Show How You Re-Green: Green Housing Awards Program

Overview

There are currently more than 107 million existing residential units in the U.S., and the Brookings Institute has estimated that 75% of all buildings that will be in use by 2050 are already built. If we are to reach carbon neutral goals, these existing buildings represent the greatest opportunity to meet those goals by reducing resource use while providing greater health and comfort to all inhabitants. Architects are in a key position to design solutions to these challenges.

The National AIA Housing & Custom Residential Knowledge Community is looking for innovative designs that have significantly reduced the resource use and increased the indoor environmental quality of existing housing. We urge architects who work on market rate or affordable housing, single family or multi-family housing to submit their work for this awards program. We also encourage the submittal of adaptive re-use and mixed use projects provided that housing constitutes the project’s principal use.

Projects may be complete gut remodels or a substantial alteration that results in significant improvements of the housing’s performance. Projects must provide verifiable data that documents the before and after improvements.

Criteria

The AIA is looking for housing renovation/remodel/rehabilitation projects that demonstrate exemplary performance relative to as many of the following criteria as possible. These criteria are based on The GreenPoint Rated Existing Home Checklist (required as part of your submission) as well as the 2007 Build It Green’s Home Remodeling Green Building Guidelines. Please note:

  * All documents referred to above are available on the Guidelines and Checklists page of Build It Green’s website.
  * To fully understand the checklist, it may be necessary to refer to the Ratings Manual.
  * Additional resources for multi-family projects are the Multifamily Green Building Guidelines Part 1 and Part 2.

Eligibility

Submissions must be located in the United States and may include multifamily or single-family homes, privately or publicly funded. To qualify as a renovation or remodel, the project must demonstrate that at least 50% of the original structure has been retained. Architects, developers, owners and builders are all invited to submit projects for consideration.

Selected projects will be recognized with awards at the 2010 AIA National Convention Housing Awards Reception in Miami, Florida on June 10 - 12, 2010.

Entry Fee

The entry fee is $100 per project for AIA members and $150 for non-members. The entry deadline is September 3, 2009 at 8:00 pm Eastern Time. The entry fee is non-refundable. Early submission is encouraged. Questions may be sent via e-mail to [email protected].

Any project that credits any 2009 AIA Affordable Green Housing jury member or his/her firm as architect, associate architect, consultant, or client is ineligible and will be disqualified if submitted.

http://www.aia.org/practicing/groups/kc/AIAB080437