Communal Living
Sited in Midtown Houston, this project advocates for a communal living environment that can be shared across different age groups while still accommodating individual ways of living through its unit design. The proposal consists of two buildings occupying 15,000 square feet at ground level. Their L-shaped footprints create an open community, with greenery and public plazas extending into the surrounding urban environment. Each building rises 17 stories and includes a double-height lounge and recreational space on the first floor.
A typical floor consists of three 900-square-foot individual units and two multi-unit housing combinations. Primary circulation is organized through point cores, giving each unit its own entrance. The housing combination is designed according to the traditional morphology of multigenerational living: two 800-square-foot single-floor units—for grandparents and young adults, respectively—and one 1,400-square-foot duplex for the parents are connected by a double-height loggia at the center.
This housing combination is designed for flexible use: it could accommodate a group of college students studying and socializing together, adults combining home and work life, or elderly residents living within a collective care arrangement. The loggia, which serves as the project’s central design parti, opens to both sides of the building to provide facade porosity, cross ventilation, and views of the city. More importantly, it creates a shared exterior space within the architecture—a place where residents who live individually can gather and engage in collective activities shaped by their different interests.
Right images:
(1) Loggia View (physical model).
(2) Axon.
(3) Sectional Perspective.
(4) Ground Floor Plan.
(5) Typcial Floor Plan.
Spring 2020, independent work.
Sited in Midtown Houston, this project advocates for a communal living environment that can be shared across different age groups while still accommodating individual ways of living through its unit design. The proposal consists of two buildings occupying 15,000 square feet at ground level. Their L-shaped footprints create an open community, with greenery and public plazas extending into the surrounding urban environment. Each building rises 17 stories and includes a double-height lounge and recreational space on the first floor.
A typical floor consists of three 900-square-foot individual units and two multi-unit housing combinations. Primary circulation is organized through point cores, giving each unit its own entrance. The housing combination is designed according to the traditional morphology of multigenerational living: two 800-square-foot single-floor units—for grandparents and young adults, respectively—and one 1,400-square-foot duplex for the parents are connected by a double-height loggia at the center.
This housing combination is designed for flexible use: it could accommodate a group of college students studying and socializing together, adults combining home and work life, or elderly residents living within a collective care arrangement. The loggia, which serves as the project’s central design parti, opens to both sides of the building to provide facade porosity, cross ventilation, and views of the city. More importantly, it creates a shared exterior space within the architecture—a place where residents who live individually can gather and engage in collective activities shaped by their different interests.
Right images:
(1) Loggia View (physical model).
(2) Axon.
(3) Sectional Perspective.
(4) Ground Floor Plan.
(5) Typcial Floor Plan.
Spring 2020, independent work.
Currently in New York / New Jersey
© Elina Chen 2026