The American Institute of Architects has selected the six recipients of the 2013 Housing Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards Program, now in its 13th year, was established to recognize the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit and a valuable national resource.
The jury for the 2013 Housing Awards includes: Kathleen Dorgan, AIA, Chair, Dorgan Architecture & Planning; John Isch, AIA, RWA Architects, Inc.; R. Thomas Jones, AIA, California Polytechnic State University; Stephen Sharpe, Hon. AIA and Charles L. Travis, AIA, The Housing Studio, P.A.
The jury recognized projects in four award categories: One/Two Family Custom Housing, One/Two Family Production Housing (none selected this year), Multifamily Housing and Special Housing.
Here's a recap of the winners (all images and descriptions courtesy AIA):
Multifamily Living Category
Via Verde - The Green Way; Bronx, New York
Dattner Architects and Grimshaw Architects
This mixed-use complex provides healthy, affordable urban living for low- and middle-income residents of the South Bronx. Built on a former brownfield site, the project comprises three building types: a 20-story tower, a 6- to 13-story midrise duplex apartment component, 2- to 4-story town houses, 222-unit complex includes.
Large windows, typically on two exposures, allow cross-ventilation and provide abundant daylighting. The garden begins as a courtyard on grade and steps up through a series of south-facing roof terraces. The terraces, many of which are accessible to residents, feature a small apple orchard and plots for growing vegetables while also providing storm water control, enhanced insulation, and mitigation of the urban heat island effect. Rainwater is collected and recycled for irrigation.
Specialized Housing Category
West Campus Housing - Phase I; Seattle
Mahlum Architects
Providing housing for 1,650 students in five buildings this project is the first phase of a student housing expansion for the university. The project has created a new walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood. To ensure the project is woven into the fabric of the city, it includes a number of publicly accessible spaces, including a 116-seat restaurant, 7,000-square-foot grocery store, café, conference center, academic support center, health and wellness center, and two retail spaces.
The exterior material palette was kept simple and economical: imperial-sized brick, white vinyl windows, wood, and weathering steel. Interior materials—mostly recycled, with no VOC content—were selected on the basis of reducing the energy required for shipping and manufacture.
One/Two Family Custom Housing Category
Eagle Ridge; Eastsound, Washington
Gary Gladwish Architecture
This project consists of a combined kitchen-dining-living area, study, master suite, art studio, and storage area, with the flexibility to add bedrooms or an apartment. To meet the client’s requirement that the house be highly efficient, it is constructed of structural insulated panels (SIPS). This method allows for a faster construction time, less waste generation, tighter construction, and better insulation. All the windows and doors are designed to surpass energy code requirements, and all of the lighting is either LED or compact fluorescent to reduce energy consumption. The siting and design of the house maximize passive solar benefits to reduce the energy load.
Halls Ridge Knoll Guest House; San Francisco
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
The building is carefully detailed in stone, timber, and glass to respond to the site’s rolling topography, a forest of ancient live oaks and manzanita, and panoramic views of the San Clemente Mountains and Los Padres National Forest beyond. A stone wall anchors the building to the sloping site and screens the house and pool. A simple timber-framed shed roof springs from the stone wall, supporting naturally weathered zinc roofing over cedar-clad volumes. Expansive windows provide natural lighting throughout the house, and a broad overhanging roof provides shade from the intense summer sun. Sliding doors and operable hopper windows throughout the house use the prevailing winds for natural ventilation, while also providing expansive views of the mountain range.
House in the Mountains; Colorado
GLUCK+
Roof planes appear as native mountain meadows, making the structure practically invisible from the road above. These green roofs not only provide a super-insulated envelope but also preserve and highlight the original view from the existing house. Continuous clerestory windows wrap around the interior, screening out the road and revealing a spectacular mountain panorama. This clerestory creates a completely daylit space, with lighting necessary only at night. Solar panels are incorporated in the building façade. A retaining wall, clad in Cor-ten steel and cement board, slices diagonally across the site, capturing one side of the solar courtyard and, on the other, forming a private sunken court adjacent to the main living area.
Lake View Residence; Austin, Texas
Alterstudio Architecture LLP
The 5,900-square-foot house emphasizes views and a dynamic spatial sequence. A rich palette of materials on the interior, including mahogany cabinetry and longleaf pine floors, combines to create a warm environment. Oriented for optimal cross-ventilation and protection from the sun without eschewing the view westward, this project also features geothermal HVAC systems, a photovoltaic array, reflective TPO roofing, cellular foam insulation, tankless water heaters, and FSC-certified and reclaimed woods. The house also takes advantage of the tree canopy to provide additional shading, and carefully placed skylights bring diffused daylight to the interior and help reduce reliance on electric lighting.
Related Stories
| Jun 19, 2013
Florida is latest battleground over LEED standards centered on certified wood
A nationwide battle over forest certification standards continues to be played out nationally and in Florida with legislation passed this month.
| Jun 19, 2013
Construction site safety improved in 2011
On-the-job construction fatalities dropped from 802 in 2010 to 781 in 2011, and recordable injuries fell from 4.7 per 100 workers in 2008 to 3.9 per 100 in 2011, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
| Jun 19, 2013
New York City considers new construction standards for hospitals, multifamily buildings
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration has proposed new building codes for hospitals and multifamily dwellings in New York City to help them be more resilient in the event of severe weather resulting from climate change.
| Jun 18, 2013
Report: HVAC occupancy sensors could slash building energy demand by 18%
Researchers at the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conclude that significant energy savings can be achieved by varying ventilation levels based on the number of people in a given space.
| Jun 18, 2013
Turner report: Activity in urban markets driving construction cost increases
Turner Construction Company announced that the Second Quarter 2013 Turner Building Cost Index – which measures costs in the non-residential building construction market in the United States – has increased to a value of 859. This reflects a 1.18% increase from the First Quarter 2013 and 4.00% yearly increase from the Second Quarter 2012.
| Jun 17, 2013
First look: Austin to get first high-rise since 2003
Developer Cousins Properties broke ground on the 29-story Colorado Tower in downtown Austin, Texas, the city's first high-rise building since Cousins' completed the Frost Bank Tower a decade ago.
| Jun 17, 2013
DOE launches database on energy performance of 60,000 buildings
The Energy Department today launched a new Buildings Performance Database, the largest free, publicly available database of residential and commercial building energy performance information.
| Jun 14, 2013
First look: Callebaut's eye-popping Möbius building for Taichung arts center
French design firm Vincent Callebaut Architectures has released renderings of "Swallow's Nest," an entry in a design competition for a new cultural center, fine arts museum, and public library in Taichung City, Taiwan. The building, based on a Möbius ring, swirls around a central "Endless Patio."
| Jun 14, 2013
Purdue, industry partners test light steel framing for seismic safety
A partnership of leading earthquake engineering researchers from top U.S. and Canadian universities and design professionals from the steel industry have begun the final phase of a three-year project to increase the seismic safety of buildings that use lightweight cold-formed steel for their primary beams and columns.
| Jun 13, 2013
7 great places that represent excellence in environmental design
An adaptive reuse to create LEED Platinum offices, a park that honors veterans, and a grand national plaza are among the seven projects named winners of the 2013 Great Places Awards. The Environmental Design and Research Association recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design, with special attention paid to the relationship between physical form and human activity or experience.
