Adaptive Reuse / Collective Housing | Palo Alto, CA | Fall 2025
Sectional Collective reimagines an existing office building at Stanford Research Park as a multi-generational living environment. The project introduces a new domestic gradient inside the inherited concrete frame, transitioning from public programs on the ground floor to shared kitchens, communal living rooms, and private bedrooms above.
A continuous circulation loop connects all programs, linking the preschool, gym, and housing through a play structure that acts as both movement and gathering space. A thickened wet-core spine consolidates kitchens and bathrooms, supporting the modular housing above. Skylights in the new roof grid bring natural light down through every level, creating a vertical illumination that ties the building’s diverse uses together.
The proposal transforms a corporate office block into a flexible, community-oriented system of living, working, and learning—reshaping the existing structure into a place for shared daily life.
Diagrams