It’s no secret that Los Angeles faces a debilitating housing crisis. To encourage density and increase supply, on July 13 the city unveiled an ADU plan that is available for free download online. The ready-made design by Lehrer Architects and Kadre Architects—dubbed the You ADU—can be completed for $130,000. 

Previously, Lehrer Architects had developed an “award-winning Starter Home prototype” for building single-family homes under $200,000; a project that was paramount to the firm winning the bid to conceptualize YOU ADU with the city. The standardized ADU was developed by the architects alongside the city’s Bureau of Engineering, and Building and Safety. The announcement follows a motion by the L.A. City Council, under the leadership of Council District 14, to approve the plan. To show where their design can be implemented, the architects made a GIA Map that collects the location of each available single family lot in the city. Overlaid on the map are a list of the regulations residents and builders would face during the design and construction process.  

“The design is driven by affordability, ease of permitting and good placemaking whilst aiming to complement the existing house, the garden and the surrounding neighborhood,” the architects said. “The You ADU is designed with a strategic cutout to create dynamic interior and exterior spaces, actively engaging the outdoor area, promoting indoor/outdoor living and minimizing ‘throwaway’ spaces and typically neglected leftover yard areas,” it continued. The shape of the building can be oriented in various positions, allowing for privacy between the unit, the main house, and landscaping. Its gable roof structure “transcends style and embraces the most iconic, basic and universal ‘house’ shape, as a child might draw it.”

“LA, and California, are in a housing crisis,” added Nerin Kadribegovic, founder of Kadre Architects. “The crisis is, in the simplest terms, caused by lack of affordable housing and numerous regulatory obstacles to build new housing. You ADU provides an affordable, easily approved and attractive housing prototype design to Angelenos for FREE.”