Local studio Forge Craft Architecture + Design has created affordable apartments for people transitioning out of homelessness in Austin that feature a breezeway to encourage rest and preserve heritage trees on the site.

Called Zilker Studios, the structure includes 110 affordable apartments operated by local housing organisation Foundation Communities.

The mid-rise housing complex consists of a long volume on a narrow site, flanked by outdoor public spaces with a breezeway and an open-air staircase on the far end.

Forge Craft Architecture + Design has created a transitional housing block in Austin

The building sits on top of a storage podium clad in iron-spot brick and has an entrance directly to the podium, as well as a sloped staircase that gives access to a gated outdoor courtyard at the back of the lot.

The upper levels are for the residential units and were clad in an exterior insulation finishing system (EIFS) to protect from sun and street sounds on two sides, while the lower levels hold communal areas.

The area facing the courtyard was clad in Hardie board and a batten system, with the studio using the similar diagonal lines in the patterning of both cladding systems to unite them visually.

It has a protected entry staircase leading to an outdoor space

Forge Craft Architecture + Design positioned a walkway between two large oak trees on the site – one in the primary courtyard space and another adjacent to a balcony in the back of the building.

When entering the building, residents walk into an atrium space with an oculus framed by blue-painted metal at its centre of circulation. Balconies painted in the same hue on either side look over the outdoor areas oriented around the oak trees.