Monteria Village | Farrokh Rostami Kia

The Monteria Village will be a newly constructed site located at 305 Rancheria Street and 512-524 W. Montecito Street in Santa Barbara, CA. Driving on the concepts of community and connectivity we have created a site that encapsulates solutions to all the needs of affordable housing residents at this location. After redesigning the site to become better interactive with its surrounding neighbors we have included three community housing pods, green space for children and water catchment, a family center, parking, and the projected location for a community coffee shop. The site is within close proximity to Pershing Park, Santa Barbara City College, and serves as the edge of a residential neighborhood. To better connect to these amenities through walkability, we propose to relocate the Monteria Village Family Center closer to W. Montecito Street acting as an anchor to these sites for the residents.

The basic design of each pod was created to be identical for the purpose of serving the needs of the community within each area. Once incorporated onto the site each pod was manipulated to better fit environmental needs of the buildings themselves to be more sustainable which in turn lowers living costs for residents.

In many ways, the existing linear arrangement of the dwellings does not allow for interaction on a personal level for residents. To solve this, we explored the design concept of haciendas and chose to implement the idea of a community courtyard and surround it with homes. All entrances to the apartments will be located on the interior side of the pod. The dwellings, ranging from 1-bedroom to 4-bedroom homes, are dispersed between these three community pods. Each pod contains one to three floors that are varied in order to take full advantage of the sunlight. The varied roof heights in each pod also let the courtyards receive sunlight and can enable the creation of community gardens for residents if they wish.

The Family Opportunity Center will be easily accessible to all tenants. After reviewing its current location, we felt it is disconnected from residents living closer the roads. The center will stay connected with the playground are however it will be transformed to fit with the facades of the pods. Moving the location of the family center was our first priority. The overall structure will be reconstructed to include the second floor. The family center, which will be the location of a variety of organizations and activity will consist of an open room on the first floor with moveable walls. This area will contain large panel windows and will be viewed as pubic area. The second floor will contain smaller meeting rooms to create more private spaces.