This gorgeous home is custom-designed for people with ALS
The house comes with smart eye-gaze technology, a wheelchair-accessible layout, and natural light everywhere you look.
By Grace Snelling
Photo: Patrick Martinez/courtesy Miller Hull
Inside Matt’s Place 2.0, almost every wall is covered from floor to ceiling in lightly stained wood panels. Beams of light pour through the home from its many windows and double doors, and dark gray flooring adds a modern touch. It’s a beautiful space, but also one built for a greater purpose: to provide a peaceful and functional sanctuary for those diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Matt’s Place 2.0 (MP 2.0) is a prefabricated home designed by the architecture firm Miller Hull in partnership with Matt’s Place Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by former marine Matthew Wild. After Wild was diagnosed with ALS in 2015, he created the foundation to support others with ALS, as well as their caregivers and families. Today, Matt’s Place and Miller Hull are prototyping modular, accessible homes specifically designed for people with ALS.
Photo: Patrick Martinez/courtesy Miller Hull
Custom-built for ALS
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that currently doesn’t have a cure. While it develops differently in each patient, the disease causes neuron cells in the brain and spine to deteriorate over time, ultimately making it difficult to speak, eat, move, and breathe. In later stages, those with ALS typically require a wheelchair for mobility and a caretaker to provide daily assistance.
The layout of a standard home can present myriad challenges, including limited doorway space to navigate in a wheelchair, cramped bathrooms, inaccessible kitchens and entrances, and a lack of privacy between the patient and their caretaker. To address those challenges, Matt’s Place is working on designing prefabricated homes that can eventually be produced en masse.
Image: courtesy Miller Hull
“The vision of the foundation was first and foremost to take care of the people with the ALS diagnosis,” says Miller Hull partner Brian Court, whose team worked directly with Matt’s Place to design MP 2.0. “But then it’s like, if we’re going to start building houses, it should be replicable, not just a one-off. We want to see if we can create a model where we have this kit of parts that can be made bigger or smaller as needed, and we can ship it off and click it together on-site.”
Photo: courtesy Miller Hull
An uncompromising solution
In 2017, prior to working with Miller Hull, Matt’s Place created a prototype of an accessible house that it donated to a family. That initial prototype was successful in many respects, but its conventional construction method meant that it couldn’t be easily replicated. So, the nonprofit brought Miller Hull on board to conceptualize a second version. They realized this new building would need to be modular for easy construction, sustainable, sensitive to the various needs of its residents, and also aesthetically pleasing.
Photo: courtesy Miller Hull
“Ordinarily, people with this diagnosis get a really compromised solution. But what if it wasn’t?” Court says. “What if we could still give high design to people that ordinarily wouldn’t have access to great design?”
To start, Court’s team consulted with Matt and his wife, Theresa, for guidance on the most important features of the home. Given her own experience as a nonprofit leader, Theresa was instrumental in the design and program development of a lab called the Adaptive Technology Center at Washington State University’s Steve Gleason Institute for Neuroscience. The Center is focused on supporting families affected by neurodegenerative diseases in learning how to implement a variety of adaptive technologies, such as smart eye-gaze technology, which uses small movements of the eye to control home systems like the lights, blinds, and appliances. The MP 2.0 comes fully equipped with eye-gaze tech.
Theresa also helped Court to conceptualize the prototype’s final layout. As a caregiver, she stressed the importance of allowing both the patient and their loved ones to have their own personal space. To achieve that end, the MP 2.0 includes a wheelchair-accessible first floor with a connected bedroom and bathroom, living room, and kitchen, as well as a separate second floor for caretakers or family members with two additional bedrooms and a bathroom.
Photo: Patrick Martinez/courtesy Miller Hull
Designing a modular, accessible ‘alphabet house’
Nailing down the ideal layout was one thing, but actually executing it in a prefabricated format was a whole different challenge.
“The big trick for us was trying to marry the prefabricated modular concept with an accessible unit concept, because prefabricated modular means you need to be able to get these modules on the back of a truck. You’re limited by the width of the roadway,” Court says. “A 15-foot dimension was the widest we could go.”
The solution was a skinnier “L”-shaped house, with each room leading to the next in a long line. Court says that the format—known by architects as an “alphabet house”—was most popular before the invention of electricity and air conditioning, because one continuous shape allowed for natural light throughout the entirety of the home.
Photo: Patrick Martinez/courtesy Miller Hull
This shape has some major advantages for people with ALS, too. Every room on the bottom floor has double doors opening to a deck, allowing the resident to move between spaces and stay connected to the outdoors.
“There’s all kinds of studies that show that people in schools benefit from natural light, and people that are in hospitals benefit from natural light. Materials and views actually help,” Court says.
To build the home on-site, Miller Hull chose to use units of cross-laminated timber (CLT). The material is more sustainable than steel and concrete, and the units can be fit together in various different configurations. Aside from their functionality, the exposed panels also serve as a design element in their own right.
Image: courtesy Miller Hull
What’s next? The MP 3.0
The MP 2.0 was completed about a year ago, and its current resident has lived in the house for eight months. Now, Miller Hull is getting started on the MP 3.0, a nine-unit apartment building set to be built next door. The complex will feature a courtyard connecting MP 2.0 to MP 3.0, complete with a zen garden and covered walkway. While both buildings are currently prototypes, the ultimate goal is to produce these modular homes at scale in order to meet the needs of a wider range of families.
MP 3.0. Image: courtesy Miller Hull.
“We’re trying to elevate the human spirit, ideally, in a building,” Court says. “As architects, these buildings aren’t about us—they’re about the occupant. So how can we make it the best possible surrounding for them?”
We’re inspired by diverse design perspectives, innovation, technology, art, and the world around us. We live for the chance to create and disperse powerful, genuine messages that resonate.
Tessa graduated from Fordham University in New York with a dual bachelor's degree in Communications and Political Science. During her time at Fordham, she worked for an interior designer and at NBC News where she developed her love for both design and communications. After graduating, Tessa managed marketing at 3form, a pioneer in the sustainable building products industry. During her tenure, 3form was repeatedly named one of the most recognized manufacturers in the design industry among architects and designers, and the company won multiple awards for its innovative product launches. After 3form, Tessa consulted on marketing efforts with leading product manufacturers in architecture and design before starting Paxson Fay with Amy.
Growing up in Seattle, Amy was always exploring the great outdoors but she found a particular thrill in traveling. During a visit to New York City at age 10, she knew that was where she wanted to live. After high school she left her home in the Pacific Northwest behind for the great unknown to attend Fordham University in the Bronx. Upon graduation, Amy received a phone call from CNN offering a job opportunity of a lifetime working in television ad sales at Manhattan's Time Warner Center. When a job opportunity in Los Angeles opened up a few years later, Amy couldn't say no to a new adventure back on the west coast. But Seattle eventually called her back home and Amy returned to pursue a Master's degree in Business Administration with the hopes of learning the skills she needed to feed her entrepreneurial spirit. Before graduating, Amy co-founded Paxson Fay with Tessa Andrews in 2015. Amy focuses on marketing strategy, public relations, social media, and partnerships.
After graduating from Fordham University in New York City with a major in Communications and Media Studies and a handful of marketing and PR internships, Colby moved to Boston to manage marketing for a small, women-owned, creative consulting agency. While in that role, Colby managed public relations and marketing efforts for some of Boston's most prominent events and public art initiatives, including the Boston Pickle Fair and The Bulfinch Crossing Projections in downtown Boston. Colby gained experience crafting brand stories and identities through social media marketing and creative copywriting, seen through the successful launch of a premier Massachusetts adult-use dispensary and the revamp of her agency's own website. After two years, Colby decided it was time to figure out what the West Coast was all about. Looking to blend her marketing experience with her passion for design and architecture, Colby found Paxson Fay, where she focuses on social media strategy and management and public relations.
As a child, Paige wanted to be an architect; but after falling in love with storytelling, the power of words, and yes, the show West Wing, she decided to pursue journalism at The George Washington University in the nation’s capital. Following graduation, Paige crafted communications for the beauty and banking industries. Craving space for creativity, she joined the small team that would reopen the congressionally designated National Children’s Museum. There, she played an integral role in establishing the museum’s brand, bringing it to life across digital channels, including social media, email, and advertising. After nearly eight years in DC, she decided it was time for a change of scenery. Having grown fond of the title Washingtonian, she made the cross-country move to Washington State. She landed in Seattle at Paxson Fay, where in true full circle fashion she is the architect of social media and public relations strategies for our architecture and design clients.
From San Francisco, California, Zoe moved to Seattle, Washington to pursue her undergraduate degree at the University of Washington. She graduated with a dual bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science. Shortly after graduation from UW, Zoe hopped across the pond to pursue her Master of Science in Urban Economics and Real Estate Finance at the London School of Economics. Focusing on Sustainable Development, she found herself drawn to adaptive reuse and preservation projects in the world of architecture and design. Building on prior marketing and social media experience, Zoe returned to the PNW in July of 2023 to work on social media strategy and content creation for clients at Paxson Fay.
Martina joined the Paxson Fay team as an intern when she was a senior at the University of Washington. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Public Interest Communications, Martina is now continuing with the team as a Communications Assistant. During her time at UW, Martina worked as the Special Sections Editor at the university’s newspapers where she won multiple awards for her front page spreads. Looking to blend her minors in real estate and environmental science with her focus in communications, Martina is passionate and excited to join the Paxson Fay team.
With roots in Napa and Denver, Tara ventured to the Pacific Northwest to pursue her academic journey at the University of Washington, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Education. Tara's love for writing began when she delved into songwriting, building on her pre-existing passion for singing and playing the piano. Following her undergraduate years, she returned to Paxson Fay, where she had previously interned, transitioning into the role of Communications Assistant. With a keen interest in PR and social media, Tara seamlessly integrates her creative flair into the professional realm. Outside of work, you'll find Tara passionately supporting the Kraken, embodying her love for both storytelling and sports.
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