University of Arizona
IN-47: Innovation A

CAPLA Design/Build helps instructors bring real-life projects to the classroom, along with funding and clients who participate in the design process. Students the develop designs with the intention of participating in construction. The Drachman Design-Build Coalition promotes and facilitates the design and construction of affordable housing for low-income and underserved populations in Arizona. The Drachman Institute was established in 2004 and serves as the community-based research and outreach arm of CAPLA. The mission "is twofold: to provide students with hands-on experience designing and building homes as part of their coursework in the School of Architecture, and to provide those homes to low-income or underserved people."

The objectives of Drachman Design-Build Coalition are to:

• Provide architectural, landscape architecture, urban design and planning services for low-income populations
• Provide quality design and construction for the segment of the population earning below 80 percent of the median income in Pima County, Arizona
• Establish a standard of design quality that encourages dignity and price of ownership in dwellers
• Provide the staff of CAPLA with opportunities for continuing education in order to promote personal and professional growth and development as it pertains to service delivery and public policy.

A highlight of this program has been the Affordable Rowhouses Designed and Built by CAPLA Architecture Students.

Beginning in 2020 (with the most recent rowhouse being completed in May of 2023), CAPLA students began working on the Stadium Rowhouse project. "The first rowhouse, completed in Summer 2020, is occupied by a UArizona student EMT team, while the second rowhouse was completed last summer and is reserved as temporary housing for university faculty. The rowhouses, which are designed to satisfy affordable housing criteria, including energy efficiency, are built in partnership with the university and the local neighborhood association."