Single-Family Home
Is Mass Timber the Future of Modular Multifamily Universal Design?
Miller Hull’s Matt’s Place 2.0, a modular mass timber home in Spokane, Washington, redefines accessible design for ALS patients and their families. This single-family home combines a replicable prefab cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure with a barrier-free universal design. Now the Seattle-based firm is scaling these insights to a three-story, nine-unit mass timber apartment building nearby that could become a prototype for modular, accessible multifamily housing.
Accessibility Reimagined: Beautiful Mass Timber
Home Built for ALS
The Matt’s Place case study house originated from the vision of Matthew Wild—a former Marine diagnosed with ALS in 2015—and his wife, Theresa Whitlock-Wild. Together, they founded the non-profit Matt’s Place Foundation, which supports individuals and families impacted by ALS.
The foundation’s first prototype, Matt’s Place 1.0, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, used more traditional building methods and materials, and relied on typical plaster or gypsum board walls. From this initial effort came a crucial realization: to make accessible homes beautiful and biophilic, functional and replicable, they would need a different approach—one that could make use of more prefabrication and accommodate the integration of more specialized equipment while incorporating an abundance of natural materials and exposed wood.
”Ordinarily, people with this diagnosis get a really compromised solution. But what if it wasn’t?” says Brian Court, partner at Miller Hull, who oversaw both projects’ design. “What if we could still give high design to people that ordinarily wouldn’t have access to great design? And what if we could make it cost effective and replicable?”
Matt's Place 2.0
These two realities—an easily replicable prefabricated home and one that is sensitive to and immediately responsive to the needs of its occupants—could be at odds with one another, but Miller Hull landed on several design breakthroughs, with prefab modularized mass timber at its core.
“The vision of the foundation was first and foremost to take care of the people with the ALS diagnosis,” Court says. “But if we’re going to start building houses, why not make them replicable, not just a one-off? We want to see if we can create a model where we have this kit of parts that can be made bigger or smaller as needed, and we can ship it off and click it together on-site.”
Court believes they’ve achieved a successful balance of replicability and adaptability in the kit of parts that make up Matt’s Place 2.0.
The resulting solution is prefabricated CLT units that allow for different configurations on a variety of sites. Module-to-module joints simultaneously accommodate pressure-fit weather barrier joints on the exterior face and structural splines along the centerline. Wiring and plumbing chases on the interior face of the joint are accessible for future access from the interior. This integrated assembly allows for an exposed CLT interior finish with fully recessed junction boxes and outlets, providing greater wheelchair clearances on the interior.
Matt's Place 2.0
Low-Tech Meets High-Tech: Designing a Modular,
Accessible “Alphabet House”
Critical to the design challenge was combining the modular prefabrication approach and accessibility, while still getting the modular units to fit within the width limits of a standard truck, explained Court. “Numerous materials were donated so the design also had to accommodate late changes and again, remain flexible,” he emphasized.
The solution was a narrow, “L”-shaped house where rooms are arranged in a linear sequence. This format was commonly used before electricity and air conditioning because its continuous layout maximizes natural light throughout the space, Court explains.
Along with its beauty, the abundant use of wood offered a simple but important benefit to increased accessibility: The exposed mass timber ceiling allows for the easy mounting of patient hoists, which becomes essential as patients lose mobility. The hoists can essentially be mounted anywhere within the mass timber, Court explains.
Matt's Place 2.0 | Exploded-Axonometric
Matt's Place 2.0
The project also incorporates high-tech solutions, including innovative eye-gaze technology. With small eye movements, occupants can control lights, blinds, and appliances. Once in its infancy during early concept design, this technology has seen significant advancements, thanks in part to Whitlock-Wild’s work with the Adaptive Technology Center at Washington State University’s Steve Gleason Institute for Neuroscience.
Life cycle analysis tools helped assess the project’s overall carbon impact. Thanks to its heavy reliance on mass timber, the results showed the design is essentially carbon positive, according to Court, meaning the wood stores more carbon than was emitted during material production and transport.
Matt's Place 2.0
Matt's Place 2.0
Scaling Up: Making Modular Mass Timber
Work for Multifamily ALS Needs
The MP 2.0 prototype pushes the boundaries of accessible design and tests new construction methods for future dwellings. Next door, Miller Hull is scaling the learnings from the single family scale of Matt’s Place 2.0 to the multifamily scale with MP 3.0, a three-story, nine-unit apartment building.
“The general building blocks remain unchanged, but we are looking for advancements on the prefab approach to reduce bulk and costs related to mass timber,” Court says. This includes refining the structural grid and unit layout together rather than separately to find the best solution that meets patients’ needs while cutting costs.
The complex will include a courtyard linking MP 2.0 and MP 3.0, featuring a zen garden and covered walkway. Though both buildings are prototypes, the goal is to scale up modular production to serve more families.
Matt's Place 3.0
Matt's Place 3.0
“With MP 2.0, we learned patients spend a lot of time indoors, so we focused on inviting interiors with views to nature and covered outdoor spaces,” Court says. “Along with the practical benefits for a prefab mass timber design is the sheer abundance of exposed wood. And the biophilic benefits extend to the courtyard that will connect the 2.0 and 3.0 projects—a contemplative garden that brings much needed connection to fresh air, natural light, greenspaces, and wildlife. MP 3.0 will add sheltered garden paths and balconies for better rain protection.”
Overall, Court sees the accessibility and biophilic goals of the project as applicable to all good design and the future of multifamily residential design. “Creating designs that meet the needs of the most vulnerable also has benefits to everyone.”
Using an application process to assess need, Matt’s Place Foundation and its admissions committee work with the broader community to place People with ALS (PALS) and their families into MP 1.0 and 2.0 homes to help improve their quality of life during their battle with ALS. A similar approach is anticipated when MP 3.0 is completed.
