In Living In Steel MHM reported on a competition sponsored by the The World Steel Association where architects designed a sustainable community in extreme conditions using steel construction.

The recent Florida Cottage Design Competition sponsored by the Florida Foundation for Architecture, the philanthropic arm of AIA Florida, told emerging professionals who participated to create hurricane resistant sustainable homes at affordable prices. In the spirit of the Katrina Cottage the designs also needed to “raise the bar” of emergency housing design.

As expected the winning designs emerged vastly different. Emilio Cox added flexibility to the mix with his entry titled “Common FASH” (Flexible Autonomous Systems House). The prefabbed design ties connections to a plenum wall, and can be expanded by adding floor modules to the base.

Cox shared the first place award with Lilian Sherrard whose Adaptable Solution went beyond the scope of the competition. Sherrard designed a module that can take on different configurations based on the individual.

In Sherrard’s plan common style elements of each house bind them together without the need to replicate the same emergency shelter for each inhabitant. You can then create a community very quickly in a way that still allows for individual need and preference.

For Sherrard, diminishing returns set in even if you design and build great sustainable houses and place them in a row similar to the typical suburban neighborhood. It may be quick and cost effective, but as she said, “they lose their appeal once you have twenty of them.” Instead, her design ties together affordable sustainable houses with design choices atypical of housing currently categorized as emergency shelter.

Competitions such as the Florida Cottage Competition spark creativity by challenging designers to think about a specific problem that can then be applied to similar real life situations. Hopefully we’ll also get to see these advancements in prototypes and once that happens the technology can make its way into actual houses soon thereafter.

Once again young architects have shown by researching the latest technologies and applying it to their new designs that the future of architecture is in good hands – if we pay attention to them.

Media: Florida Cottage Design Competition