Urban Prototyping. An Incremental Approach to Medium Density Infill: From Row House to Modified Stacked Courtyard

This thesis revisits the low-rise multi-unit residential type in mature urban neighborhoods by examining its origins from a historical perspective. This thesis challenges the patterns of interrelationship and design in typical, highly individuated, row house developments, with a view to reinventing a low-rise multi-unit residential block. Using Ottawa as its testing ground, the thesis advances propositions for new housing models that critically reconsider current trends in infill and replacement housing within established low-rise neighbourhoods. The thesis pursues moderately scaled housing types in urban settings that weave private life and communal urban existence together through their architecture. The prototypes are tested on a site in Ottawa, along an urban “seam” between a traditional residential neighborhood and a new transit corridor.