The Sustainable Home: A Habitat for Humanity Student Design Competition

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is pleased to announce The Sustainable Home: Habitat for Humanity Student Design Competition for the 2011-2012 academic year. Administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and The Vinyl Institute (VI), the program is to engage young professionals in Habitat for Humanity’s effort to eliminate poverty housing by advancing the design of simple, decent, healthy, and affordable homes. Participants are strongly encourages to work in teams on the project. Vinyl building products and systems should be used in the design of The Sustainable Home whenever possible; a separate prize for the best use of vinyl building materials will be awarded.

Competition participants will design a Habitat house that is appropriate for their locale (East, South, Midwest, West). In doing so, the designers will face the stated criteria for a Habitat house: Simple, Decent, and Affordable.

The Sustainable Home Competition offers architecture students the opportunity to design a modularly constructed three bedroom, one and half bath home that does not exceed 1,070 square feet and $100,000 in material cost.

The competition will have 2 primary areas of focus:

• The inclusion of passive solar energy design techniques that can be affordably implemented. Whenever possible, these passive solutions should be adaptable depending on the home’s orientation.
• The inclusion of flexible interior layouts, exterior elevations, and modular construction components that allow for limited homeowner customization while maintaining the home’s affordability. (Consider different family dynamics and regional design characteristics)

In addition, the home must meet accessibility and universal design requirements and comply with “Design to meet Energy Star” standards (at minimum). Homes should be designed for optimal functionality in the student’s local climate zone.

Top prizes (first prize to each region and a Vinyl Award) will be awarded, in addition to a selected number of honorable mentions, at the discretion of the jury. A total of $15,550 will be distributed to winning entries.

Competition Website