This project, located near Leimert Park along Crenshaw Blvd, extends the intimate act of gathering into the urban fabric by combining affordable housing with a communal kitchen. The family kitchen becomes a shared community space, a nucleus for exchange that transcends place, generations, and cultures. Just as my family kitchen fostered togetherness, this project explores cooking and creation as a social and collaborative ritual.

By diagramming the kitchen at an urban scale, the project transforms the ground floor into an expansive sequence that mirrors the process of preparing a meal: harvesting, storing, preparing, cooking, and eating. Each phase reinforces the cyclical nature of food.

Housing units are organized around a central courtyard to encourage spontaneous interaction. A network of shared outdoor spaces, ranging from larger communal courtyards to smaller, semi-private thresholds, brings openness and breathing room into a dense environment. These layered thresholds blur the line between public and private, allowing residents to engage at varying levels of intimacy.