MY TRAN STUDIO

The client is a young local musician from Kaneohe, Hawaii. She wants to have a small Accessory Dwelling Unit next to her mother’s house so that she can easy to take care of her mother. The mother’s health is declining, and she has difficulty walking up the stairs, but she likes to do gardening and stay outdoors. The challenge of this project is that the client only has a fixed amount of money from her saving, and it is much lower than the standard construction fee for a single home in Hawaii. On the fun side, the client expressed an immense love for her cat - Simba, and she has specific ways of taking care of the cat.

An idea of building a cat house came across our team, and we want to use this opportunity to push the concept forward. The idea is to design for Simba and allow the client to live inside with the cat.

To achieve the low-budget situation, we proposed using a shipping container as the main structure to lower the cost and reduce the project’s timeline. We tried to cover most of the unexpecting budget and consultants’ fees to keep the project alive.