JIbe Design and Naquib Hossain designed the winning entry for the Philadelphia Housing Authority Sustainable Housing Competition. Bill Craig provided sustainability consulting. The project was recently honored with a Philadelphia AIA Award.

We created a masterplan for 32 housing units along Markoe Street in West Philadelphia. Our plan called for the renovatation of the existing structures and the carefull knitting of new homes into the empty lots to complete the gapped street edge. The new homes are designed to last, of durable materials with careful construction detailing. The highly insulated new homes and renovations integrate a clerestory into an efficient daylighting, heating, and cooling system.

Our master plan for the St. Boniface Housing is rooted in the campus quadrangle idea, with buildings hugging a generous interior green space for communal and private uses.

The housing forms an L-shaped building laid out to capitalize on passive solar heating and cooling stragegies. The super-insulated perimeter minimizes the load on the HVAC system. We propose durable and elegant materials throughout, including plasma-cut steel or wrought-iron exterior panels. .

The entrances to the housing are kept in the public realm, on the street. All first floor units are fully accessible, and no more than two families share an entrance to the upper units. Each home is found on a single story and units range from one to three bedrooms. Private courtyards or roof gardens provide open air green space for every residence.