Matt's Place 2.0

Matt’s Place is a prefabricated, modular, mass timber, single-family home prototype, designed to meet the unique needs of patients and families navigating the challenges of an Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis.

Approximately 30,000 people in the U.S. are living with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Individuals with ALS experience difficulty with mobility, communication, and performing daily tasks. Founded by former marine Matthew Wild, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2015, Matt’s Place Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted to maintaining dignity for ALS sufferers by providing opportunities for accessibility, independence, autonomy, and family living through technology and housing. In support of this mission, an architecture firm teamed up with leaders in prefabrication, mass timber production, engineering, and construction, donating their services to design and deliver Matt’s Place 2.0 (MP 2.0).

Matt’s Place Foundation built Matt’s Place 1.0 (MP 1.0) in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho using conventional methods and materials but recognized the need for a more economical, scalable, and rapidly deployable solution. These two realities are often at odds with one another—an innovative prefabricated home that is also sensitive and responsive to its inhabitants—but the architects led the design team through a series of planning sessions that resulted in several breakthroughs. Prefabricated units of cross-laminated timber (CLT) allow for different configurations on a variety of sites. CLT also provides a low embodied carbon as well as warmth and comfort to the user.

MP 2.0 features a main-floor suite for patients, including a bedroom, living room, bathroom, and kitchen, and two upstairs bedrooms and a bathroom for family members or caretakers. This separation of zones allows the patient to stay with their family while ensuring their dignity by providing their own space. All lower-level areas have ample floor room to comfortably fit the multiple wheelchair sizes a patient uses as the disease progresses.

The house is configured in an L-shape, creating a weather-protected carport and entry for patients to transition from vehicle to wheelchair comfortably. A flat, outdoor deck runs adjacent to the main living level, and there is a garden for residents to spend time outside and reap the health benefits of being in nature. Large windows look out to the deck, flooding the home with natural light. In addition to the supportive layout, the property is equipped with smart technology tailored for those living with ALS, including home control systems that can be operated solely by the occupant’s eye movements. Many of the materials used for MP 2.0 were donated to the Matt’s Place Foundation.

Currently in design, Matt’s Place 3.0 (MP 3.0), incorporates design elements and lessons learned from MP 2.0. By continuing to innovate and expand upon the successes of MP 2.0, the partnership between the architects and Matt’s Place Foundation is poised to address the diverse needs of ALS patients throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.