The Alley flat Initiative:

Affordable Austin Infill Housing 

Demographers predict Austin’s population will double over the next thirty years.  Rising land values in the city center, have come at the expense of affordable housing. As property taxes increase and rents rise, longtime residents of traditionally low income and frequently minority neighborhoods are being pushed to outlying communities often  far from transit and employment opportunities.

The Alley Flat Initiative a collaboration of the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development, and various neighborhood organizations is focused on creating small-scale secondary dwelling units as a way for integrating affordable and sustainable housing opportunities into established communities. This studio, a collaboration between the University of Texas School of Architecture, and the Clarksville Community Development Corporation focused on developing and documenting a design for an 850 sq ft home to be located on a vacant lot in a historic Austin neighborhood.

Simultaneously aspirational and utterly realistic, this studio strove to rethink housing as units of production, bolstering existing water, electrical, and food production capacities while negotiating tight budgetary and regulatory constraints to produce a shovel ready model for subsequent development.