On any given day over 50 parentless youths are living ‘out-of-doors’ in Gainesville, sleeping in cars, bushes or in tent cities. Many more are in abusive and fearful environments. Juvenile Development engages the Reichert House project, an intervention agency dedicated to providing a path to productive citizenship. The design team developed a neighborhood housing strategy to provide at risk juveniles family oriented living, nurturing, amenity and the civic connectivity required to succeed in life.

Civic culture germinates in the family, suggesting Family Units rather than institutional living. Ten youths and two ‘parents’ will be provided with a residential scaled home with semi-private exterior courts, family living, dining and social areas on the ground level. The second level organizes ‘bedroom suites’ each with a full bath, storage, study desk and balcony and a group study loft. Family Units are strategically organized on the site to optimize both semi-public program requirements and community shared spaces. Daylight, view and natural air-flow considerations suggested passive environmental control elements such as high insulation semi-transparent polycarbonate panel clerestory windows, balcony doors as operable ventilation elements, ventilation transoms in the core, two-story spatial connectivity for stack and venturi effects, and strategically located fixed glazing and single light doors. Semi-private lawns, gardens and gathering spaces are linked closely with residential buildings folding up into green walls and penetrating the spaces exploiting Alvar Aalto’s humanist architectural strategies.