A Residence for Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprises

Architecture 471

Fall 1997

Professor David Fox

The integration semester is traditionally the semester where students use and apply the knowledge gained in technical classes that are taken during the third year. For me, this semester taught me more than just that, it taught me how to think about broader social issues and political issues and integrate them in to my design responses

The project was a critique of the traditional Habitat-type house that Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, the local Chattanooga not-for-profit development agency, usually constructs in blighted areas of urban Chattanooga. Based on the Auburn University Rural Studio model, we wanted to attempt to create low-cost housing while still concentrating on the design and social issues that is so well addressed by Professor Mockbee's studios, in an urban, rather than a rural environment.

A few months prior to the semester, the urban design firm of Dover Kohl had proposed a master plan for the Rustville/Fort Negley area of Chattanooga, located south of Miller Plaza and north of I-24. Dover Kohl proposed a series of higher density dwellings along 17th street, with lower density single family housing located on the perpendicular streets. We reviewed this proposal as a class, and then individually selected lots to explore our ideas for the CNE houses that would possibly be constructed there.