While the industry continues to look for solutions to support the aging population, speakers at the 2021 Environments for Aging Expo & Conference, held August 28-31, discussed the benefits of the pocket neighborhood concept as a flexible design solution.

The concept, which features 10 to 12 small home units typically arranged around a central green to create a larger sense of community, can be tweaked to target lower-, middle-, or high-end income markets, said Dustin Julius, designer at RLPS Architects, who presented with  Eric McRoberts, partner at RLPS Architects, during the session “Pocket Neighborhoods: Meeting Middle Market Needs and Fostering Social Connections.”

“The concept of pocket neighborhoods evolves beyond traditional neighborhood design by creating a pedestrian-focused experience with indoor/outdoor living spaces that connect to serene walkways that meander through the central green,” Julius said. “Typically, vehicular access is treated as a secondary component and is typically located outboard of the housing clusters.”

McRoberts agreed. “[With] pocket neighborhoods you’re really trying to bring people together and create this really wonderful sense of neighborhood. And I think that’s the beauty of it,” he said.


The unit types that form the building blocks for pocket neighborhoods can be small single units, duplexes, or even larger estate homes, Julius said. “Since the clusters usually comprise smaller buildings, there are opportunities for efficiency and flexibility in the construction schedule and phasing. To target the middle market, individual floor plans must be designed with smartly organized spaces, particularly in bathroom arrangements and kitchen layouts.”

In addition to flexibility, the strong sense of community and social connection—one of the motivations for seniors looking at housing options—is another benefit that’s delivered through pocket neighborhoods. “An option of being part of something bigger, where you feel supported, valued and loved is critical to mitigate isolation,” Julius said. “So much of today’s senior living residential housing looks like either congregate apartment housing or cottage suburbia where planning is more based on the automobile than the pedestrian. There is no sense of scale or ‘place’.”

During their presentation, the speakers shared some challenges inherent in these projects, including planning where the “front door” is located. “The question of entry access is very different from suburban housing model, since pocket homes typically face the central green, yet the car is kept on the back alley side. Do residents enter off the alley side? Do visitors come through the central green?,” Julius said.

Another challenge that projects will need to consider is density of housing because clusters of individual single-family residences require significantly more available land per unit than multi-unit buildings. “Plus, dedicating an additional portion of the land to the central green—although it provides an important amenity—can consume an otherwise buildable area,” Julius said. “While this challenge can seem daunting, it often leads to very creative solutions centered around appropriately scaled, intimate spaces, both indoors and out.”

Other challenges can emerge based on the site conditions that are available. “Is the site generally flat or is the topography more sloped? Fortunately, the pocket neighborhood can be accomplished successfully on either type of site,” Julius said. “Successful projects have navigated steely sloping sites with over-under style cottages that maximized density while maintaining a residential scale.”

Overall, the speakers noted that the model can provide a resident with a familiar, independent dwelling that’s similar to what they would be accustomed to in a single-family dwelling, while also creating a larger sense of community—but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to pocket neighborhoods. “Each cluster can be adapted to fit the specific trends and needs of any given community,” Julius said. “This flexibility makes the concept of pocket homes a logical addition to the product offerings of most any community.”