“Designing Recovery,” a competition focused on the planning and rebuilding of resilient and sustainable communities, has announced its three winning entries, by sustainable.to Architecture + Building, GOATstudio LLP, and Q4 Architects.
The competition, which was a collaboration between the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Make It Right, Architecture for Humanity, the St. Bernard Project, and Dow Building Solutions, was envisioned to aid communities affected by devastating natural disasters – in this case, New York City, New Orleans, and Joplin, MO.
“When examining all of the designs submitted we continually asked ourselves if this would be a house we would want to live in regardless of safety considerations,” explained Jury Chair, Michael Willis, FAIA, NOMA. “The three designs that we chose all had the ideal combination of addressing disaster mitigation and actual livability.”
Even though only three winners could be chosen, all entries that can be feasibly built will be constructed in their corresponding communities.
Sustainable.TO Architecture + Building’s Resilient House was chosen as the New York winner, and focuses on energy efficiency and passivity. The project is oriented to maximize daylighting, cuts back on interior partitions and is both tightly sealed and highly insulated to ensure maximum efficiency. It is raised above the floodplain to avoid disaster related damage, utilizes traditional construction methods and equipment, and can be built for less than $50,000.
GOATstudio’s Shotgun [remix] takes a fresh look at the New Orleans shotgun house, a major part of the local architectural vernacular. The design boasts an open floor plan, sliding polycarbonate privacy panels, vaulted interiors, minimalist modern detailing, and a steel roof that wraps along the southern exterior wall for increased sun protection. The house is raised seven feet above the ground to address the threat from increased rainfall and rising sea levels. Rainwater runoff is filtered through a rain garden, reducing on-site pooling and lessening the load on local infrastructure.
Q4 Architect’s CORE House for Joplin, MO combines two single-cell homes: an external “Perimeter House” is divided by a central “Safe House,” which houses all the necessary functions for a family to recover post-disaster, and can be lived in exclusively until rebuilding is possible. The “Safe House” walls are constructed of filled and anchored carbon-neutral masonry units and rainwater is collected, stored and filtered within the core for reuse. The design incorporates locally-sourced materials, lessening the impact on the environment and supporting local economies.
