PathHouse

CATEGORY: Architecture (Professional)
LOCATION: Portland, OR
TYPE: Product Design & Manufacturing
PROGRAM: Residential
HEIGHT: Up to 4 stories
AREA: Varies
FIRM: PathHouse
TEAM: Kaiser Path (Developer, GC); Fast & Epp (Structure); PAE Engineers (MEP)
PHASES: Schematic Design, Design Development; Prototyping
DURATION: 2 years
STATUS: Prototyping/Fundraising

DESCRIPTION:
PathHouse is an at-scale solution for North America’s ever mounting housing crisis. Using standardized volumetric mass timber housing modules, PathHouse seeks to convert climate change challenges into housing solutions by bridging the gap between cities and forests.

Initially funded by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in 2019, PathHouse also includes a proprietary floor cassette (also co-patented with the USFS) which contains all of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire supression, and information technology (MEP/FIT) services needed to deploy the housing modules for everything from temporary disaster and emergency response efforts to permanent and affordable low-rise/low-density and market-rate, medium rise/medium to high-density housing projects.

ROLE/CREDITS:
My role first started out as a Project Architect where I was responsible for developing the design of the mass timber modules and floor cassette. This entailed product development meetings and coordination with engineers and designers as well as testing the product out on various pilot projects.

From this role, my responsibilities slowly evolved to include more of the Product Architecture and Project/Product Management such as developing product roadmaps, business strategies, and managing the scope, cost, and schedule for a $2M sitework contract with the USFS for a 27 module/12-unit pilot project currently being planned out at Detroit Lake, Oregon.

All photos were taken by Riff Agency.

PathHouse Modular

By utilizing pre-designed, pre-approved, and warrantied volumetric housing modules that dramatically help reduce design, permitting, and construction time, PathHouse seeks to effectively address the nation's 3.8 million housing unit shortage.

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PathHouse SmartCassette

PathHouse’s SmartCassette technology– an integral yet fully independent floor cassette product– contains all of the MEP/FIT (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire, and Information Technology) systems needed to not only efficiency provide services (i.e. heating, cooling, ventilation, water, internet, etc.) but also to quickly deploy the housing modules within which the SmartCassettes are nested in.

PathHouse Prototypes

In March of 2023, PathHouse showcased two of its six standardized housing modules at the International Mass Timber Conference in Portland. Later that year, PathHouse was invited to display the modules at HUD's Innovative Housing Showcase in Washington D.C.