The Bridge: Missing-Middle Housing in Knoxville
Academic year: Spring 2023
Studio: Design VII; Integration
Instructor: James Rose
Project type: Residential
Location: Knoxville, TN
Project Team: Trey Hamilton, Seth York
Located in Knoxville’s historic neighborhood of Sequoyah Hills, minutes from the University of Tennessee Campus, The Bridge is a residential over commercial scheme that takes advantage of a compact lot within the neighborhood’s small commercial core. This core acts as the central node for a neighborhood of primarily single-family homes, housing a restaurant, church, and a multitude of late 20th-century condominiums. The neighborhood is also heavily unified and defined through its landscape and present architectural typologies, featuring brick buildings and many old-growth trees, acting as prominent space definers directly alongside built structures. 
In light of the city/state-wide need for accessible middle housing, the Bridge offers a micro-housing unit scheme that looks to provide units with integrated essentials. Amenities such as a communal kitchen, shared lounge space, and an exercise room have been allocated to shared massing that sits in front of the units and between the primary zone of circulation. Program on the first floor, which consists of a commercial catering kitchen and open dining space, provides utility for the neighborhood and local businesses while also allowing programmatic flexibility for events and other functions. Within the design process of this 4-story building, core principles such as community engagement, well-being, and sustainability were all vital in informing decisions. The biggest of these decisions was to utilize a mass timber structure for the building, providing a beautiful blank canvas for programmatic needs specified now and in the future. Because the south-eastern United States has a relatively wet/humid climate for most of the year, special considerations were made to develop waterproofing details for all exterior balconies, walkways, and zones of exposed timber.
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