Syracuse Architecture announces design competition for sustainable single-family house

Syracuse Architecture announces design competition for sustainable single-family houseAugust 25, 2008Mary Kate O’Brienmcobrien@syr.edu

SYracuse University School of Architecture, in partnership with the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (Syracuse CoE) and Home HeadQuarters Inc., has launched “From the Ground Up: Innovative Green Homes” — a competition to foster the most advanced thinking about design, sustainability and cost-effective building practices for the single-family house. Proposals must be for a house that can be built on a $150,000 construction budget. The site for the competition is Syracuse’s Near Westside, one of the first residential neighborhoods in the city.

“This competition will help revitalize Syracuse’s Near Westside neighborhood with the addition of affordable green homes,” says Ed Bogucz, Syracuse CoE executive director. “And it will strengthen our region’s reputation for sustainable innovations that benefit this generation and generations to come.”

The four design teams listed below will be joined by as many as three additional teams selected through an open call for entries. Each team will visit the site and submit a design proposal after the eight-week second stage of the competition. A jury will then select as many as three houses for construction on the site.

“We are excited to have Syracuse participate in the larger national conversation about housing, sustainability and design and the role that each plays in the creation of new models for vital, urban residential neighborhoods,” says SU Architecture Dean Mark Robbins. “The partnership of the three sponsoring entities adds a unique level of expertise to this endeavor.”

“This competition will give Home HeadQuarters and other organizations involved in community development and housing the opportunity to bring advanced, high-quality design approaches to a typically underserved, demographically diverse group of home-buying customers,” says Kerry Quaglia, executive director of Home HeadQuarters Inc.

Final designs from all teams are due in mid-December. The announcement of the winning design(s) will be made in January 2009 in conjunction with a symposium and exhibition of the finalists’ submissions. Construction by Home HeadQuarters of the winning prototypes is expected to begin in fall 2009.

The four pre-selected teams are:

Adjaye/Associates, London and New York

Cook + Fox/Terrapin Bright Green, New York and Washington, D.C.

Della Valle Bernheimer and ARO, New York

Office dA and Architecture Studio himma, Boston and Seoul

The jury includes Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art; Bogucz; Julia Czerniak, director of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate at the SU School of Architecture; Julie Eizenberg, principal, Koning Eizenberg Architecture; Bethaida Gonzalez, president of the Syracuse Common Council and dean of University College; Marilyn Higgins, SU vice president for community engagement and economic impact; Carol Horan, Near Westside resident; Paul Lewis, principal, Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis; Jason Pearson, president and CEO of GreenBlue; Quaglia; and Robbins.

“From the Ground Up” is a project of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate, created in 2005 as a resource for the city, campus and region to address critical issues of urban revitalization in the City of Syracuse, upstate New York and other regions of disinvestment nationally. The Central New York Community Foundation and the Community Preservation Corp. have provided additional support for this competition.

To enter, or for more information on the competition, visit http://soa.syr.edu/competition.