How Architectural Design Competitions Are Reshaping Co-Living and Mixed-Use Housing Design

Architectural design competitions have long served as catalysts for innovation in the building industry, pushing firms to explore bold concepts that address pressing urban challenges. One of the most instructive examples comes from Perkins and Will, a global architecture firm whose annual Phil Freelon Design Competition challenges teams to tackle real-world housing crises through creative co-living and mixed-use concepts. The 2020 competition produced remarkable proposals that offer valuable lessons for building professionals seeking to understand the future of mixed-use building design and community-focused urban development.

This article examines how design competitions drive architectural innovation, explores the key principles behind successful co-living projects, and provides actionable insights for construction professionals working on multi-generational residential and mixed-use developments.

The Purpose and Impact of the Phil Freelon Design Competition

The Phil Freelon Design Competition honors the legacy of Phil Freelon, a renowned African American architect known for his work on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and numerous community-oriented projects across the United States. Established as an annual firm-wide event at Perkins and Will, the competition seeks to elevate design culture by challenging architects to address real humanitarian and urban design problems.

How the Competition Works

Each year, the competition presents participants with a specific design challenge rooted in an urgent social or environmental issue. Teams have a limited timeframe typically four days to conceptualize, visualize, and finalize their proposals. A panel of external jurors assesses each submission based on criteria that include:

• Innovation and originality of the design concept
• Practical feasibility within real-world construction constraints
• Integration of sustainability and resilience strategies
• Economic inclusion and equity considerations
• Community well-being and social connectivity

The 2020 Challenge: Affordable Co-Living

The 2020 competition addressed the growing humanitarian crisis of affordable housing in American cities. The concept of co-living, once limited to student dormitories and boarding houses, has been reimagined for the technological age as a solution to high urban living costs. The challenge asked 68 design teams from across the firm to create an affordable co-living concept that incorporates shared economy principles, social networking, collaboration, and increased density.

Teams could select one of three real-life sites for their proposals:

1. An industrial building in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, New York City
2. A vacant asphalt lot in the historic LoDo area of Denver, Colorado
3. An industrial warehouse in downtown Los Angeles’s Arts District, California

Each site presented unique challenges, and teams had to address geographically specific environmental concerns such as sea level rise, flooding, and extreme drought. This requirement underscores how modern architectural competitions integrate climate resilience as a core design parameter, a trend that parallels sustainable infill housing approaches being adopted across the construction industry.

Design Principles for Multi-Generational Co-Living Communities

The winning project, Arroyo, designed by Vangel Kukov and Hala El Khorazaty, exemplifies several design principles that building professionals should understand when planning multi-generational residential projects. The name Arroyo, a Spanish word meaning a dry channel that becomes a stream after rain, symbolizes the transformation of a lifeless industrial space into one that flourishes with energy, activity, and human connectivity.

Vertical Community Integration

One of the most striking features of the Arroyo concept is how it weaves outdoor space throughout the entire building despite its density. Rather than concentrating amenities on a single podium or rooftop, the design distributes communal gardens, terraces, and gathering spaces across multiple levels. This vertical community integration creates opportunities for residents of different ages and backgrounds to interact naturally throughout their daily routines.

Key strategies for vertical community design include:

• Distributing shared amenities across floor plates rather than consolidating them
• Creating visual connections between floors through atria and double-height spaces
• Incorporating circulation paths that encourage chance encounters among residents
• Designing flexible common areas that can accommodate diverse activities from quiet reading to community events

Multi-Generational Programming

Successful co-living projects must serve residents across age groups from young professionals to families to seniors. This requires careful programming of spaces that address the needs of each demographic while fostering intergenerational connections. The Arroyo project addressed this by incorporating:

• Childcare facilities co-located with senior common areas to encourage cross-generational interaction
• Flexible residential units that can be reconfigured as household needs change
• Shared kitchens and dining spaces that reduce individual unit footprints
• Workshops and maker spaces that support skill-sharing among residents

Economic Inclusion and Affordability

Economic inclusion was a critical criterion in the competition. The winning design addressed affordability not merely by reducing unit sizes but by rethinking the entire economic model of urban housing. Shared amenities reduce the cost burden on individual residents while increasing the quality of available facilities. The shared economy model incorporated into the design allows residents to access resources such as tools, vehicles, and entertainment spaces that would be prohibitively expensive for individual households. This approach mirrors strategies seen in urban infill projects where innovative financing and design strategies make dense urban living more accessible.

Adaptive Reuse Strategies for Urban Industrial Sites

A defining characteristic of the 2020 competition was its focus on real sites, including industrial buildings slated for transformation. Adaptive reuse of existing structures presents both opportunities and challenges that building professionals must navigate carefully.

Structural Assessment and Remediation

When converting an industrial building into residential use, the first step is a thorough structural assessment. Industrial buildings were typically designed for equipment loads and open floor plans, not for the compartmentalized layouts and lighter live loads of residential occupancy. Key considerations include:

• Floor load capacity upgrades to meet residential code requirements
• Vertical circulation modifications to add stair and elevator cores
• Façade retrofitting to improve thermal performance and natural lighting
• Hazardous material abatement, particularly for older industrial buildings
• Structural reinforcement for seismic compliance in active zones

Environmental and Resilience Considerations

The competition explicitly required teams to address site-specific environmental challenges such as sea level rise for the New York site. Adaptive reuse projects in coastal urban areas require careful planning for flood resilience:

1. Elevating critical mechanical systems above projected flood levels
2. Incorporating water-resistant materials in lower floors and basements
3. Designing landscape elements that manage stormwater runoff
4. Installing backflow prevention and waterproofing systems
5. Planning for temporary flood barriers at grade-level entrances

Preserving Industrial Character While Meeting Modern Standards

One of the challenges of adaptive reuse is preserving the architectural character of the original structure while meeting contemporary building codes and performance standards. The Arroyo project retained the industrial shell of the existing building while inserting new residential volumes within. This approach maintains the neighborhood’s historical fabric while creating modern, efficient living spaces. Proper construction specifications management is essential for documenting these hybrid conditions and ensuring that contractors understand the unique requirements of adaptive reuse work.

Technical and Material Considerations for Mixed-Use Residential Projects

Mixed-use co-living developments require careful attention to material selection, system design, and construction sequencing. Building professionals must balance durability, acoustic performance, fire safety, and sustainability across diverse occupancy types within a single structure.

Key Material Selection Criteria

The following table summarizes material considerations for different zones within a mixed-use co-living building:

Mechanical System Design for Mixed Occupancy

Mixed-use buildings present unique HVAC design challenges because residential, commercial, and common spaces have dramatically different occupancy schedules, thermal loads, and ventilation requirements. Effective strategies include:

• Dedicated HVAC zones for each occupancy type with separate controls
• Energy recovery ventilators to maintain indoor air quality while minimizing energy loss
• Demand-controlled ventilation in common areas to adjust airflow based on occupancy
• Hydronic heating and cooling systems that provide zone-level temperature adjustment
• Smart building management systems that optimize energy use across all zones

Acoustic Design for Co-Living Environments

Acoustic performance is one of the most critical factors in co-living design. Residents share walls, floors, and common areas with people who may have very different schedules and lifestyles. Effective acoustic design requires attention to:

1. Airborne sound transmission through walls and floors between units and common areas
2. Structure-borne noise from mechanical equipment, elevators, and foot traffic
3. Impact noise from footsteps and dropped objects in upper-level units
4. Sound flanking paths through ductwork, electrical penetrations, and structural connections
5. Reverberation control in communal spaces such as dining halls, lounges, and circulation corridors

The most successful co-living projects treat acoustic design as a fundamental building system rather than an afterthought, integrating noise control measures from the earliest schematic design stages through construction administration.

Construction Sequencing and Phasing

Adaptive reuse and mixed-use projects often require phased construction to manage complexity and maintain budget control. A typical phasing strategy for a project like the Arroyo concept would include:

1. Site preparation, hazardous material abatement, and structural stabilization
2. Envelope repairs and waterproofing to protect interior work
3. Vertical circulation core construction including new stair and elevator shafts
4. Utility rough-in and mechanical system installation
5. Interior fit-out starting from upper floors downward
6. Common area finishing and landscape installation
7. Commissioning, occupancy permitting, and resident move-in

Each phase requires careful coordination between the design team, general contractor, and subcontractors to ensure that the building functions as an integrated whole despite being delivered in stages.

Architectural design competitions such as the Phil Freelon competition serve as invaluable laboratories for testing innovative ideas that can reshape how building professionals approach co-living, adaptive reuse, and mixed-use development. By studying the principles that guided the winning entries, construction teams can apply these lessons to real-world projects that address the growing demand for affordable, community-focused urban housing.