hln-wip
Thesis
Modular Neighborhood Framework
United States
2024-2026
images coming soon
hln-wip (Hearthline, Work in Progress) is an ongoing thesis project exploring how adaptable, human-scale housing can shape vibrant, walkable communities. Rooted in historical development patterns, especially pre-automobile villages, the project proposes a modular framework for building neighborhoods that prioritize proximity, social connection, and material honesty.
The system is designed to be flexible across climates and topographies, using site-specific variations in layout, typology, and shared space. Hearthline isn’t about a single building, it’s about the rhythms that form when dwellings, paths, and people come together.
This page tracks the project’s evolution in real time, from sketches and site studies to physical models and urban strategies. It’s still in progress. And that’s the point.
Introduction
Hearthline is a modular framework for building walkable, human-scale neighborhoods. At a time when housing feels disconnected and sprawling, this project asks a simple question: What if we returned to the patterns that made places feel like home?
This isn’t a single building. It’s a system for living—adaptable, grounded, and rooted in the logic of communities that grew before the automobile.
Precedent Studies
To understand purposeful community growth, I examined places that developed before zoning and cars. Each case was chosen for its compact layout, sense of place, and human-centered design. These studies include coastal villages, hillside towns, and riverfront settlements, each showcasing how architecture and infrastructure impact residents' lives.
Hearthline learns from these precedents rather than mimicking them: comfortable dense blocks, functional narrow streets, and identity through variation. Key characteristics evaluated include: overall density, street widths, block patterns, building heights, public-private space relationships, and material use
Siasconset, MA
Society Hill, PA
Stonington, CT
Rothenburg, Germany
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Rockport, MA
Giethoorn, Netherlands
Beacon Hill, MA