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Tiny Home Community Ideas Competition

Submission: May 31, 2015
Registration: May  22, 2015
Language: English
LocationRaleigh, NC, USA
Prizes$1,500 top prize. $250 merit prizes
TypeOpen, Concept

 

Members of the AIA North Carolina Activate14 committee and the Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness invite you to share your ideas on a new typology for urban housing:  a twelve unit community of tiny homes to help address the problem of homelessness in urban centers.

The site is comprised of 4 vacant lots owned by the City of Raleigh, just outside Historic Boylan Heights in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

This ideas competition is generated by the presence of homelessness throughout our nation. There is a pressing need in cities like Raleigh for affordable micro-dwellings to serve people without a stable dwelling place. Tiny home communities cannot eliminate poverty or homelessness, but they can create a more lively, caring, and diverse city. The goal is to generate innovative micro-housing communities that can repair and enliven our social fabric and help people transition out of homelessness.

Raleigh is a prosperous capital city with a population of 432,000. The site, at the SE corner of S West Street and W Lenoir Street, Raleigh, NC, provides an opportunity for designers to explore and develop the following:

  • Affordable micro-housing to serve people whose lives are in transition
  • A community center and garden to support the housing
  • Modularity and prefabrication
  • An environment that includes natural ecology and sustainable lifestyles
  • Leftover city land as a resource for mending social and urban fabric
  • The role a dwelling can play in helping someone establish a sense of importance and home

The competition winners will be publicly announced at the Activate14 Affordable Housing event held at the AIANC Center for Architecture and Design (CfAD) in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, on Thursday, June 25, 2015. Finalists will be exhibited at CfAD and the ideas will be discussed at an Urban Housing Symposium. The competition winners and an overview of ideas generated will be presented at the annual AIANC Design Conference in Durham, North Carolina in September 2015, whose theme this year is “Revitalization”.

The 2014 Point-in-Time count estimated approximately 11,500 individuals in North Carolina who were homeless. This number includes people residing in emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, transitional housing, and places not meant for human habitation such as cars, parks, streets, and encampments. It does not include people living in hotels or motels, or staying with friends and family.

Small-scale projects like tiny Homes should be embraced as part of a more systemic approach to solving homelessness. No single intervention, whether it comes from economists, community organizers, architects, or scientists, is enough but a bunch of good ones can help show the way.

Other projects in Seattle,Washington; Austin, Texas; St. Cloud, Minnesota; Newfield, New York; and Madison, Wisconsin have very successful examples of low-cost private housing to give people support, privacy, and dignity while transitioning out of homelessness. The Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness plans to build a future tiny home community to be wrapped with existing services such as transportation, educational opportunities, and other support services.

The program intent is an innovative urban community within the defined space where residents feel engaged, important, safe, and welcome. The design should encourage broad community interaction with life on the street and the nearby neighborhood. The community will be self-governing by its residents.

  • Provide 12 units, each a maximum of 144 square feet (porches not included in total SF).
  • Each unit will have a water closet and lavatory basin, bed, and sitting/eating area to be occupied by a single man or woman.
  • The units will be served by a community garden and a commons building of 1,500 SF which will provide a kitchen, common area, laundry, showers, and work/study space.
  • Porches are important architectural elements and should be considered in conjunction with interior space.
  • Units should be self contained so that they could be moved to another site.
  • Provide off street parking for two (2) cars.

WHO CAN ENTER
The competition is open internationally to all students in a certified architectural program, un-licensed design professionals, and licensed Architects. Individuals or teams may submit more than one entry, but each entry will receive separate ID numbers and require an additional entry fee.


AWARDS
Top prize………………….$1,500
Merit awards…………….$250


SCHEDULE
Monday, February 16……………………Announced
Monday, February 23……………………Registration Opens
Friday, April 3………………………………Deadline for Questions
Friday, April  10……………………………Release FAQ sheet
Friday, May 22, 11:59PM EST………..Registration Closes
Sunday, May 31, 11:59PM EST……..Submission Deadline
June 25………………………………………Public Announcement of winner at Activate14 event
September 24-26th………………………AIANC Conference Exhibition + Presentation

http://activate14.com/competitions/tinyhome/