 Sink Tech, Hawaii, Code Green. Welcome to all of you on a balmy Honolulu day, temperature 82 degrees, trade winds at 10 to 12 miles an hour who could get any more beautiful than that. And we're going to talk today about resource efficiency resource. I thought this was an energy efficiency book. No. No resource and energy efficiency go hand in hand because we're going to be talking about low income or houseless or housing for houseless people via shipping containers and think about it shipping containers are already built. You don't need to pour new steel, new concrete new anything into them you just modify the existing containers. So you don't have to chop down trees you don't have to go to the steel steel mill and build new steel structures. It's all embodied energy there. Not to mention just a wee bit of cost saving in the process, which is why we can offer homeless and low income housing. And to talk about that today is for Neema McCutcheon, whose name you doubtless recognize because she's the former president of a I a Honolulu. So welcome for Neema. Thank you. Thank you Howard. Pernima is going to talk about two projects one and award winning project in Los Angeles, and another innovative project on a small site in New York City. So by all means, take it away Pernima. Thank you. Thanks for that introduction. And yeah, I am pretty much a cut in a local architect. I was raised in India but I've lived on the islands since the 99 piece. I did spend about eight years overseas during that period in India and in Mongolia. And I feel like I might have a little bit of a global perspective to this very, you know this crisis that's looming all around us here and globally. So I thanks so much Howard and I wanted to take this opportunity really to share two projects that I've worked on. These are not projects that I worked on at work. These are projects actually design competitions that I did along with a friend. Robert McDonald R I B a he's, he's a well established residential architect in the UK. And with Lewis darn turn who helped us with our renderings and modeling all of in all of it for for the submissions for the competitions. The first one was right was one that we did in 2019 and it was in New York, and on a very small site, providing low cost housing and the one at the bottom, which I'm going to start by sharing first is for schedule in Los Angeles. If you, if you can move to the next slide please. The schedule. 2020 international design competition was sponsored by a committee on design as well as Los Angeles County. And we were actually honored to be awarded third place for our submission here. So for those that are not familiar schedule is basically a 54 block area and downtown Los Angeles that has become synonymous with homelessness and poverty. And on any given night, like several thousand people sleep on the streets out here. So for this one, the design brief was to provide transitional housing, as well as social services for the homeless community of skid row. And it was your provided this very narrow small, not very convenient lot, perhaps, and the idea was to provide a temporary structure for a lifespan of three to 10 years which can be disassembled. It was to be done sustainably cost efficiently. It was meant to be done fast because you know there's a crisis. And this was also kind of during COVID actually this competition was 2020. And so the need was very urgent so it was also supposed to be something that was replicable. And I think I mentioned that we were not actually given a program I don't think I mentioned it but we weren't given a program as to how many units to fit and how dense it should be, or even what social services were acquired we were tasked with figuring all of that out. So this is our solution. This is the street side we had the use containers and I'll go into that a little bit more. Maybe we go into the next slide. So on the lower part of the screen is what we call a site plan and on the right hand side. So that what's, you know, the boundary, the gray boundary around the adjacent properties and our properties in the center to the right is the street or the entry into the site. Now this, this and you can see the image on the top which is sort of a view looking at the facility from the street. Now on on the bottom side or on that image on the left hand side is an existing hotel it's called the Panama hotel it's a residential hotel. And then on the right is a lighthouse. I mean sorry a chapel. It's called the Susa Azusa lighthouse chapel and and to the rear of the site as a warehouse. But, but this is what we would call a zero lot line development because the properties adjacent to these are everybody's allowed to build right to the lot line, and it is zoned so that you can go up to six stories high. We could be pretty much locked within the site with no no light, you know, and ventilation. So our design. We basically ended up doing something that was inward looking and created courtyards, and we avoided long corridors we ended up having a very simple circulation between these, you know, the residences services. So everything like we allowed for natural ventilation to happen easily that way and provided people a nice pleasant area to look at rather than looking at just walls around, you know, around them. So, so as I was saying, I was going to talk a little bit more about why we chose containers. So we reviewed a variety of options. We reviewed, you know, going with traditional construction we also looked at purpose built containers that you know they build it exactly to what your specifications are. But then we finally settled on repurpose containers because partly because there are 11 million unused containers in the world. It just seems more environmentally sensitive to try to reuse that it also creates more employment if you can reuse it, you know, you're kind of trying to take care of multiple problems at the same time, but it also would be initial lower initial cost would be lower labor cost would be a little bit higher than purpose built, but, but it's good for us to have labor, and then it's durable it's strong. And so why not. So that's kind of we came up with the idea to use containers and moving on to the next slide. So this, this plan basically shows a typical plan. I'm going to have a better plan for you later but this plan basically is from levels two to six, and it actually makes it easier for me to explain the upper floor plans because they're repetitive, and then move to the lower floor plan. But so in this diagram I've got a bunch of units on the right hand side which is repeatable pod a the blue pod and then you have the pink pod. The blue pod has the units that face the the street, they're like shotgun units, you know parallel to the street with balconies overlooking the street. And then it has, it has like a central, actually both of them have a central core where you have the stairs and the gray areas is your elevator block, and all of the white areas are basically open to the elements on, at least on one side. Okay, so we decided to do have two pods and smaller, you know corridors rather than a long corridor that went from one end of the site to the other, but also because these pods can be then replicated on a variety of different sites. You know you might have an L shaped site you might have a narrower site you can just you might have a broader lock, you know wider site. So these become with some tweaking they can be reused in different places. So that's, that's like one of the key takeaways is like we can replicate something then we can really bring the costs down. So anyway so that with that I can move on to the next one. And per name and let me point out that LA has a relatively mild climate. So you're taking advantage of that mildness by opening up absolutely as much as you can. And that certainly reduces energy consumption also, and gives people access to fresh air and fresh views. Exactly. And applicable to Hawaii too. Okay, so this one again is a more detailed plan showing the, all of the, the level of the residential levels which is levels from two to six. And so again the, the gray areas are all of our units and the green areas are the courtyard, the white areas are stairs and corridors. There's little orange, or in this screen it's showing up as little pink rectangles here and there. There are little benches where people can kind of sit and engage with whoever's passing by. We also have. It's hard to see on this drawing but we have common laundry facilities on each floor. So it allows for social interactions, you know, amongst the residents to kind of help create a community. So that was one of our thinking and then all of the orange arrows are basically arrows through windows doors. It's basically showing how views, you know, how, how we can create some sort of a natural surveillance. So the residents are always looking on to some sort of a common area from their units. And so that you know we don't have these. It's to create some sort of a natural security. You know, people will never be in some sort of a dark corner or you know where they might feel threatened there's always some natural oversight by the residents. In fact, the courtyard at the, to the left of the screen. That's actually a kids play area it's kind of secured but you know you always have people looking on or the ability to look on from upper floors. So you know that if there's any any situation, you can always call security right away and take care of it. So security and you know, a place where people really feel safe and joyful and happy was really important to us. I guess we could move on to the next slide. All right, so maybe we can zoom in a little bit on this one. So we provided basically for unit types and each each unit type has its own bathroom we thought it was important for them to have the privacy of their own bathrooms. So even though this this one unit is just a single container it's unit type a. And actually before I go on to it's the specific unit type I also want to mention that all the units are acoustically internally insulated. They're not provided with air conditioning they provide the intention is to really create spaces that are well ventilated naturally and with ceiling fans and lit also with natural daylight. So in this particular unit. This is type a it's for we think it would be more for like folks that are chronically homeless so we haven't provided kitchen services and this we have common kitchen area on the lower floor which I'll show you later. And it does have a bathroom it has some storage areas a bed, little, like you know little places sit out and then a balcony, and the drawing on the right shows all of the units kind of lined up on each floor like you can have six units, and the balconies are like a little bit funky, you can you know add, you know, variety of play of in and out zigzag up and down so you can create some fun without an interesting design without really spending a lot of money on it. We don't see that as an expensive element. And then the drawing in the middle which we can't see too well but basically it's a sketch showing how a small space can be really organized well to, you know, provide you with the high functionality. So, you know, storage built in and space, like that brown area you know where we have a lower sort of ceiling where you can, you know, put some bags and things so just efficient planning can go a long way in making a small container be much more, you know, usable. Um, I think we could, let's see if there's anything else. Yeah, I think that was it for this one. And so we can move to the next slide. So like, so we basically had four unit types and that was unit type a, and then here in the blues is the ADA units which we have on level one of one of the pods. And the others are unit type B and C and just very briefly. The idea is that they kind of like Lego pieces kind of go together. So the ADA, for example, there's a unit on the left and the right but the bathrooms are central. And so they can be stacked and it's less expensive when you do something like that. There's a lot more turning around space and, you know, make very comfortable, much more comfortable for somebody who might be in a wheelchair or have other accessibility issues in the ADA unit. But it can accommodate up to two adults and a young child on a pullout bed. So I mean this, you know, that's your unit type ADA and then the one in the pink is quite similar but with more, more. It doesn't have to be as tight. So, you know, we have more dining area and things like more closet like that. But very similar and they could be converted either or depending on if you need more, more ADA units, you could convert the pink ones into more ADA units. And then the bottom one, the purple one is actually for a larger group like maybe a family or, you know, maybe four or five people living together. It has like a master bedroom with a small study area bathroom. All of these units, like these three, unlike the type A half kitchenette so you can cook as well if you want to. And it has a children's bedroom as well, the one, the purple one. So you can sleep up to two, you know, two plus adults and then, you know, two teenagers a young child. So I mean it allows for more. So we have these different varieties of unit types so it allows for, you know, many, many groups of users to be able to use this facility. I think, oh, I, and I think I pointed out that earlier, you know, the areas between the two units have the ability to either have like, you know, washer dryer or a bench or so. So we are using anyways, every little bit of space that we can to provide, you know, to think of as many things as we think they need amenities and facilities. So with that, I can go on to the next slide. I hope, Howard, this is fine. You've got about eight minutes per name. Oh, okay, I didn't realize. Okay, so we will move faster than so we used about 126 containers 111 were used for housing about 158 adults 59 children 15 were used for supportive services and we move on to the next slide. So I'm just going to start by zoning and I just want to quickly point out so this is level one on the right hand side of the street. It's the most complicated level because we have residents up on the upper floors but they need to be entering safely and securely, but we also wanted to provide services for others that aren't so fortunate to be able to sleep in inside. That are still on the streets. So the bottom right orange is where we have a bathroom or toilet facilities and drinking water facilities and that would be available to anybody off the street 24 seven. And the little light blue area above it is a security information reception for the sort of secure areas, but also place where you can find out where you could go for certain services. So it's a peach or light pink band above. It has a kitchenette where up in the entry like a dining area where you can pick up your trees and pick up food and then go into the, you know, into these common areas where anybody off the street anytime is able to come in at scheduled times for a meal like breakfast lunch dinner. And then in the middle the dark pink area is where you have counseling offices job training and the like. And then and supportive services offices and then the yellow area is also a place where people can get like their, you know, some podiatry, some hair care and showers, and that would be like within certain like you know 12 hours of the day scheduled so that you can accommodate a lot of people. And purple and blue areas are the secure residence areas and they have different ways to get in there so you're depending on your comfort level if you want to go through the purple one you can go through there you can go from the outside. And I think that was it in a nutshell, I mean it's very complex and we just want to make sure everybody's safe but we want to provide maximum services. And Pernima you do have, I guess 24 seven security. Yes, there is yeah. Yes. Yeah, so it would be required, I think, and, you know, at least at the early stages. Okay, and then we can go on to the next one which I just the next slide. Okay, I just want to point out that you know we use very simple methods of getting an interest in the design a little bit of perforated screen at the bottom for like light and shadow. Very balcony is some pop of color and you know inexpensive method but we still believe in the power of design to heal. We believe in like you know making a building really lovely for the users. With that I can go to the next one. So this one actually. So this, this one is in New York City. And this was actually a really good project project basically what the city of New York did is they identified 23 sites. They gave us very narrow and inconvenient lots, and they want, they gave us one site to design to but they want that design to be flexible so that it can be applied to 23 sites, and perhaps more later. So on the top right you see a little image with, you know, two buildings with a narrow sliver in the middle. Well that's 17 feet wide and about 100 feet deep. And that's your site. I don't know if you can picture 17 feet I mean out of that you lose, you know, two feet just for the walls 15 feet it's it's it's like maybe somebody's, you know, dining area or living area in the house or something very narrow. But we managed to put eight units on this lot. And we had some height restrictions and all but we have an entry level lobby and 8888 studio on the floor floor, and we have a bunch of studios upstairs but we have a little roof deck amenity with some, you know, gardening opportunities for the community. Anyhow, so I'm going to go on to the next slide and explain it a little bit more. So this is what it looks like when you cut a section through the building so you can see the lobby at the bottom. One of the strategies we used was like to go split split level. So we can keep the core that's in yellow right now. Very small and give more space to the units on the small side so it's a strategy we use and then we also wanted to get a lot of light in so we have translucency to that elevator core so you know so the light from the balconies on the outside. So we have, we have means to bring it all the way inside and you see that on the next slide. But we have photo will take some of the roof out there, I should point out but anyways, and so in this. This is a detailed plan on the lower part of the drawing and upper part of the drawing is a section through one of the units. So you can see that the light is coming in through the balcony side and bouncing all the way in because we didn't go. I mean these are studios we decided not to go with walls all the way up to the ceiling, and we also have little, you know, glazed areas between the, the, you know, in the walls, so that the light bounces all the way back to the corridor and then, or the core and then you have light coming in from there so very simple strategy to have natural daylight throughout. So I think with that I'll just move on to let me let me point out, pretty much the benefits of daylighting these are low income people. Yeah. And this is for low income. I should buy this project is for low income group. And they might have been living in very cramped quarters before with very little daylight, you're bringing daylight in, and you are automatically improving their quality of life. And just with this daylight all over. And from an energy efficiency standpoint, you can't light a space much more efficiently than with daylight. Right. That was our idea. I want to point out another thing on that same slide. In the New York project we did not use actually if you want to zoom in. I want to just point out there's a diagram on the right that shows how, how we conceived this so this one was not actually designed with using containers but rather modules that could be lifted into position. And then these modules can be, you know, you can have like the one that has the bathroom module and then intermediate modules all the way up to the street side. So the core would have to be built separately, also as modules. But so we kind of, you know, figured out what, what sort of sizes, what trucks can bring into the city and you know how they can be delivered and all of that. So this is a different setup. Moving on to the next slide. So this is what it looks like very simple, but each unit has a balcony so that the community can engage with what's going on in the street you want to make sure that people can really engage it's really important. And then we have, you know, all of these houses have old houses have stoopes, but we put a little reinterpreted stoop at the bottom, where people within the community can also hang out and again interact with with whoever's passing by so that was kind of important. Yeah, very simple. Going on and of course we use reclaimed materials and all not, you know, all the environmental. Yeah, two minutes. Okay, I'm on my last slide I think. Yeah, one more. Okay, so this one is basically. Yeah, they gave us 23 sites I've shown about six of them and you can see the dark blue on the gray areas those are the sites they're super narrow and small. Lots, but we were able to show demonstrate how we could create with like to like varying to widths, how we could replicate this solution on 23 sites. And, you know, successfully like use this idea of modularity and I think my, you know, if I have to emphasize on anything throughout this presentation that would be the key is like, if we can create a prototype and test it out it's going to take a little bit of effort and and cost to do that. But if we can then replicate it with tweaking, you know, still providing great design on a variety of sites, I think that, you know, modular and replicability is going to be what we can use to sort of solve some of our crisis. Like affordable housing housing home for the house list. So, sorry, I took all my time. No, no, I'll just jump in with a couple of comments you use the word replicability several times, and prior to 1912 automobiles were very, very expensive only a thing for the rich, then came along Henry Ford, and said I'm going to build an automobile that the workers can afford, and you have the same print Oh, and the secret there is replicability you build every car exactly the same way your cost goes way way down. And you are doing replicability in the form of modular housing where it's all built the components are built in a factory and you just have cranes. You put them all together and that really, really brings the cost down, and you are afforded a high quality material because it's these things are built in the factory. And, and it's also wonderful looking I made a, I never thought that I would dream of living in a home for for a very low income people but this looks like a little mini dream home that you created here pretty much. Oh, we, we, you know, architect is important, where you live is important it shapes you and you know, if you're happy everybody's happy around you. Yeah, you use a wonderful phrase there, the power of design to heal. That's obviously what you've got in mind here. And I know you're just starting out. This is going to be a new career for you for Neema and you are definitely serving humanity, and that portion of humanity that most needs to get in this case off the streets are out of miserable housing, and into housing that will increase their sense of well being and hopefully their sense of productivity their health, the whole nine yards. And we all see homeless in the streets we see low income people, and you are doing your bit to make the world a better place for Neema so I thank you and appreciate you very much. And that very cherry note we must bid fond you to think take away cold green green Neema McCutcheon and Howard wig. See you next time. Mahalo.