access to stable employment
2. Few opportunities for wealth-building or entrepreneurship
3. A feeling of disconnection from the local economy, where money flows out but not in
4. displacement due to gentrification, where rising prices push locals out of their own neighborhoods

7th Street used to be a place of immense economic prosperity and cultural importance, where people could follow their dreams and grow along with their community. It is so important to give the area a chance to reach a new era of growth. These commercial spaces will give priority to tenants who want to pursue their entrepreneurship goals while also providing nearby employment for the community in the housing development.

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So, looking at inspiration such as:

1. La Fábrica de Arte Cubano in Havana: a revitalized cultural and commercial space that was once an oil factory, it was transformed into a multi-use cultural hub featuring galleries, cafes, small businesses, and performance spaces. It became not just a venue for people, but a place for local talent and economic creativity.
2. Paseo Boricua in Chicago: A six-block stretch in the Humboldt Park neighborhood reclaimed by Puerto Rican entrepreneurs and activists. It’s so rich with local businesses, bookstores, and restaurants owned by and for the community. It's one of the greatest stands against gentrification in Illinois.

The key benefits of integrating small-business spaces and community-run markets directly into the housing development are:

1. Circulates money within the neighborhood, which then strengthens the local economy
2. Fosters economic independence by giving residents a chance to work and even start their own businesses where they live
3. Bring funds back into the housing development by driving customers and citizens of Oakland to visit the housing development

I want to create a very close-knit, local, and community-run economy where each person participating has a stake in what it ends up as.

One of the biggest misconceptions about crime that I've learned is that it stems purely from bad intent. But often, high crime rates stem from environments that don't foster the necessary connection, trust, and surveillance that people need. When public spaces are empty, poorly designed, or disconnected from the community around them, it becomes easier for crime to occur and citizens to feel unsafe. In my design, I am going to integrate principles of CPTED (which is Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) such as:

1. Natural Surveillance - creating open sightlines, large windows, and shared spaces that stay active throughout the day. Residents can see and be seen, which will then discourage unwanted behavior.
2. Territorial Reinforcement - When people feel a sense of ownership over a space, they are more likely to take care of it and less likely to tolerate harm against it. I incorporated garden plots and semi-private patios that led tenants to personalize their homes and feel invested in their environment.
3. Community Interaction Zones - crime thrives in isolation, so the multipurpose community space above the space can help bring people and the community together.

So, I decided that above the commercial lower floors, I will design a large, community space that can be used for different activity support and events. By including things like markets, cafes, and community programs, the space can stay active throughout the day, which will naturally deter crime.

As I developed this housing system for West Oakland, I knew that sustainability couldn't be a side feature, but instead a core principle. Climate change disproportionately affects low-income communities, so designing for clean, renewable energy is just as much about equity as it is about efficiency.

Wind Energy: Since the site of my housing development is right next to the ocean, it would be optimal to encourage natural ventilation and air flow, both for resident comfort and for integrating wind-power technologies. I did a lot of research into wind turbines. Initially, I thought that it wouldn't be plausible since they were so large and loud. But through my investigation, I discovered vertical-axis wind turbines, which are much more compact and neighborhood-friendly alternatives to traditional horizontal turbines.

Greywater Reuse: In a city like Oakland, where water scarcity and aging infrastructure are real concerns, it’s important to rethink how water is used.

Greywater: used water from showers, sinks, and laundry

Greywater is naturally thought of as something to just dispose of once it's used, but it actually is way too valuable to waste. Instead of letting it flow down and drain, a funneling system can be used that can capture, filter, and redirect it to support urban agriculture.

Each residential module is equipped with a vertical garden space and a balcony. If each unit collects greywater, it can be fed into the vertical garden structures and trickled down the housing development through an integrated plumbing system.

Vertical Microfarms: On that note, the vertical gardens that each tenant has access to can be used to grow real produce, herbs, and even medicinal plants. These can then be used personally, sold at the communal market, or shared by the community. Either way, these customizable, resident-run gardens can have so, so many benefits:

1. reduction in water waster and city utility strain
2. healthy food for marginalized communities
3. cuts grocery costs and supports food independence
4. creates entrepreneurial opportunities

I started with sketching how the overall housing development would look and how the modular units could be arranged to support both density and community interaction, two goals which initially seemed super conflicting, but can actually work together.

To do this sketch, I used something called single-point perspective, which is a drawing method where all lines converge toward one vanishing point on the horizon. This helped me create a realistic sense of depth and scale while experimenting with how people would move throughout the space.

My second iteration of the sketch was on isometric paper, which allowed me to visualize and see the development in a 3D perspective, which really gave me a good essence of how it would be in real life. This got me really excited!

For the actual modular houses, I initially didn't know how to go about designing them. But instead of starting with the architecture, I started with just asking:

What does a person need to truly live and feel at home?

I knew that I should start with what is essential to a home and for living in general. The main things that came up were a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. I also thought that for a house to be comfortable, it should have some sort of living area or multiuse space for a tenant. So, I started by generally sketching out these 4 modules.

The whole goal of designing these separately is so that they could ultimately be put together in a way that fits the tenants need. For example:

1. A freelance painter: bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living area, another living area serving as a painting space/studio
2. A family of 5: at least 3 bedrooms, kitchen, two bathrooms, multiple living areas for family space and privacy
3. A single mother with a newborn: bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living area, + a nursery

This kind of modularity gives residents freedom to grow without being forced to move and to leave the community that they settled in.

I knew that feedback would be super, super important to have throughout the process since I was working with some unique ideas. So as soon as I finished my draft sketches, I reached out to my Engineering Teacher at school to see if this was a feasible design. I got some relevant insights from him:

"The modular housing units would need good support or foundations since they would be stacked high in (maybe) non-symettrical ways."

"Need to think about natural light and airflow, which should lead to reshaping window placments and add shared open-air corridors"

I also reached out to a citizen who lived near the 7th Street area in Oakland. This gave me a lot of things to think about in terms of community and personalization.

"Tenants should be able to add things like balcony gardens, murals, or local artwork to make the space feel truly thiers."

"Jazz was such a central part of 7th Street and West Oakland in general, so I should tyr to pay homage to that scene and bring it back into the housing development."

Once I had a solid vision and sketches of the housing development, I moved into the technical phase of the project by putting my drafts into AutoCAD and then 3D modelling everything in Fusion 360.

AutoCAD is a computer-aided design (CAD) software by Autodesk that is used in so many different fields, mostly for creating precise 2D and 3D drawings. Using AutoCAD for this project was my very first time with the software, so it was definitely very intimidating at first. But as I started learning how to use it, I realized that it was incredibly powerful.

Fusion 360, on the other hand, is another type of CAD software that is used much more for 3D modelling and simulations. I have used Fusion 360 a lot before from both for school and personal projects. But, I have never used Fusion 360 to design something as large and as intricate as a housing development, so there is definitely many things I learned throughout this journey.

Here are the steps to download and start a project in AutoCAD/Fusion 360:

1. Create an account in Autodesk. If you are a student, you can use most Autodesk products for free with an education license. Since I was already using certain products for school, I already had an account and was able to log in.
2. Once you're logged into the Autodesk website, go to the 'Products and Services' tab, where I found AutoCAD/Fusion 360 for Mac systems and installed it. This took a while since I didn't have much storage on my device, but I was able to get it up and running in a matter of minutes.
3. Once you get to the welcome page, click 'New' to create a brand new file. This should open to a blank canvas with a bunch of different buttons and symbols for you to use in your project.
4. Since I used AutoCAD mainly for floor plans, most of my technical creation was in the 2D wireframe. For Fusion 360, almost all of my work was in the SOLID tab.

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Specifically for AutoCAD, since I did not have any experience, I watched many youtube videos to learn the basics.

***I have a macOS system, which led me to not have access to many Autodesk BIM tools like AutoCAD Architecture and Revit, but I did get creative with the tools I had access to, which I hope we can all learn from!!***

To begin building my 3D model in Fusion 360, I focused on the commercial section of my housing development. These make up the bottom three floors of the entire structure. Here are my steps for designing it:

Creating the highway bridge: First, one of the defining features of the West Oakland site is the existing freeway and rail infrastructure that slices through the neighborhood. I added it to my design just to make sure that I stay aware of the existing infrastructure.

1. First, I imported the Google Earth image into my Fusion 360 file. I got my image by just taking an overhead screenshot of the area that I wanted my housing development to be in.
2. Click "INSERT" then "CANVAS" --> this lets you place the image into the file. I placed it on the X-axis for tracing on the ground.
3. Next, I traced out the highway bridge into the file.
4. Click "CREATE SKETCH" and click the Top Plane. From there, I used the rectangle tool to draw the long rectangular shape. For my file, I scaled it so that 1ft = 1mm, so it was pretty easy to measure and put in. Next, for the cylindrical bridge supports, I used the circle shortcut, then clicked "RECTANGLE PATTERN". I selected my circle and copied it down the length of the rectangle to replicate the supports of the raised highway.
5. I extruded the cylindrical bridge supports and added them to the highway to simulate the overhead structure running through the commercial floors.
6. Click "FINISH SKETCH" and go back into the editing tab. Then click "EXTRUDE" and click on all of the cylinders that are lining the rectangle. Once you get them up to the bridge height, you can just click "ENTER" on your keyboard.
7. For the actual road part of the bridge, I used an offset plane that I raised up to the height of my bridge. I did this by clicking "CONSTRUCT" and then the offset plane. Once you raise the sketch up, you can extrude it to the road height.

Starting with the Base Sketch + Shape: With the bridge as a reference point, I moved on to create the base footprint of the first commercial floor.

1. I created a 2D sketch on the top plane to map out the floor plan geometry. I did this by just creating another sketch, just like when creating the bridge sketches.
2. Many people have different processes for their construction, but I usually like to make the overall shape for the building first and then sketch out the floor plan. I think it makes it a lot easier for me.
3. Extrude the walls to about 12 feet high from the ground.
4. After I did this, I wanted the rounded corners of the building like in the floor plan.
5. To create the rounded corners, click on "MODIFY" and then "FILLET". Once you have, select the corners of the floor and drag the two arrows inward. I filleted the building around 5mm, which would be 5 feet in real life.
6. Also, remember to split the shape into two because of the bridge cutting through the center.
7. You can do this by just creating a line on top of the base sketch, a couple of feet away from the bridge, then clicking "CREATE" and then "MIRROR" with the center point of the file as your mirroring point. This tool is super useful when you're creating a symmetrical building.
8. For the time being, I'm going to be working with just the right side of the building, then just mirroring it across the bridge, since it would be so much more work to make each action twice on two different objects.

Commercial Floor General Shape: After finalizing the sketches and the shape of the first floor, I began to add in the second and third floors. What was unique about those two floors was that they had balcony overhangs.

1. Add the new levels by just extruding the top of the first floor upward. Since there are two extra floors, I added an extra 20 feet.
2. Next, add in the overhanging balcony. This is a little more complicated than just simple extrusions like I have been doing.
3. Click "SKETCH" and find the exact middle of the building. Then, place a point, which you can do by clicking "CREATE" --> "POINT". Once you do that, exit the sketch (click Enter) and now scale the component up by clicking "MODIFY" --> "SCALE." I scaled it up until I got around 10 feet of balcony.
4. Next, split the bodies so you have a distinct 1st floor, 2nd floor, and 3rd floor.
5. This can be done by sketching on the y-axis and creating 2 equally spaced lines. Exit out of the sketch, go to "SPLIT" and click on the two lines, and you should get three different bodies from that.

Creating Stores/Rooms: Now that all the massing is in place, it's time to make the commercial floors actually have commercially available stores/shops/and areas.

1. First, have your floor plan available and easy to reference next to you. This makes the process so, so much easier for you, and you don't have to remember a vague idea of what I looked like.
2. Next, create a sketch and use the Rectangle Tool to make the walls and pieces. There is also CHAMPFER, which is similar to fillet, and the OFFSET tool, which makes it a lot easier to build the perimeter.
3. Once you have the sketch finished, extrude them in and watch your stores come to life!

Adding Details: Finally, I wanted to add some cool decorations and details to these commercial floors to make them seem more welcoming. A lot of the things I wanted to add were benches, trees/shrubery, a water pond, and some decals.

1. One big time that I have is that for smaller pieces of your design, you can import in pre-made objects in from other 3D design creators or websites. Most of the trees I put in and benches are all from free3d.com.
2. To import in objects and other files, click "INSERT" then click "INSERT MESH" where you can select your file.

The communal floor of this housing development is a place for people to connect and meet each other. Thus, I thought that the best use of the community floor was to allow it to be multi-purpose and be flexible to any event, culture, or daily activity.

Most of the space would be empty, but how do I still bring people together even if there is no event? At first, I was worried that leaving most of the communal floor open and unprogrammed might feel cold and underused. But then, I realized that flexibility doesn't have to mean emptiness. That's when I decided to design a built-in amphitheater. Now, this might seem random, but..

1. It is a semi-permanent structure that still allows a couple of friends to hang out and talk while also having the capability to host a fully-fledged theater show. It offers a connection to nature and doesn't interrupt the flow of the space.

AutoCAD Floor Plan: This floor plan was quite simple due to the idea of flex-space and having most of the floor free for specific use, but trying to draw out the amphitheater was a bit of a challenge.

1. First, I started with the basic outline of the third floor ceiling to have a quick reference to the size of the rest of the housing development. This was simple since I already had most of the measurements from working on the commercial floors. I just used the basic LINE tools here.
2. Then, I maped out the rectangle for the community room itself. This was very simple and I just used the RECTANGLE tool.
3. I used a 3mm offset for the external walls. There were no doors or no extra appliances other than the amphitheater.
4. For the amphitheater, I had to draw several flowy lines to represent the steps and another for the lower stage.
5. To draw these lines, I first had to create points at where the flowy line will meet the two walls. Type in "POINT" and select where along the line you want your point to lie.
6. After you place your points, select the "SPLINE" tool and make your wavy line across the floor of the community room.

This floor plan looked a little lack-luster but the 3-D model version really brought my initial vision to life.

The communal floor is the fourth floor of the building and one of the most important ones. It is designed to be the beating heart of the building, where people are meant to meet, talk, and share their identities and cultures. The main goal of this floor is interaction, creativity, and excitement.

The General Mass: To start, I shaped the general massing of the communal floor as a regular rectangle. While this may seem boring, it was strategic to help provide support for the rearrangeable housing that will be held on higher floors. Along with load distribution, the rectangular shape offers more spatial flexibility for community events.

1. This was done by simply creating a new sketch on the third floor's ceiling, then extruding it 30mm (equivalent to 30 feet in real life).

Adding Structure: Based on my past feedback, I knew that it was important to have a more open concept, where large parts of the walls are windows. So, to create the open spaces:

1. For the larger windows on each side of the longer wall, I made a simple rectangular sketch on the front outside wall and extruded it in a negative direction to cut into the object instead of adding on to it. This can be done by adding a negative (-) sign to change the direction you want to cut.
2. For the smaller, rectangular cutouts on the shorter wall, it was a little more complicated process. First, I created an initial sketch on the inside of the wall, which was a small ceiling-length rectangle. Then, I clicked "RECTANGULAR PATTERN" in the CREATE tab. This allowed me to create several of the rectangles and spread them across the wall evenly. Then, I repeated the negative sign extrusion on all of those rectangular sketches.

The Amphitheater: This is one of the central structures of the community floor, and although I wanted the space to be completely used as a multi-purpose, flex room, I thought that it would be amazing here. It's important to remember that 7th Street is rooted in Jazz and that music was what initially brought the community together decades ago. This amphitheater is made to pay homage to that.

1. First, to replicate those fluid, messy but fitting seating steps, I created a sketch and used the "FIT POINT SPLINE" tool. This lets me control the points where the line curves/flexes and the curves themselves. I created 7 of those spline lines and extruded them at offsets, where the following step was 1.5 feet shorter than the last.
2. The next important part of the amphitheater was the staircase. Since I was using Fusion and not applications like AutoCAD Architecture and Revit, I had to make the stairs myself. To do this, I sketched out each individual step and extruded them like I did for the amphitheater steps.

The Flex Space: Within the communal floor, there is nothing in the room other than the amphitheater. This is for a reason. This area is intentionally left open and reconfigurable so residents can shape it into what they need....

1. a music festival? a yoga studio class? the weekly farmers market? a flea market? a pop-up gallery? a science conference? anything??? YES!!

The large cutouts in the wall offer space for panelling, acoustic insulation, partitions, and so much more.

Like I mentioned before (in the 'Initial Draft Sketches - Modular Housing Pieces') I realized that I needed to design each home unit (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and multi-use area).

I knew that I wanted everything to be very compact and fit within a 10-foot by 10-foot area. This would be a perfect cube. There are a couple of considerations that came up when it came to making this decision:

1. Would this be enough space? That really depends on the person, and due to the adaptive way a tenant can request to have a modular piece to fit their need, I think it is something that is avoidable.
2. Construction? Having the units be 10x10ft, it is very easy to transport and handle within off-site construction. I think that this type of modularity optimizes the off-site construction process.

Grid Sketch: I started with a paper sketch, where each section was 10 grid units by 10 grid units, and planned out where the appliances, storage, and other pieces were going to be. This served as a good jump-off point for translating this plan into AutoCAD.

AutoCAD Floorplan: Once the sketch felt right to me, I opened up AutoCAD and got ready to put everything in. Here is my process (again, feel free to skip the first few steps if you have already completed the other two floor plans in AutoCAD!):

1. Start a New File and select "Start Drawing" under the default workspace.
2. Set units by typing 'UNITS' and set it to inches, to match everything fully (120 x 120 inch units)
3. Draw in the external walls using the LINE tool and the RECTANGLE tool. I mapped out the perimeter and the interior walls using these tools. The offset I used for internal walls is 4 inches, while the offset for internal walls is 6 inches.
4. Then, I added doors and openings. I used the rectangle and then angled it to 45*, then used a circle to show the trajectory of the door.
5. Once you draw the circle, you can use the 'TRIM' command within the 'MODIFY' panel to get rid of the excess circumference of the circle.
6. Next, I added all the appliances/furniture from the top view. Most of this is a little messy, but it does provide a lot of insight into the interior of each module.
7. These appliances are usually just a combination of different lines and circles.

Once I finalized my hand-drawn design and floor plan in AutoCAD, I brought the design into Fusion 360. This part was especially important because I wanted to really focus on the off-site construction, which materials the modules will use, and how they will fit together.

The Steel Frame: I started by creating the steel frames for each module. This is the base/skeleton of the modular unit.

1. Create a BOX in your sketch, then SHELL out the inner spaces to simulate a tube frame.
2. I kept it as a single block to simulate the single modular unit that can be put together with the others.

Metal Piping and Substructure: To integrate the internal conduits for plumbing and wiring, I embedded them into the wall. This was done by creating a hatched pattern on the wall.

1. I created small rectangular profiles along the inner perimeter of the wall as conduits for pipes and wiring. Using the PATTERN tool, I distributed them.

Walls and Windows: The walls and windows are important since they provide aesthetics and functionality to a design.

1. First, create a NEW COMPONENT. This can be done under the CREATE tab. If you don't start from scratch with a new component, it will be very hard to change the appearance of the window.
2. Adjust to your preferred size. I did a wall as a window and three windows on one of the Metal Piping walls.
3. Once they are in place, right click on the components and click "APPEARANCE", there you can change the color/material. I chose "WINDOW GLASS."

Once I finalized the core layout of the home modules, I needed to think about how these units would be constructed in real life. My goal was to design a modular system that could be assembled off-site, transported efficiently, and reconfigured based on resident needs, without compromising on sustainability, cost, or durability. The diagram above outlines the staged construction and material composition I envision for each unit, from structural skeleton to final finish.

1. Steel Frame Structure (10%): The process begins with the creation of a strong, modular steel frame. I chose steel due to its structural integrity, modular flexibility, and the ease of prefabrication. Though it has high embodied energy, its long-term durability and recyclability justified its inclusion. The steel frame is designed as either a single-unit cube or a combinable block, allowing for stacked or side-by-side modular arrangements.
2. Internal Piping and Substructure (15%): Once the frame is built, internal systems such as metal piping for water, gas, and electrical conduits are integrated. These are embedded into the frame in a standardized pattern to streamline the installation and replacement process. Using pre-fabricated pipe layouts reduces labor costs and installation time on site.
3. 3D Panels and Envelope (20%): To form the enclosure of the unit, I applied 3D structural panels made of composite materials with insulation already embedded. These panels offer a balance of strength, light weight, and energy efficiency. They act as both internal and external walls, snapping into place with the steel skeleton.
4. Recycled Timber Finish (40%): I chose recycled timber as the main façade and internal finish due to its low embodied energy and warmth. Timber allows for variation in color and texture while maintaining sustainable construction practices. It also connects the modular units to the existing architectural language of West Oakland, where wood has historically played a key role in housing aesthetics.
5. Low-e Glass and Natural Light (5%): Each unit includes windows made with Low-emissivity (Low-e) glass to improve thermal insulation and reduce energy demands. These windows maximize natural lighting while minimizing UV and infrared light penetration, helping to keep interiors comfortable year-round.
6. Foam Planters and Green Roofs (10%): To promote sustainability and localized food production, foam planting beds are incorporated onto the rooftops and balcony edges. These lightweight green features not only reduce heat island effects but also enable micro-farming for residents. This small-scale agriculture strategy complements the greywater reuse system described in earlier sections.

Here is the animation of the housing unit!

I chose to integrate vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) beneath the bridge that connects the two sides of the housing development. This placement is both strategic and architectural. Bridges often act as wind tunnels—funnels that accelerate airflow due to the Venturi effect. By installing VAWTs beneath a 120-foot-high bridge, I could take advantage of this natural acceleration while keeping the turbines visually integrated and acoustically distant from residential spaces.

I wanted to get a good gauge on the estimated energy generation from these wind turbines.

Wind Speed at 120 ft height (36.6 m): ~6.5 m/s (based on average wind speeds in the Bay Area)

Turbine Swept Area (A): 2.5 m² per turbine (approx. 5 ft diameter × 5 ft height cylinder)

Air Density (ρ): 1.225 kg/m³

Power Coefficient (Cp): 0.35 (typical for VAWTs

Number of Turbines: 6 units under the bridge

If we assume the turbines operate effectively for 10 hours/day, the daily energy generation is:

Over a month, that’s roughly 730 kWh, which will be enough to power the lighting and small appliances of 10–12 modular units, depending on usage.

These VAWTs are mounted on custom steel armatures beneath the bridge. Their placement makes them easy to access for maintenance, but visually unobtrusive from both street and residential perspectives. Their quiet, oscillation-free motion also ensures they do not generate disruptive noise or vibration.

According to global estimates, nearly 15% of the world's food is already produced through small-scale, decentralized farming systems like these. In neighborhoods like West Oakland, where access to fresh produce can be limited, this integration becomes even more essential.

Types of Gardens:

1. Individual Garden (8–16 m² | ~48 m³): Perfect for single residents or couples, this setup supports herbs, leafy greens, bulbs like onions and garlic, and low-maintenance vegetables.
2. Family Garden (16–64 m² | ~200 m³): Designed for households with children or multiple residents, this configuration accommodates a greater crop variety, including tomatoes, mushrooms, and root vegetables like cauliflower.
3. Community Garden (>200 m² | >800 m³): These are shared open spaces intended to foster neighborly collaboration. Larger yields of fruits (like grapes and cherries), vegetables, and communal crops can be harvested, stored, and even exchanged between units.

Each garden is connected to an intelligent water distribution system that uses greywater recycling and weather-based moisture sensors to deliver the right amount of water to the plants. This robotic system is fully managed by a centralized control unit, reducing the need for manual upkeep and conserving water in the process.

These micro-farms reduce food transportation emissions, cool the surrounding environment through evapotranspiration, and build stronger inter-resident connections. They turn rooftops from wasted space into vital ecosystems of nourishment and growth.

Because the housing development includes stacked modular units, four different public floors, and so much more, it was necessary to develop a robust yet flexible support system. Let's start from the very, very bottom:

Soil Considerations: Due to 7th Street's proximity to the San Francisco Bay, the soil includes loose fill and soft clay, which can shift under weight and seismic activity. To address this, I researched and found several considerations.

1. Soil liquefaction during earthquakes
2. A deep pile foundation system, using driven steel or concrete piles
3. Base isolation pads are placed beneath major support columns to absorb ground motion during seismic activity.

The supports I consider are to help avoid the problems that could arise during any natural disasters, and to support the building in general.

Bottom Floor Cross Bracing: On the bottom floor of the housing development, there are steel cross braces integrated into the structural frame of the commercial floors. These diagonal elements resist lateral loads, like wind or seismic shifts, and ensure the base of the building doesn't twist or collapse under stress. These bars are submerged into the ground by 7 feet, providing torsional rigidity.

Vertical Columns and Support Grid: The structure itself is organized around a repeating grid of vertical steel columns that are spaced evenly to carry the loads from the three commercial floors, the communal level, and especially, the stacked modular housing above.

Since the housing development is a podium-style modular development, the retail base of the building also serves as a base for the rest of the building.

On the back wall of the communal floor, rotating gallery walls will depict resident work (paintings, photography, graphic design, and whatever medium they have produced). I really wanted to pay homage to the African American community that had once fostered the 7th Street community.

The goal is to embed storytelling into the architecture, turning this simple floor into a living museum of memory, identity, and pride.

I wanted to get some design drawings of my final design!

After modeling the key components of my modular housing system in Fusion 360, I wanted to create a physical representation to better visualize the scale, assembly logic, and interior flow of the project. 3D printing was the most effective way to make this real, especially for the small-scale, detailed parts I’d created.

I have access to a Bambu Lab X1E from my school and was able to get access to that printer for free. The slicing software I used was Bambu Studio.

Slicing Software: Bambu Studio (free and works seamlessly with Bambu Lab printers)

3D Printer: Bambu Lab X1E (high-speed, multi-material compatible)

Filament: White PLA (Polylactic Acid), 1.75mm, matte finish for clean, professional look I chose white PLA because it photographs well, has a smooth surface, and gives a neutral base to highlight shadows and form

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In Fusion 360, the way to get your components and objects out of Fusion is through this process that I used:

1. Select Component/Body: I clicked on each individual component and then right clicked
2. Save as Mesh: This let me download the file to my computer with these settings. .STL, High. Millimeters
3. Repeat for every single peice.

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Once everything was exported, I opened Bambu Studio and imported the files into the build plate. I adjusted the scale where necessary—for instance, I printed larger base plates at a 1:50 scale to ensure they would fit on the printer bed, while still maintaining visual clarity. Here were my slicing settings:

Layer Height: 0.2mm for general parts, 0.12mm for details like furniture or window cutouts

Wall Count: 3

Infill: 10% grid (for lightness but good structure)

Supports: On (Touching Buildplate)

Build Plate Adhesion: Brim for smaller parts, Skirt for larger flat prints

Material: White PLA

Orientation was a key part of my slicing process. I rotated each piece to minimize the need for support structures:

1. flat slabs were printed face-down for adhesion, while cube modules were laid on their broadest sides to ensure strong Z-layer bonding.

I enabled automatic supports only for areas like balcony overhangs or communal floor amphitheaters. My slicing settings were fairly optimized: a 0.2mm layer height for general pieces, and 0.12mm for finer detail components like furniture and doorframes. I used 10% grid infill, 3 walls, and a brim for adhesion on smaller prints.

This part was the easiest and definitely the funnest part of the whole process. As my pieces started to print, I got to see my vision come to life!

Once the prints were done, I used flush cutters to remove any brims or excess support, and 320-grit sanding sponges to clean up the base edges. For the reconfigurable joints, I carefully adjusted tight-fitting areas with a needle file to make the pieces slot together properly. I stored each batch in labeled boxes to keep track of components and floor levels during assembly.

One of the most exciting parts of this project was finally seeing my concept of reconfigurable housing come to life!

After designing and printing each modular housing unit individually, I created several variations with different internal layouts and tested how they could be arranged based on tenant needs. To do this, I used my Fusion 360 files to export multiple unique cube modules, each representing a specific room type. Some featured more open layouts for creative studios or shared family spaces, while others were compact and private for single residents. I even included one that served as a nursery module and another with accessible design elements.

In the pictures above, you see the different and very unique units come together to complete a full floor of tenants!

Another core feature I demonstrated through the model was how these units could be constructed off-site and stacked on location. Because all the units shared the same footprint and connection logic, I was able to test various vertical and horizontal configurations, including offset balconies, connected communal corridors, and L-shaped family blocks.

This was a super fun, but long process. The images show a full story!

I used a fast-drying cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) because of its ability to bond well to PLA without leaving visible residue or warping the plastic. For pieces that required more time to align or were weight-bearing.

I used gel super glue or two-part epoxy to give me more working time and strength. For each connection:

1. I lightly sanded the contact surfaces with fine-grit sandpaper to ensure better adhesion
2. Then, I applied a thin line of glue along the edge, pressed the modules together, and held for about 15–30 seconds
3. For large parts like floor plates or the bridge base, I used mini clamps and weights to apply gentle pressure while the glue set.

Once the main floors were bonded, I attached the community floor elements like the amphitheater and gallery walls, followed by the bridge supports that run through the center of the development. I saved smaller facade elements, signage, and vertical garden attachments for last, to avoid breakage while handling the larger structure.

The final model came together as a sturdy, cohesive form that captures both the modular nature of the system and the intentionality behind each spatial decision. Although the design is meant to be reconfigurable, gluing this version together helped me communicate one clear iteration of what the project could look like once built. It also made transport and photography much easier.

Most of my details came with adding shrubbery and green cardstock to represent the vertical gardens. This really let the different floors contrast better as well as bring some life into the 3D model.

Working on this project has made me rethink what design really means.

It’s not just about creating something that looks cool or works on paper. It’s about understanding people, the places they live, and the systems that have shaped those places. In researching West Oakland and walking through the history of 7th Street, I started to realize how deeply the built environment can affect people’s opportunities, safety, and sense of belonging.

I didn’t want this project to be just an exercise. I wanted it to feel real. That’s why I spent so much time learning new tools like AutoCAD and Fusion 360, why I made physical models, and why I kept going back to the same question: What do people really need to feel at home?

Reconfigurable housing started as a practical solution, but it became something bigger. It became about flexibility, not just in architecture, but in life. It became about honoring the past while building for the future. And most importantly, it became about giving people choices—how they live, where they live, and how they grow.

I’m proud of this work not because it’s perfect, but because it reflects something I believe in. That housing should be adaptable. That communities deserve to shape their own spaces. That good design can be a form of care.

I hope this project is just the beginning.