Community First! Residences

Community First! Residences
Austin, TX | USA | 2024


Highly individual affordable housing solution - from many for many.
Beta Realities’ design for Community First Residencies in Austin, Texas offer a personalized solution to 3D printable, dignified housing. Conceived for a collective design approach, our kit of parts platform to customizable 3Dprinted homes presents a humanistic approach to technology. Participatory workshops and engagement of future homeowners in the design and homebuilding process allow for homes, that better fit personal needs. By designing functional objects instead of preconfigured homes, we empower multiple residents to form their community collectively. The design proposal is part of Icon’s Initiative 99.

A good neighbor | Site adaptation and masterplanning
Due to the flexibility of the interactive approach, our design for the Community First! 4.0 site can cater to many diverse residents with various personal needs and preferences.
As a means to reconnecting to self and the community, we created a tailormade duplex ‘Home 99’, arranged as four tinyhomes apartments in a 360° approach, fully embedded in its surrounding community. Taking cues from and reinterpreting Community First Village’s diverse housing typologies, ‘Home 99’ proposes a natural evolution within the naturally grown village:​
A contemporary reimagination of the traditional porch provides a soft transition from public to private spaces. By creating opportunities for chance encounters, shared meals and neighborly activieties, such as communcal gardens, we actively cultivate relationshis, create connections and encourage community and establish principles of giving back.

Every home tells a story | Architectural design
Just as every resident tells a story, each home is designed to reflect it. From program and layout to design and appearance, all elements are designed for permanence, belonging, identity and flexibility.
Our Community First! Duplex ‘Home 99’ is designed fully accessible and highly flexible in its open space layout with cross-functional usage and layers of privacy. Prefabricated fit-outs and embedded adaptive furniture for both interior and exterior spaces maximize the advantages of individual 3D printing.
Additional personalization opportunities come with generous embedded interior and exterior storage and display opportunities and a customizable feature wall at the porch where greenery and light are embedded in the print - giving a recognizable face and identity to every home.

Climate adaptations | Embedded sustainability strategies
Community First Residencies are designed with sustainability strategies embedded in their core.  Different opening types are protected from views by setbacks and operable customizable screens.
High ceilings and placement of openings allow for passive cooling strategies whilst respecting privacy and security - flexible to be adapted to multiple prevailing wind and site orientations.
An integrated green feature wall cools the exterior and air through evaporative cooling. A generously overhanging prefab roof creates shading for facades and exterior areas and collects rainwater centralized via a shared centralized plumbing wall. A healthy material palette is chosen for recycling, carbon storage and regenerative performance. With cocreation processes, and easy to manufacture and assemble do-it-yourself furnishings, the longetivity of all fit outs is increased.

3D printing houses offers cost efficiency by reducing material waste and labor expenses, making construction faster and more affordable. It enables customizable designs, creating unique and complex structures tailored to specific needs. Environmentally, it minimizes waste, uses sustainable materials, like CarbonX, a carbon reduced concrete. The method provides durable, disaster-resistant homes and is ideal for addressing housing shortages, especially in underserved areas. Its automation reduces reliance on skilled labor, enhances safety, and allows for rapid scaling to meet large-scale housing demands. Energy efficiency is further improved through natrual ventilation using the chimney effect and orientation on the plot.