This course is part of the Interiors Academy

This webinar is part of the Interiors Home Academy

Tiny homes, micro homes, accessory dwelling units (ADU), and casitas. Whether designed as a rental, a place for returning children or aging parents, or as a potential solution to the homelessness/unhoused crisis, going small provides big opportunities for architects. Along with the modest footprint and infill potential, tiny homes also offer a chance to create unbeatable sustainable projects. All-electric, well-insulated, comfortable, and durable tiny homes can be the model of energy conservation, durability, and carbon-neutral design.

However, without thoughtful consideration, a tiny home can feel like a repurposed garden shed—dark, cramped, and dismal. A critical part of tiny home design is understanding the importance of light and color in creating vibrant environments that feel full-sized, even in smaller spaces.

This AIA-accredited continuing education webinar explores how tiny homes and buildings under 600 square feet are becoming increasingly popular and can become a competitive advantage for architects looking to expand their design and client base. It will also look at how the specification of color, inside and out, plays an important role in creating a space that satisfies both the occupant’s well-being and sustainable goals.

Marcos Santa Ana, AIA CPHD GC, Fournder of Alloi will present the Los Angeles High-Performance Dihedral House. Featured in Dwell, the Dihedral house is a transformative design build project in the Culver City adjacent neighborhood of Baldwin Hills. The client’s goals were to both expand and upgrade their 1940s home where they had lived for over 25 years.

The existing home, as are so many 1940’s post war homes, was organized in a very segmented and strict plan which included separate kitchen, living, and dining spaces. Through several years of remodels the flow from room to room was only made worse, including a small 2nd story addition accessed by a dangerously steep staircase.

As passive house certified designers Marcos and team introduced and incorporated design features that reduce thermal bridging, increase indoor air quality, and incorporate solar shading and high-performance glass for windows and doors all contributing to a higher standard of energy efficiency. At the Dihedral Home a zero thermal bridge design was implemented.

The new design blends interior and exterior spaces through a connection to the backyard, an integrated space for a home office, improved Indoor air quality, and a revitalization of the front facade.

Erin Stork, NCIDQ, is an Interior Design Practice Leader at Helix Architecture + Design. She will present a survey of multifamily projects that integrate micro-unit apartments. One just-completed example is Midlands Lofts, an adaptive-reuse project in downtown Kansas City. Erin and the Helix team created compelling worker housing in a vacant office building that also has a historic theater. Micro-unit apartments emerged as the design solution that made re-development of a Historic Register-listed building make sense.

Erin will show how micro-units permitted the initially planned 117 apartments to expand to 139 and how selection of materials, finishes, and colors created high-quality, open living spaces. Community amenities further elevate the living experience in an adaptively reused building whose former tenants include the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and AMC Theaters—theater and music influenced the design.

At the end of these dynamic presentations, there will be a brief Q&A session to discuss key points from the webinar.

Photo courtesy of Alloi

Los Angeles High-Performance Dihedral House

Marcos Santa Ana, AIA CPHD GC, High-Performance Designer, Passive House Certified, founder of Alloi was born into a family of artists, builders and craftspeople in the upstate community of Woodstock, New York. He studied architecture across the world and attributes the Scandinavian influence from studying in Aarhus, Denmark, Spanish modernism from his study in Barcelona, Spain and his American experimentalism from several influential professors at the University at Buffalo in the State of New York who earned their degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of design and Cornell University. Marcos’ culturally-diverse education influences projects at Alloi.

Erin Stork, IIDA at Helix Architecture + Design, is a true visionary and natural-born creative, Erin has mastered the ability to catch a client’s excitement for their project and bring ideas to life. Anyone who has met her knows the passion she exudes for design, but those of us who work alongside Erin get to see how that passion is applied to elevating how people experience the spaces around them. Whether working with workplace, hospitality or higher education clients, it is evident that for her, everything is about people. Her enthusiasm is contagious to clients and coworkers alike.