Located on a 2.5-acre vacant site, the 240-bed San Mateo County Navigation Center provides a safe and dignified atmosphere for formerly unhoused people, balancing privacy and community. By employing the architect’s innovative “Step(1)” modular housing system, this efficient and scalable design paradigm makes use of the benefits of prefabrication to create a campus style facility.

Unlike more commonly seen approaches to interim supportive housing, Step(1) is not a “tiny home village.” Durable, adaptable, and stackable modules allow for a flexible architectural and programmatic approach more akin to multifamily housing design, with private individual units. The multistory layout yields valuable density on even the most compact sites. At the San Mateo County facility, modules are stacked up to three stories.

Key design decisions shaping the Step(1) concept were based on extensive input from social service providers as well as unhoused people themselves. Clients’ sleeping units are individual rooms (most with en-suite bathrooms), arrayed to conform with the site, offering opportunities for privacy as well as shared access to dining services, outdoor areas, and private spaces for counseling and supportive activities. The facility also includes an all-electric commercial kitchen, used for client job training in addition to preparation of three meals each day.

Modular construction significantly reduced construction time and cost. With the exception of two larger structures for gathering and communal dining, all of the buildings are prefabricated modules – enabling grading, utility installation, and foundation work to take place in parallel with the units built in the factory. Compared to conventional construction, the savings in time and construction expense reduced per door cost by more than 50%, including the site-built buildings. And with solar panels generating ~70% of needed energy, the project is environmentally as well as socially sustainable.