Can an architectural design proposal double as a tool for residents, developers, and city officials to collaborate on zoning policy reform adoption?

A winning entry in the Los Angeles Affordable Housing Challenge, Courtyard Block is a proposal for increasing housing supply, affordability, and diversity in single-family zoned neighborhoods through California’s SB9 legislation. The design imagines SB9’s benefits both at the scale of the private lot and at the scale of the collective block.

From Backyard to Courtyards

In 2021, California passed a statewide law called Senate Bill 9 (SB9). Under SB9, an existing single-family lot can be split into two lots. Each split lot can be rebuilt with two units, for a total of four units.  As lots are divided and units multiply within an existing residential block, access to open space becomes a precious asset. The traditional backyard, facing and serving a single unit, becomes untenable. A courtyard, however, is a form that faces multiple sides and can serve multiple units. We propose a framework for neighbors to add housing units while making agreements on where to preserve open green space.

Through negotiating the ownership, maintenance, and use of open space straddling property lines, neighbors can decrease underutilized space within a block, and increase access to environmental and social benefits even as the block densifies.  Courtyards can be used for potlucks, playdates, movie nights, and neighborhood meetings: extensions of domestic life that currently happen behind closed doors.

Air, Light, and Shade

A building’s relationship to its environment is essential in creating comfortable and desirable living spaces. Courtyard Block celebrates both the utility and joy of access to air, light, and shade.  The courtyards in a Courtyard Block are not enclosed, but rather implied through the curvature of roof eaves and the changing shadows they cast. These moving shadows replace static fences as new instigators of how land can be used in the interior of a block, and provide much-needed shade during LA’s increasing heat waves.

Scaling Up Impact

Despite its enormous potential to increase housing supply, SB9 has seen slow adoption and is even facing legal challenges in municipalities across California. Courtyard Block seeks to move the needle on building with SB9 by visualizing its potential, encouraging collaboration, and foregrounding creativity in its use. Courtyard Block is an adaptable design tool that imagines a more environmentally and socially conscious way to inhabit the city.

Toward the goal of using Courtyard Block as a design tool, we created a model of the project that is also a board game. The game teaches players zoning rules that help implement SB9, while sparking both competitive and collaborative gameplay as they take turns building density and preserving access to shared courtyards. The game is designed for residents, builders, and city officials debating and working with SB9 in community, municipal, and design meetings.

Courtyard Block adheres to SB9’s setback rules, but also challenges the notion that lots must stay separated. It offers residents the ability to preserve individual space, but promises something better if space is shared for the benefit of the collective. Most importantly, it creates much-needed housing in areas that lack it the most.