Los Angeles architects Atelier Hitoshi Abe have sent images of their duplex home to be built in New Orleans for actor Brad Pitt's charity Make it Right.

Called Hot Links, the duplex comprises two long, narrow, one-storey dwellings that are linked together.

The duplex has 45 different plan options to allow owners to customize their living space.

Owners are able to open, close and share space in between the two residences.

Atelier Hitoshi Abe are among 14 local and international architects to have designed multi-family homes to rehouse people who lost their homes when hurricane Katrina destroyed the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans.

See more information about Make it Right and duplex designs by other architects  in our earlier stories:

Pugh + Scarpa 
Frank Gehry
David Adjaye, Morphosis, MVRDV, Shigeru Ban and others

Here's more information from Atelier Hitoshi Abe:

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Hot Links offers many different options for smart living.

Through the inherit flexibility of its organization, this house can accommodate many arrangements of single family, multiple family, renter and tenant and live/work arrangements.

Two shotgun houses are linked together and able to open, close or share the space between.

In this way, much larger open spaces are created for private bedrooms or public living spaces.

The flexible boundary between the residences can be soft and adapt the changing needs of a family throughout the years.

The array of 45 different plan options gives families the freedom to adapt their living size to their economic situations with little cost.

If an owner desired a single family house, they can choose from a three, four, five or six bedroom house.

If even more space is required, opening up the attic and using it as loft space is also an option.

If an owner’s family required less space, they can split the residence into a duplex, granny-unit or a live-work unit to enable to growth of a small business.

Owners are able to re-create and customize their living situations as needed.

The economic benefits of a flexible structure also translate into ecological benefits of a re-usable or re-purposed structure.

The façade of the building has been developed following a strategy of flexibility as well.

It can absorb different colors, sizes and quantities of siding depending on the availability of materials or economic conditions at a given time.

Weaving different colors into one façade and taking advantage of this adaptability creates a new identity and residential fabric.

Credits:

• Midori Mizuhara
• Ryohei Koike
• Joe Willendra
• Carmen Cham
• Mina Nishio

Make It Right Foundation

The Make It Right Foundation is committed to building 150 energy efficient, solar powered, storm resistant homes in New Orleans Lower 9th Ward, a neighborhood wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and the breach of the Industrial Canal levee.

The Foundation began in December 2007 as a collaboration between actor Brad Pitt, Graft Architects, Cherokee Gives Back and William McDonough + Partners*.

Today 32 families are either living in a Make It Right home or have one under construction.

Another fifty Lower 9th Ward families are in the process of becoming a Make It Right homeowner.