Freegreen.com Design Competition Asks Competitors to Define the Design Concept of Affordable Luxury

Freegreen.com is challenging you to help define the design concept of Affordable Luxury. Gone are the days of free-flowing mortgages, and multi-million dollar McMansions. In this “new normal” home owners still desire livable, ascetically pleasing, and luxurious homes, but now need these same concepts implemented into smaller more affordable residential structures. This creates the perfect opportunity for the design community to take charge of this challenge and be the first to create new home designs, and design delivery methods that meet today’s restraints and requirements.

Competitors will select one of two user profiles ("The Modern Retreat" or "The Traditional Family") and design a single family home that fits their chosen profile. Competitors will be able to design for a lot of their creation, but will be asked to identify the Climate Region that their entry is designed for, which will help the public and the jury better determine performance benefits. Affordability and Constructability is a key in this contest so all entries should be targeted for an eventual construction cost of $220,000 to $410,000 (The Range of Regional Average New Home Costs, U.S. Census, New Residential Sales Data, 2009).  

Registration Deadline: September 1st, 2010, Submission Deadline: September 3rd, 2010

The Official Who’s Next 2.0 Judging Criteria is as follows:

• Livability: Has the design entry met the needs, requirements, and desires represented in the Contest Profile for which the entry has been designed.
• Affordability: Could the design be built for the targeted budget range of $220,000 to $410,000. It is understood that all entries are only schematic designs, and best efforts will be made by the Jury to interpret design intent and establish reasonable estimates on cost.
• Clarity: Does the entry have clear, concise, and appropriate description text with each image that explains how the entry (and a given representation) is addressing a given Contest Profile, or General Contest requirement.
• Buildability: Could this house actually be built. Please remember that this competition is looking to help change the residential design landscape. If you cannot build a home, then you cannot create real change.
• Representation: Different architects work in different ways. Some emphasize photo realistic renderings while others focus on perfecting traditional architectural drawings. We think that all types of representation are great, but we are specifically looking for entries that show high quality representation, and create strong entry identities.

For more information, visit the Who's Next information website.