CCC East: Transitional Housing + Clinic
“Portland’s premier social service programs provider, Central City Concern, asked for a project with transitional housing and outpatient clinic to service the growing at-risk population on the East side. At CCC East, patients and tenants feel safe, they feel a sense of belonging as part of a supportive community, and have the opportunity to recover or rediscover their identity.”
Recent studies in the health care community have revealed the important role that connecting with nature plays in the healing process. Traditional ideas focussed on the cleanliness and sterility of health care facilities: white walls, impersonal corporate decorations, hard edges and perfect surfaces. This architectural response to recovery is outdated and needs to be abandoned in favor of a more natural environment that makes the client feel a sense of place and comfort.
Program Connections & Concepts
Early in the design process, I analyzed the conditions of the site as well as the most important issues of CCC's programmatic requirements. After having conversations with many health care providers, I better understood the common issues that have come up in their facilities and how to solve them. Client safety, efficient and flexible work spaces, connecting with nature, and easy access were among the critical concerns they noted.
Sustainable Strategies
Sustainability is something I am very passionate about and believe that it should be implemented in a complementary way to the design process that strengthens the conceptual scheme. Passive heating and cooling strategies are particularly attractive because they require little to no mechanical systems, less maintenance, user control options, and implicitly enhances the connection with nature.
Clinic Form Process
Housing Form Process
Conceptually straight-forward and elegant solutions are what I find to be the most attractive designs and products. Behind all the flare, a building must be functional, efficient, and enjoyable to use. Staying true to my concepts, I focussed my efforts on creating a housing project that provides a highly dense form, utilizes natural daylighting, and encourages social connections through indoor and outdoor community spaces.
Social spaces are all interconnected and attempt to blur the boundary between inside and outside, encouraging occupants to move throughout the building and seek out the spaces with the most daylight and social activity. The Elevated Street, a second story outdoor space that runs the length of the building, connects both blocks of housing, allows for daylighting into the lower floors, and creates multiple scales of outdoor space. Kitchens and dining areas line the interior circulation and flow out into the outdoors and become very active and attractive social spaces.
Building Elevations
Building Sections
Design Documentation
