by University of Arkansas Community Design Center

The Adult Family Home (AFH) is an emerging congregate housing solution for adults requiring non-medical assistance with the activities of daily living. More than 50 percent of seniors in nursing homes are there due to social deficits (e.g., isolation, outdated housing stock, lack of family or friends for support) rather than medical needs. Likewise, neurodivergent and physically disabled populations can live in AFHs, where on-site operators provide light care in support of semi-independent lifestyles. Contingent on state licensure requirements, AFHs serve between 3-10 adults in small scale, affordable homes that invite cooperative lifestyles among residents. The proposed prototype for five adults is designed to fit within various types of neighborhoods, from single-family residential to urban mixed use with multifamily housing.
The institutional housing market combining medical care with real estate is exorbitantly expensive. The median cost of assisted living is $5,500 USD per month in the United States. Despite this price point that excludes 90 percent of the population, institutional housing supply has been overwhelmed by demand from many baby boomers who are living longer but unable to live independently. Many are overpaying for unnecessary medical services, as their real need is for non-medical assistance, once typically provided by family members. Cooperation is the future—the primary strategy for overcoming economic and social precarity.
The one-story courtyard prototype is prefabricated off-site from cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, a low-carbon construction technology. The central courtyard ensures a ‘biophilic’ (love of life) design where occupants experience a fundamental connection to nature regardless of context. Too, the courtyard ensures that building volume is one-room deep for optimizing cross ventilation and natural light. Biophilic design has been found to promote good mental health, physical fitness, healing, and optimism, important to the challenges associated with aging and navigating disability.
As an alternative to costly medical-based housing, this modest prototype offers a financeable housing product for small operators who lack the capital associated with AFH design and development. The prototype is critical in an emerging market reliant on small-scale operators to address one of our greatest social challenges: housing that triangulates solutions for care, loneliness, and affordability.
Category:Affordable, Social, and Community Living HousingYear:2024Location:Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA Architects:University of Arkansas Community Design CenterDesign Team: Victor Hugo, Cardozo Hernandez, Shail Patel, and Jubal YoungClient: Weyerhaeuser Giving FundPhotographer: University of Arkansas Community Design Center