AIA OHIO AFFORDABLE GREEN HOME DESIGN COMPETITION

Purpose:

The AIA Ohio Affordable Green Home Competition has been established throughout the State of Ohio to provide models of affordable green home designs that will benefit all 70 Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Ohio. Habitat for Humanity of Ohio wishes to develop new home models that meet the guidelines of simple, decent, and affordable housing; that improve the aesthetic appeal of the "typical" habitat house model, and also incorporates green building design principles.  Habitat for Humanity’s partnership with the Ohio American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee On The Environment (COTE) is a special opportunity to increase awareness of green building principles in affordable housing.

Scope of Project:

A new prototypical house design based upon identified Habitat for Humanity considerations and the AIA Committee On The Environment green design principles.  After the competition, the intent is to develop construction documents and build each of the winning designs.  Habitat homes are built by volunteers (essentially unskilled labor), and thus the construction documents should be considerably more extensive than typical drawing submissions.  The construction drawings must be thorough, fully detailed, and able to receive municipal approval with little to no additional effort required by Habitat for Humanity. To accomplish this, Habitat for Humanity requires the entrants to be either licensed Architects or that unregistered entrants have the support of a licensed architect or their firm to produce all necessary future construction documents.

Design Requirements:

Cost
Habitat partner families typically make, at most, 60% of the median income of the city in which they reside. Because the cost of building the house is passed directly on to the family, the design response to budget will be a major factor in the selection of winners. In this competition, each category has a predefined budget. Since the intent is to build the three winning category entries, it is strongly recommended that entrants tailor the design, size, and constructability of their entry to the predefined scope and budget. Premium costs for environmental strategies are acceptable. Habitat currently accepts a payback period of 1-3 years.

Regional Specificity
Designs should be region-specific but not site-specific. Priority will be given to flexible designs that are applicable to various site conditions such as lot sizes, topography, orientation, etc.

Materials & Maintenance
Because the partner family for a Habitat for Humanity home is often the first in their family to own a home, the tradition of home maintenance frequently proves to be a difficult transition from living in a rental property where management staff maintains the facility and facility grounds. Solutions should respond to this condition with careful material selection and building orientation. Further, since Habitat for Humanity homes are built by volunteer labor, select materials that require no special tools or special expertise. Finally, designs that take advantage of in-kind donation of materials will have an easier time meeting budget. These are only a few of the important factors that should be considered in the design of the new Habit for Humanity Affordable Green Homes.

Character Habitat for Humanity partner families must find their home visually appealing. Also, a Habitat home must be accepted by the communities where they are built. Many cities may have design review boards that favor designs that compliment or improve upon the neighborhood. These issues favor traditional home types. Entrants are strongly encouraged to submit designs that can most appropriately fit within their aesthetic context. Environmental Strategies The home shall be judged on its integration of environmental strategies concerning their impact on the site, water efficiency, energy use, material use, and indoor environmental quality.  More specifically in regards to energy use, the minimum energy performance level of the home shall meet the 2010 target of the 2030 Challenge® issued by Architecture 2030, which equates to 52 on the HERS Index.