We began with a simple question: what does a home that is designed and built for sharing actually look and feel like? The answer is not simple at all. Other questions quickly emerged. Can a home respond to the needs of many inhabitants over a long period of time? Can it support and reflect the tremendous diversity of human experience? Can it keep up with the rate at which the world changes? Can we accomplish this without filling landfills with needless waste? It’s a tall order.

After surveying the construction industry in search of practical solutions, we concluded it was necessary to start from a blank slate. If we’re truly going to reimagine the design of homes we have to be holistic. We can’t approach Backyard solely from the point of view of design, architecture, urbanism, civic ordinance, sustainable materiality or manufacturing. We have to grapple with the whole of it, which makes it one of the most vexing, complex, and interconnected conditions we deal with every day. But because it’s so complicated, and touches us in such essential ways, it’s a challenge worth engaging.