I was, through design and into the first phases of construction, the lead architect on this David Nairne + Associates ten unit housing project in a fairly remote coastal community. Our design was tailored to utilize commonly available materials, connections, and details, and was streamlined to use, wherever possible, similar construction methods as would be employed for a single family house.
The Capital Works Administrator was focused on capacity building within the community, and had mandated that capital works projects be as much as possible constructed by local labour. We designed our project to use the language of the single family home, as a learning project employing details repeatable not only within the scope of project but also which would form a toolkit of details adaptable for use on most of the other community buildings requiring repair and renovation.
