FAU’s School of Architecture Addressing Affordable Housing Crisis

Image: Neo Hall by FAU students, Pedro Fernandes, Yuji Kitamura, Jerry Velasquez

Florida Atlantic University’s School of Architecture in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters has teamed up with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global HIV/AIDS organization and a longtime advocate for affordable housing, and the award-winning Glavovic Studio, a Fort Lauderdale-based architecture firm, to address America’s affordable housing crisis. With tens of millions of Americans considered “rent-burdened” and the United States short more than seven million affordable and available rental homes, FAU commenced its partnership with AHF and Glavovic Studio to explore viable housing solutions like the adaptive reuse of old buildings into new homes.

The partnership is the first of its kind, bringing together a leading academic institution, a global nonprofit organization, and a for-profit architecture studio to advance innovative solutions to the affordable housing problem in Florida and across America. Approaching the affordable housing crisis from different perspectives, the three partners will work with FAU students to identify adaptive reuse opportunities and amplify the voices of the next generation in solving generational problems.

Through the new partnership, FAU students have developed a guidebook to help identify which kinds of existing vacant properties may be most viable for affordable housing projects, putting adaptive reuse into practice. The students have also unveiled comprehensive architectural designs on specific sites in South Florida, taking advantage of the state’新 Live Local Act that allows certain properties to be rezoned for housing. Over time, the FAU student design proposals will become new models for adaptive reuse and sustainable living in Florida and beyond.

Image: Streamline by FAU students, Dane LaRocque, Daniel Lasso, Cristian Sanchez