Common Alley

Los Angeles, CA

Small Lots Big Impact Competition Entry

2025

 

Common Alley reimagines a 50’x146.5’ lot in Los Angeles as a compact cluster of eight homes, four primary residences and four detached ADUs, each situated on its own small lot. The site is divided into four equal quadrants, and each includes a three-story primary unit and a one-bedroom ADU with a roof deck.

 

The ADUs are skewed in plan, creating subtle diagonal offsets that loosen the typical tightness between units. These shifts widen the gaps into a network of shared passages and small courtyards, not quite alleys, not quite patios, offering light, air, and room to breathe. It’s a tight village, but one that unfolds with moments of openness.

 

A semi-translucent wrapper surrounds portions of each unit, mostly the second floor, to soften the massing and allow for daylight to filter in where the buildings cluster closely. The palette shifts across warm and vibrant colors and surface treatments, giving each home a sense of individuality while maintaining a collective tone. That variation in color, material, and lightness introduces a sense of play and visual rhythm to the density.

 

Each primary unit includes three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, generous balconies, and a third floor workspace tucked beside the primary bedroom. The ADUs are compact but flexible, designed with roof access and a ground level that can double as a workspace or living room, making them suited for intergenerational living, rental or live-work use. While the buildings follow a repetitive formal system for construction efficiency, each is flipped or rotated to shift orientation, views, and adjacency. This strategy offers a framework for living in proximity, where sameness is reconfigured through subtle variation, and density makes room for difference.

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Designer: Jackilin Hah Bloom

Project Team: Breena Foigelman

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