Stitched Housing
ARCH 2140
Professor Anthony Averbeck
This project transforms a former surface parking lot in East Fenway into a housing development organized around a continuous red path, which is the sole circulation system connecting all residential units across buildings. By eliminating internal corridors and stairs, the project forces every resident into an unavoidable zone of encounter where daily experiences overlap. At strategic intervals, it expands to claim space for communal living and dining areas, a community garden, and a café open to both residents and neighbors.
As the neighborhood has transformed into a student hub, rising costs of living have created affordability pressures for both long time community members and professors who now call the area home. Smaller sized apartments lower cost while reinvesting the saved area into the public realm. The exterior red corridor becomes both practical infrastructure and a symbolic gesture, sewing together the community together by becoming a third place where students and families can encounter each other outside of transactional relationships and build the familiarity that underpins a genuine community.
Fact Sheet:
138 Units -> 45 1Bed, 67 2Bed, 21 3Bed, 5 4Bed
68% Open Space
1.3 FAR
120,500 sqft