Could Alleys Be Filled with Pre-Fab Micro Homes?

• October 12th 2012

by Shilpi Paul

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With all our talk of micro-units and alley dwellings, a recent post on Co.DESIGN caught our eye. Apparently, a North Carolina architecture firm has designed prefabricated homes that fit in the alley spaces that exist between homes in downtown Raleigh, NC.

The alley dwellings, designed by In Situ studios and architect David Hill, would cost about $30,000 and be quite small and narrow, with 100-square foot pieces (porch, kitchen, den, bedroom, patios, etc.) that could be cobbled together to create a customized abode. The aforementioned pieces can be arranged in whatever manner the buyer decided. A solar panel, which could be delivered by truck and assembled on site, would power the home.

Most of Raleigh’s downtown residences have an alley right next to them; the owners, the team surmises, could either sell that land or build a home and rent it out.

The hitch in the plan is that Raleigh’s current zoning code wouldn’t actually allow for homes this small. Minimum size requirements in the city are quite large, keeping downtown property values high. Like DC, Raleigh is in the midst of a massive zoning regulation overhaul, and the team that created the plans for these micro homes is hopeful that the regulations will soon allow residents with more modest means to find smaller homes in the middle of the city; they even proposed a new zone, RA-50, or “Alley Residential,” along with the prefab homes.

While it’s unclear how realistic the design is, it seems that the desire for smaller, urban homes is quite real in many parts of the country.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/could_alleys_be_filled_with_pre-fab_micro_homes/6153.