Why Mapping?

When we first set out to begin this design process, mapping wasn’t at the forefront of our minds. We decided to utilize data mapping as a result of our initial research to help answer and justify our remaining questions.

• What?
  • We had figured out what our goal was for this project, what kind of DADU we would focus on building.
• Why?
  • In our individual research, we had looked at different perspectives and research supporting why it was advantageous to market and promote DADUs.
• How?
  • We discussed with our mentor Scott how to approach building a DADU, looking at local codes, and beginning to plan out the design.
•  What was left was to figure out “where” to target our research and “who” would be most interested and invested in DADU development.

What to look for:

During our initial research, the advantages of urban density quickly became apparent. Though the research journals focused on larger, more uniformly dense cities than Nashville, the trends were consistent and supported the push to intentionally increase density in suburban areas. Similarly focused journals and articles reinforce the same conclusion: more people per capita means less fuel use per capita and less of the harmful environmental effects that come along with fossil fuels.

To get an idea of how similar Nashville is to other popular DADU cities in the US, we did some light comparative data mapping of population density, population growth, and traffic patterns among other factors. We intended to present to our audience why Nashville is a prime location to begin DADU development and construction but the numbers only served to show truly how small the city is in comparison to other popular cities. While Nashville lives under this perception that the city is booming and busy, we are really just at the beginning of a potentially steep upward curve. This means that public opinion is far ahead of our reality, putting us in the perfect situation to capitalize on the excitement and willingness to invest in the city while we still have the freedom to develop our community culture in certain neighborhoods as we see fit.

We looked into many different factors that impacted the viability of this project within certain communities. While we had a goal to be as environmentally conscious and sustainable as possible — and had found research to support this assertion –, we also had to look at the social aspects and community effects of implementing DADUs. Realistically, it costs money and time to construct a DADU on one’s property. No matter how low cost we made our DADU, the decision to build one would still be an investment that not every household would be able to handle. So we look at socioeconomic factors that would correlate with the households most likely to be our newest Nashville builders. This included looking for married homeowners within the ages of 30-50 with a middle-class salary: couples who most likely have the time to invest in this project to build a basic model capable to rent to students and young Nashville professionals.

Future:

While Hillboros is home to some DADUs currently, they are not a widespread community initiative as we have suggested in our research. As this is a modern era, some private homeowners in the Nashville area have already made the decision to add an additional unit on their property but we have not seen it as a specific trend in our target community. Looking forward, there are already plenty of opportunities for growth within the neighborhood.

One of the arguments against building in a historic neighborhood is the loss of the community’s tradition and identity. Our group proposes a solution that preserves exactly what residents have come to love about Hillsboro while offering an opportunity for others to become part of the community.