First Advisor

Matthew Gebhardt

Date of Award

3-2-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Social Science and University Honors

Department

Social Science

Subjects

Accessory apartments, Sustainable development

DOI

10.15760/honors.520

Abstract

American housing has, on the average, trended larger over the last 42 years. This pattern has been challenged by a new generation of developers and builders who are embracing small construction. Accessory dwelling units and micro apartments are two typologies of small housing which have recently gained prominence. This paper finds that these two typologies have the potential to offer significant benefits to communities by providing affordable housing, decreasing the environmental impact of new construction and by providing options to diversify the homogeneous American housing stock. Several major barriers are identified which hinder the implementation of these small housing typologies, including neighborhood resistance, institutional uncertainty and hostile zoning and planning codes. Finally, a direction forward focused on increasing familiarity with small housing is presented in order to facilitate the further development of accessory dwelling units and micro apartments.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/24254

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