Matt's Place

Matt’s Place Foundation is a charity that seeks to provide housing and support to those burdened with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.) Started by former marine Matthew Wild who was diagnosed with ALS himself, the organization is devoted to restoring dignity to ALS sufferers by providing opportunities for accessibility, independence, and autonomy through technology and housing.

But the design and construction of housing would be expensive, especially if delivering a series of homes, which is what the foundation intended to do. The first two Matt’s Place houses were built using conventional methods and materials, but the organization needed a more economical, scalable, and rapidly deployable solution for future homes.  So, Miller Hull teamed with other leaders in the field of prefabrication, mass timber production, engineering, and construction to design and deliver multiple homes to help the Foundation fulfill their mission.

These two realities are often at odds with one another – having a prefabricated home that is also sensitive and immediately responsive – but Miller Hull led the design team through a series of planning sessions that resulted in a number of breakthroughs and innovations. Module-to-module joints are designed to simultaneously accommodate pressure-fit weather barrier joints on the exterior face and structural splines along the centerline. Wiring and plumbing chases are located the interior face of the joint and are accessible for future access from the interior. This integrated joint allows for an exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT) interior finish with fully recessed junction boxes and outlets, which provide greater wheelchair clearances on the interior.

Pushing the boundaries of accessible design and testing new methods of construction for future dwellings, the design of Matt’s Place delivers prefabricated, modular, mass-timber components to the site while meeting the needs of a family dealing with the extraordinary demands that an ALS diagnosis brings.