In L.A., a vibrant neighbourhood for the homeless

Last week, a large-scale experimental solution to Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis opened in North Hollywood. The Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village, a vibrantly colourful neighbourhood, is a complex of over 100 units for 1/2 person that can house up to 200 residents, complete with main street, side boulevards and communal outdoor spaces. Designed by Lehrer Architects LA in collaboration with the city’s architects and engineers in the Bureau of Engineering and Ford Construction, the village was designed to incorporate the natural features of the surrounding parkland to its modern and flamboyant style, and thought to implement a spatial plan that is both visual and logistical. Each 8x8’ Tiny Home provides a self-contained, conditioned space for residents and can be locked for a greater sense of autonomy and privacy. Different bright colour tones were used to differentiate the residences, add visual richness, and provide a greater sense of “home”. A series of prefabricated modular units recreate collective areas and gathering spaces like dining rooms, showers, restrooms, laundry, secure storage, pet play areas and so on. In addition, newly planted trees and two mature oak trees were incorporated into the village.

This project follows a previous successful prototype of the Tiny Home format placed in the Chandler Boulevard, a more urban area, and that opened last February. Both projects are part of the city of LA’s ongoing effort to find existing unused spaces to be transformed into functional land for community building and create shelters for the unhoused. “LA is surely among the most vibrant laboratories in the world today to be designing and building projects in to remediate and eliminate homelessness,” Michael B. Lehrer, Founding Partner of Lehrer Architects LA, commented. “It is thrilling to be here using our medium to give, develop and invent form and processes to transform LA into a fully housed city. Making a difference is a joy of citizenship.”