When Karen, a planning professor from the College of Environmental Design, met with a team of students from Dr. Ashok Gadgil's Design for Sustainable Communities course, neither knew what was brewing.
Karen discussed how her two bedroom Berkeley home was too small for her constant stream of guests, her daughter and an aging relative.
The team of students was researching small homes as a means to create affordable and sustainable housing.
The result was a net zero energy backyard cottage, a new model for shared affordable housing, a Clinton Global Initiative grant and a new Berkeley startup.
We will be celebrating the successful collaboration among the following private, public and academic groups:
The student research team from UC Berkeley which included City and Regional Planning, Civil Engineering and Haas students.
The City of Berkeley effort to encourage the construction of accessory dwelling units.
The startup out of Haas that pulled it all together, New Avenue, and their team including local Berkeley architect, Mark Creedon, LEED AP; local builder Thomas Goetze; and structural engineer Townsend Brown, LEED AP.
And the accessory dwelling unit, built in Karen's yard!
