ILFI releases new version of Living Building Challenge Framework for Affordable Housing

The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) has released a new edition of its Living Building Challenge Framework for Affordable Housing.

This second edition has been revised and expanded with updated findings, detailed case studies, and new strategies and approaches to financing, designing, building, and operating Living Affordable Housing. ILFI has worked closely with 27 projects in its Affordable Housing Pilot Program and with affordable housing professionals through education, events, and general project support. The 27 pilot projects represent nearly 800 units of housing in 13 states and the District of Columbia and Canada.

These projects are serving thousands of individuals and families with incomes varying from less than 30% of the area median income (AMI) to 80% AMI. Populations, contexts, climates, and densities of these projects vary significantly including individuals just leaving homelessness to seniors and families in urban and rural settings.

The projects also vary climactically from hot, humid to sub-arctic, and in size from 125 sf accessory dwelling units (designed as a prototype for future projects) to a 23-story high-rise in Chicago. “These projects are demonstrating that it is possible to create a more socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative built environment for all,” according to ILFI.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.