Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADU’s as they’re commonly known as, have become increasingly popular in the United States. Particularly in this region (New England) where simply finding land to build on can be difficult. The benefit of the ADU is that it seeks to promote additional housing options within our existing, already densely built environment. Some jurisdictions only allow ADU’s for the sole purpose of housing family, or extended family. Some jurisdictions go further and allow ADU’s to be rented out by the property owners. In either case, each individual jurisdiction will have their own sets of rules and regulations affecting the area, height, or other features of the design.

We believe ADU’s to be a positively contributing component of the efforts to address the lack of housing in our region, and especially as it applies to aging, growing, or existing extended families. It provides opportunities to grow wealth in a sustainable and efficient manner, and helps address issues of health and happiness within families (gained independence of a separate dwelling on the same property, or to care for a family member with physical or mental disabilities). While at first it may seem limiting what you can fit inside an ADU, we find it creates really good design problems to solve in order to create an efficient and functional dwelling unit. It also shows us what can be done with such a limited footprint in terms of what it means to live that perhaps can be applied to any new construction project to rethink the size of a house and how it relates to other structures on the property, or to abutting properties. Additionally, the promotion of ADU’s in general can also help to improve the health and safety of our neighborhoods and our built environment as a whole. Often times we run across properties with decaying and sometimes unsafe accessory structures that can either be replaced or repurposed to some degree to create a safer, more functional accessory structure.