urbana cottages
Location : lake worth beach, FL
Area : 10,640 S.F.
Phase : site plan approval
Urbana Cottages is a renaissance urban plan consisting of the cottages that make up the existing urban plan for Lake Worth Beach and many other Florida towns that were developed in the 1920’s. The cottages were developed on 25ft x 135ft lots which met many of the needs of those times. As the City grew in the 1950’s, post World War II, many styles including Mid-Century Modern, Bauhaus Modern, Florida Key West Style and other popular architectural styles that were constructed in the time frame.
Today there has been a need to redevelop many parts of the urban plan, hence the birth of the URBANA COTTAGES concept was born. The original cottages have fallen in decay, and need to be replaced with a viable housing solution for the beach town to elevate the urban experience for its inhabitants. The solution is to provide a base 1856 SF home that provides 2 stories with 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, 2 terraces, resilient plants and garden space, a pool courtyard with a deck space and a guest cabana. The width of the cottage is only 15ft on the outside with an inside dimension on 13’-8”. The spaces are arranged in a linear fashion with the front garden and pool courtyard. The design addresses the practical urban needs for redevelopment by providing accommodation for modern urban lifestyles while adhering to the same urban format of the cottages of yesteryear. These urban infill sites are in dire need for redevelopment with neighborhoods looking for viable answers on how to develop housing on them that would work on the long thin sites that abound in a historic 1920’s town.
The buildings are practical in the sense that they are designed to have a variety of facades. This gives each structure a unique design for the front façade while keeping the same structure and plan for the rest of the building, allowing costs to be controlled. The main body of the buildings is designed to have elements that can be shared on similar lots throughout the urban landscape. Parks and local retail spaces have been added for convenience to make the URBANA COTTAGES a practical solution for development.
The building footprints is also sustainable as it does not disturb the current urban fabric and adds modern space design and planning as well as energy saving technology for a lower carbon foot print. The houses and low rise commercial buildings are designed to accommodate a full array of solar panels for its electric power and a structure using insulated concrete forms (ICF) for walls to achieve 8 times the insulation requirement for Florida. The ICF walls are also thinner for the structure which allows for the buildings to take advantage of the limited space available.
The Lake Worth beach Community has a vibrant beach lifestyle which is enjoyed by many but as time has gone by the existing cottages need a reset for space requirements, energy conservation and a plan that will prove the existing community and urban plan resilient to itself. The URBANA COTTAGES is designed to meet all of these needs and take the Lake Worth Beach urban plan into the future.
