This project is part of the Coastal Design Studio which try to identify and develop innovative strategies and techniques to address known and anticipated future socio-environmental issues and propose strategies capable of informing responses that promote the health, safety, and welfare of
coastal residents. The studio will coordinate with the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) and the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment Outer Banks Field Site.The focus of this project is the Outer Banks Town of Nags Head, NC.
Nags Head Workforce Housing located adjacent to the Harvay Event Site, designed to provide housing for Young families, visitors, Seasonal
population, Researchers and Students with the goal of building a community of diverse group whose common bond is a loveof the Outer Banks. By learning sustainable and resilience strategies of the local ecology, this housing complex aims to be part of the irreplaceable natural environment of Nags Head. Looking to the Pamlico Sound, The housing complex sits on nearly 7 acres of natural vegetation in sound front area of Nags Head undisturbed. The main idea of the design is to make houses resilient, integrated with nature and less invasive to it through emulation and inspiration from nature. With the continuity of traditional cultural heritage, While trying to came up with new solutions for today’s Nags Head, the design aims to ensure that the buildings are not too foreign from the Old Nags Head style seen in the “Unpainted Aristocracy”
houses from the early 1900s. By Integrating three dimensions of natural origin: geography, landscape and ecology through three layers of architecture: Form, material and space, the project provide houses which aims to survive through harsh climate of Outer Banks, melt into the sand and seagrass that surround them, as if they have always been there.
The masterplan focus on a one mile strip starting from Whalebone Junction and extend to the Event Site with numerous local and visitor attractionsLocating on the north part of our master plan,the Project of Workforce Housing is adjacent to an existing residential area, activity hub, and a plethora of newly created jobs.
Inspiring from Jockey’s Ridge, the tallest living natural sand dune system in Nags Head, Creating low height Sand Dunes to place house units. the house Embedded in to the sand just like native plants rooted in sand. lattice structure help ground the house to the ever changing marsh cape for years to come.