About the Project
Overview
The Haven Homes project is an effort to develop new ways for housing to better serve individuals and society.
Through this project, we aim to convince large-scale real estate developers to build Broad Appeal Specialty Housing (BASH) to reduce problems caused by growing homeownership costs. To prove the BASH concept, we are building homes that model how specialty features can cost-effectively create homes that are lifechanging to certain people, yet still appeal to a wide audience.
To show the versatility of BASH, for our first housing projects we chose two very different specialties—trauma-informed housing and pet-friendly housing—and we built features from both concurrently into two different kinds of structures: Haven House, a group living facility made from an existing residential single-family home, and Cloud Nine Studios, a new commercial multi-family apartment building.
To that end, we followed principles of trauma-informed design and made animal-supportive homes that help their inhabitants—both human and feline—feel better and heal. Along the way, we developed several modalities that use the therapeutic power of art and beauty to help overcome common barriers that impede trauma recovery therapy. Furthermore, we also developed several animal-supportive architectural concepts that benefit not just the people and pets who will live in these homes, but also the property owners, making these features financially viable for rental properties and affordable housing projects.
Goals & Metrics
Immediate Goals
Reasonable goals within locus of control and scope of project.
- Provide homes that help residents thrive
- Enable new lifestyles
- Help residents get quality sleep
- Elevate residents’ mood, focus, and productivity
- Increase amount residents cook at home
- Improve cat behavior
- Create perception of good value
- Avoid angering the neighbors
- Discourage bothersome behavior
- Eliminate unnecessary noise
- Attract residents without cars
- Test experimental housing concepts
- Test BASH model
- Test animal-friendly housing model
- Refine architectural concepts that improve pet health and reduce anxiety
- Help contributing partners succeed
- Milestones / Timeline
Future Goals & Moonshots
Mixing my arrogance with weapons-grade optimism and extrapolating to infinity.
- Prevent millions of animal deaths
- Soften blow of housing crisis
- Normalize animal-centric architecture
- Make pet ownership easier
- Make renting more desirable than owning for many (BASH)
- Make semi-communal living compatible with capitalism
- Make San Diego even better than it is today
- San Diego branding campaign
- Pet-friendly housing fund
- Make San Diego safer
- Help people with disabilities
- Extend/improve the ADA
- Avert major catastrophe
- Improve mental health through pet ownership
- Build stronger social bonds through semi-communal living
- Reduce conflict between socioeconomic classes
- Popularize decentralized ventilation
- Develop new kinds of BASH
- Homes for people in wheelchairs with cats
- Homes for people with large dogs
- Homes for blind people with large dogs
- Homes for people with small children
- Homes for people with small children with disabilities
- Build an animal sanctuary
- Advance other projects
Sample Metrics
- Goal: Normalize the concept of pet-friendly features. Increase recognition and usage of general terms for new animal-centric architectural concepts.
Metrics: Search result volume, Wikipedia article activity, inclusion in major real estate search engine filters. - Goal: Increase demand for pet-friendly features.
Metrics: Keyword search trends, real estate market research. - Goal: Increase the number of homes built with pet-friendly features.
Metrics: Real estate market research.