MI CASA

Mi Casa is an urban infill affordable housing prototype in the heart of Philadelphia; a city filled with half a million rowhouses, nearly 40,000 empty lots and a 23% deep poverty rate. This project responds to the housing crisis by providing homes with a focus on indoor air quality and energy efficiency in the rapidly gentrifying Norris Square neighborhood. Constructed over multiple phases and utilizing the duplex as a repeatable typology, Mi Casa is designed to adapt to multiple scattered sites within the neighborhood, many as narrow as twelve feet. Commissioned by Xiente, Mi Casa roots itself in pride-of-place and cultural heritage with bold colors, patterns, and texture. These porch-fronted homes draw visual and spatial cues from the area’s colloquial built overlays (balcons y bloques de brisa), the result of decades of Latino migration, as well as the traditional Puerto Rican vernaculars that birthed these patterns. The vibrant design aims to build generational resiliency and wealth expansion for longtime residents as their neighborhood changes.