Developed by Cohlmeyer Architecture as alternatives to rooming houses, Pocket Suites include eight autonomous units, each with separate entrances.
At 20 square metres in size, Mary Lou?s apartment in downtown Winnipeg is compact, but it?s home. There?s room for her single bed, a bath­room with shower, a mini kitchen, a small closet for hanging her clothes, and a tiny table where she likes to paint. She especially likes the paint-by-numbers kits from the Dollar Store, which are easy to follow, and affordable on the tight budget of a welfare recipient.
Cohlmeyer Architecture designed the building where she lives as a pilot initiative to provide modestly priced rentals for poor and disadvantaged adults. ?Rooming houses have been disappearing in Winnipeg as the market has become stronger,? explains principal Stephen Cohlmeyer, FRAIC. Consulting with social housing groups and the community-at-large, the firm found they could do better than simply replicating rooming houses, whose shared spaces tend to become rowdy party areas. The solution they developed?which they dub Pocket Suites?groups eight self-contained units in a single structure with a contemporary residential look. Each unit has its own front door and a big window, facing a long view at either the front or back of the property. Intentionally, there are no shared vestibules, corridors or stairs where residents might encounter neighbours that they don?t get along with. There are two handicapped accessible units in each...