Designing Recovery competition winners

The winners of the "Designing Recovery" competition were announced earlier this month. Hosted by the AIA in partnership with Make It Right, St. Bernard Project, Architecture for Humanity and Dow Building Solutions, participants designed disaster-relief houses to aid survivors of recent natural disasters in New York City, New Orleans, and Joplin, MO.

Although there were only three competition winners, all entries that can be easily constructed will be built in these three communities.

The winning proposals are:
Resilient House by Sustainable.TO Architecture + Building for New York
Shotgun [remix] by GOATstudio LLP for New Orleans
CORE House by Q4 Architects for Joplin

Learn more about them right below.

Resilient House by Sustainable.TO Architecture + Building for New York

"Designed by Sustainable.TO Architecture + Building, the Resilient House for New York has a layout that orients living spaces towards the sun, and minimizes interior partitions.  Structurally insulated panels allow for a tightly sealed and highly insulated building enclosure.  Combined with a highly efficient ventilation system and upgraded windows, these design elements project to a 30% reduction in annual energy consumption.  The house will be built above the floodplain with a flood-proof foundation to ensure natural disasters will not affect the structure.  By using traditional construction methods and equipment, this dwelling can be built for less than $50,000 in material cost."

Shotgun [remix] by GOATstudio LLP for New Orleans

"Designed by GOATstudio LLP, the Shotgun [remix] proposal for New Orleans offers a fresh, contemporary take on a familiar local typology. Modern touches like sliding polycarbonate privacy panels, vaulted interior spaces, clean, modern detailing, an open floor plan, and a steel roof that turns and wraps the southern exterior wall for additional sun protection update the historical shotgun form to better accommodate modern lifestyles and increased environmental challenges.  To help manage the threat from rising sea levels and increasing yearly rainfall, the finish floor will be elevated 7 feet above the ground plane and filter storm runoff through a perimeter rain garden, alleviating on-site ponding and reducing the load on strained city infrastructure.  By employing similar construction methodologies and materials as those that have been thoroughly vetted by Make It Right since 2007, the design will be able to achieve LEED Platinum status and provide 6.25 kWh of solar energy to the owners."

CORE House by Q4 Architects for Joplin

"Designed by Q4 Architects, CORE House in Joplin, MO is designed to address the local vernacular by combining two single-cell homes: a centrally located "Safe House" acts as the hearth and divides a "Perimeter House". The Safe House contains all of the functions of ‘home’ that are necessary for a family to recover quickly from disaster and live for an extended period of time until rebuilding is possible. The walls of the Safe House are constructed of filled and anchored carbon-neutral concrete masonry units. Rainwater is collected, stored, and filtered for reuse. Locally sourced building materials were consciously considered so that CORE will have little impact on the progression of climate change, reduce the effects of debris in a natural disaster, and elevate local economies."

All images courtesy of AIA.

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