The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Make It Right, St. Bernard Project and Architecture for Humanity has formed a strategic partnership to launch “Designing Recovery,” an ideas competition created to aid in the rebuild of sustainable and resilient communities.
The competition will take place in three distinct settings – New Orleans (LA), Joplin (MO), and New York (NY) – where the non-profit partner organizations are already working to recover from previous disasters. The partner organizations will assemble a portfolio, or pattern book, of entries of single-family housing designs with the objective of improving the quality, diversity and resiliency of the housing in each community. The portfolios will be made public after the close of the competition in October and the houses that utilize submitted designs will be placed on Architecture for Humanity’s Open Architecture Network and Make It Right’s Laboratory, an online forum for green builders.
Although the competition focuses on just three communities, organizers hope designs will also aid other communities recovering from recent natural disasters, including Moore, Oklahoma.
A total of $30,000 in prize money will be divided equally among three winning designs – one for each location. While the competition will award prizes to these winning designs, any design that meets these criteria will be saved in the portfolio to provide each community with additional housing options to aid in its long-term recovery. The mission is to construct as many houses based on competition entries as possible.
“This competition is not about replacing what was lost, but building back something that is better,” said AIA President Mickey Jacob, FAIA. “Architects are uniquely qualified for this task, and we look forward to helping select entries that will establish a new standard for resilient, sustainable housing.”
For more details on how to enter, click here.
