Missing Middle Infill Housing
In 2023, the Chicago Architecture Center facilitated a design competition for Missing Middle Infill Housing, highlighting innovative ways of reimagining Chicago’s single-family home, two- and three-flat, rowhouse, and six-flat typologies to better meet modern living.
In 2023, the Chicago Architecture Center facilitated a design competition for Missing Middle Infill Housing, highlighting innovative ways of reimagining Chicago’s single-family home, two- and three-flat, rowhouse, and six-flat typologies to better meet modern living.
Chicago enjoys a rich history of innovation in residential architecture. Shining examples include the city’s famed Bungalow belts, Courtyard buildings, and Greystones which took shape during the city’s boom years over the early 20th century. This “middle density” housing, which lies between detached single-family housing and large multi-family apartment complexes, offered an expanding middle class attractive opportunities to live in dense bustling neighborhoods.
But times do change, and today many working class Chicagoans struggle to find quality housing within their budget requirements. As our municipal government looks to build more supply, the Chicago Architecture Center arranged a design competition that asked architects to reimagine “missing middle” housing stock in order to meet contemporary needs. What we received back covers a wide range of design ideas addressing everything from sustainability concerns, to supports for work-from-home needs, to better access to light and fresh air, and much more—all in modest, buildable, and replicable forms. We invite you to investigate the architects’ work.
Design Catalog
Features drawings for all 32 short-listed submissions, along with an essay that looks deeper into Chicago's missing middle challenges.
Attention: Interested Real Estate Developers
If you wish to learn more about these designs or get connected to the architects, please write our team at programs@architecture.org. Title your email “Missing Middle Housing.”
Also, please consider applying to the City of Chicago’s Missing Middle Infill Housing Request for Applications. Applications accepted October 1 – November 15, 2024.
Winner: Six-Flats
ParkFowler Plus - The Courtyard Shift
Winner: Two- and Three-Flats
Dirk Denison Architects - Chicago Switch-Flat
WINNER: Rowhouses
Future Firm - Readymade Row
WINNER: Single-Family Homes
Vladimir Radutny Architects - r_Home
THE JURY
Reed Kroloff
Dean and The Rowe Family College of Architecture Endowed Chair, Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture
Catherine Baker
Founder, Nowhere Collaborative
Jackie Koo
Principal, KOO Architecture
Brian Lee
Consulting Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Leon Walker
Managing Partner, DL3 Realty
HOW WE GOT TO THE FINAL DESIGNS: A TIMELINE
Winter 2022/2023
In conjunction with the City of Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Center issued an open call for interested designers of “missing middle density” infill housing.
Spring 2023
Qualified design teams were invited to participate in a public exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Center, showcasing each teams’ initial design schemes.
Fall 2023
The City of Chicago begins a push to establish a dedicated funding source for naturally occurring affordable housing in the city, including support for new “missing middle density” housing.
Spring 2024
City Council approves a $1.25 billion bond issue that will help fund a slate of progressive housing and economic development initiatives over a five-year period ending in 2028.
Fall 2024
Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development launches a $75 million program to build “missing middle housing” in neighborhoods on the South and West sides in an effort to provide lower-cost, owner-occupied for-sale housing options and repopulate communities after a decades-long population decline.
Chicago Architecture Center announces the winners of its Missing Middle Infill Housing Design Competition, and releases all 32 short-listed designs as a free resource to the public.
RELATED NEWS
- City allocates $75 million in bond funds to market rate housing initiative on South and West sides (Chicago Tribune, October 1, 2024)
- Mayor Brandon Johnson pushes plan to borrow $1.25 billion for housing, development and climate goals (Chicago Tribune, February 21, 2024)
- Forty-two finalists announced for Come Home, a housing ideas competition in Chicago (The Architect's Newspaper, March 24, 2023)
- Chicago Architecture Center builds on Lightfoot’s Invest South/West program (WBEZ, March 9, 2023)
- A Six-Flat With A Greenhouse Center? Affordable Housing For South, West Sides Reimagined In Architecture Contest (Block Club Chicago, March 8, 2023)
- ‘Come Home,’ Chicago says, in bid to bring people back to city via program to develop thousands of vacant lots (Chicago Sun-Times, November 22, 2022)
- Mayor Lightfoot Celebrates INVEST South/West Three-Year Anniversary with Austin Groundbreakings (City of Chicago, November 15, 2022)
Featured Firms:
ACDF Architecture (Montreal); Architecture for Public Benefit and Peter Rose + Partners (Boston); CAMESgibson; Canopy Architecture and Design; Chicago Design Office; Civic Projects Architecture + Marlon Blackwell Architects (Fayetteville, AR); David Baker Architects (San Francisco); Dirk Denison Architects; DNA Architecture & Design, Inc. (Los Angeles); Frida Escobedo Studio (Mexico City); Future Firm; Höweler + Yoon (Boston); kevin daly Architects (Los Angeles); Krueck Sexton Partners; Kwong Von Glinow; Latent; Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects [LOHA] (Los Angeles); Merge Architects (Boston); MOS (New York); NADAAA (Boston); nARCHITECTS (New York); Nia Architects + Yu & Associates Collaborative; ParkFowler Plus; PRODUCTORA (Los Angeles, New York and Mexico City); Range Design & Architecture; Studio Becker Xu; Studio Sean Canty, LLC + Office III (Boston); Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO (Mexico City); UrbanLab + The Available City; Valerio Dewalt Train; Vladimir Radutny Architects; von Weise Associates
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