ADVERTISEMENT
Designer Eny Lee Parker is not a fan of poor urban planning. We're sitting down for lunch at the Savannah College of Art and Design's Atlanta campus to chat about her work for the school's SCADpad project, a micro-housing community that now functions as something of an art installation, thanks to Atlanta's limiting zoning restrictions.
The project aimed to upend our preconceived notions of what a housing community — a neighborhood, a street, a city block — could look like. "Parking structures are a unique and very recent building type," said Christian Sottile, dean of the School of Building Arts at SCAD. "It's not a structure that cities, architects, and designers have examined as opportunities for urban living."
Why would they? Who in their right mind wants to live in a parking garage — repurposed or not?
Well, I do. I would jump at the opportunity to call Parker's smart space home. Each micro-house, though micro, offers its resident not just a cozy place to crash, but a reimagined living environment where community is prized over the girth of your compound. What each 135-square-foot unit lacks in room to stretch, it more than makes up for in the unexpected amenities of low-maintenance living: the ability to put your place on wheels and ride off into the sunset; freedom from cringe-inducing utility bills; knowing that you've pared down so much that you could take a year off and see the world...but I digress.
We sat down with Parker to chat about the project and what she thinks it could mean for aspiring millennial homeowners.
ADVERTISEMENT