Mortgage financing systems and the real estate market have few products that fit the real needs of the urban poor in informal environments. The design of this experimental emergency-housing tower, built over an existing parish house, offers a different way of looking at low-cost housing. The project involved the construction of a two-story dwelling, which also provided the structural support to allow residents to expand it horizontally and vertically depending on their future finances. U-TT’s growing house design imitates the incremental development of self-help housing, but introduces a safe framework for user-driven solutions. The project also includes a kindergarten, cafe, meeting halls, and shop space, creating a multi-functional church community.

Anglican Church

Buildings

The “Yonkers Sports and Event Center” project envisions the transformation of derelict urban space into a multi-purpose sports and recreation facility. Working in partnership with The Armory Foundation’s President, Norbert Sander (winner of the 1974 NYC Marathon), the facility would be situated above the Kawasaki NYC Subway Factory in Yonkers New York and would be designed to reprogram 13’000 square meters.
The center would include a 5,000-to-6,000-seat track and field complex and flexible spaces. Its 200-meter hydraulic indoor track could be used as either a banked track or flat track. An additional removable court would host high school basketball and volleyball games, high school wrestling competitions, collegiate tournaments, as well as concerts, exhibitions and conventions along its flexible spaces.
With an expectation to attract approximately 100,000 visitors annually, the center holds the potential to simultaneously function as a community hub, fostering inter-cultural interaction for an already diverse neighborhood through sport.

Yonkers Sports and Event Centre

The sidewalks of cities have become contested zones, where pedestrians usually lose out to cars and other vehicular traffic. The “parklet” model initiated by Rebar represents a simple, “user-generated” strategy to expand the public realm where existing sidewalk width is insufficient to support a vibrant street life. U-TT’s Public Spectacle parklet, commissioned in 2014 by Swissnex San Fransisco, and developed in partnership with Jan Gehl Architects, builds on the idea of encouraging new forms of civic agency by providing an adaptable space for public exchange.
The design uses the full volumetric potential of a single parking space and is able to take on multiple configurations, through a set of moving elements attached to a steel frame. These transformations allow for different uses, such as performances, lectures, screenings, public seating, meetings, and inventive appropriation by users. The parklet is located at the new Swissnex headquarters on Montgomery Street, where it serves as a dynamic bridge linking the programs and activities housed within the building to public life outside.

Swissnex Parklet

In the hillside barrios of Caracas, many residents lack clean water and sanitation, with communities often waiting years for the state to install these systems. Developed during the Caracas Case program, the Dry Toilet is a synthesis of infrastructure and design. Built as a prototype in the barrio of La Vega, the non-flushing toilet conserves water and establishes an off-grid sewage and sanitation system that residents can maintain themselves. Diverting liquid and solid waste, the design prevents groundwater contamination and soil erosion, and contributes fertilizer for small-scale agriculture. The Dry Toilet addresses real needs quickly, affordably, and with an approach that can be replicated on a massive scale.

Location	La Vega Barrio, Libertador, Caracas, Venezuela
Year	2002
Client	Roberto Lavis, La Vega Community
Financer	KSB
Area	4 m2
Budget	3000 USD
Licensed by	Ministry of Environment of Venezuela
Leads	Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner
Project Team	Liyat Esakov, Marjetica Potrc, Roberto Lavis (community constructor), KSB/U-TT Kultur Stiftung des Bundes
Awards	Curry Stone award for Potrc
Status	Completed