Ecohouse Student Design Competition 2008

From : http://www.concretecentre.com/main.asp?page=1740

Ecohouse Student Design Competition 2008

You are invited to design an ecohouse (floor area 120 sq metres approx) for up to six persons on a site of your choice.

Your design should be in a community context and should:

• Minimise the use of the earth's resource water, fossil fuel energy, materials and their maintenance for the life of the building.
• Adopt slow building principles.
• Be full of delight.

The scheme should be designed to be extremely robust and resilient and last till at least the end of the century and through an age of increasingly extreme weather events and rising energy prices, it should demonstrate all year round comfort. Consider carefully all aspects of energy use in your scheme.

Brief

A comprehensive brief can be downloaded by clicking here...

Prizes

1st Prize £2000

2nd Prize £1000

3rd Prize £ 500

Copies of Ecohouse

A Design Guide, signed by the authors will be sent to the top ten entries.

Prizes will be presented at the 2008 Oxford Conference on Architectural

Education, 22/23 July 2008 http://www.oxfordconference2008.co.uk

Last Year's Winners

To view entries from the 2007 Ecohouse competition click here...

Registration

Registration is compulsory.

All Entries will be received by 24 June 2008. Judging will take place in early July and winners notified within 3 working days. Winning and highly commended candidates will be invited to a prizegiving which will take place at the Oxford Conference: Resetting the Agenda for Architectural Education 22-23 July 2008.

To download the registration rules and entry form click here...

Requirements

Entries should be on 2 x A1 sheets which use clear graphics to illustrate the benefits of your design.

Please include the following using diagrams where possible.

• A statement of concepts which can include dreams and precedents.
• An analysis of the climate you are building in describing local aspects of temperature, wind and water resources.
• An analysis of the site in terms of benefits of orientation, topography and ground conditions shown on the sheets.
• A review of any local sources of materials and energy production
• A statement of the main design strategies for the design in terms of the reduction of energy use. Consider these under requirements for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, water usage, occupiers' needs.
• A description of how this house could be replicated to form an urban community.
• A series of drawings, sketches, images, photos of models etc that illustrate spaces in use and their delight.

Competition FAQs

I am currently doing Part 1/2/3 with a practice, am I eligible for the competition?
Yes, provided you are currently enrolled with a university, and provide the university name.

Is there any limit to the numbers of team members?
There is no limit.

Is it OK for team members to be from different universities?
Yes, this is fine, but please state the university names.

Can students be of any discipline?
Although the competition is aimed at architecture students, entrants may be from any discipline.

Does the entry have to be situated in a real site, or can the site be invented?
You do not have to use a specific site, but if entrants do 'invent' one they need to go into plenty of detail about the area, landscape, surroundings, climate etc.

Submission deadline 24 June 2008.

Competition Reference Book: Ecohouse: A Design Guide. 3rd Edition. Roaf, S.M.Fuentes and S. Thomas (2007). Architectural Press in Oxford.