Complete the Community: A Housing & Urban Design Competition
This competition is organized by the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Houston) and the City of Houston with Council Member David W. Robinson.
PURPOSE
This competition seeks to elevate design in Houston’s affordable housing landscape by soliciting conceptual design entries for resilient single-family houses and one streetscape in the five pilot neighborhoods designated by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner as “Complete Communities.” The Complete Communities initiative aims to revitalize Houston’s under-resourced communities, including enhanced access to quality affordable homes and improved public infrastructure. The five communities for this competition are: Acres Homes, Near Northside, Second Ward, Third Ward, and Gulfton.
One area within each Complete Community has been selected for the competition and confirmed by the City of Houston’s Housing Director, Tom McCasland, in coordination with the AIA Houston 2020 Visions Steering Committee. These areas reflect the local character and neighborhood texture for which the competition entries should be designed. There are two parts of this competition: a design of a single family home, and an urban design solution. Teams may submit entries for one or both portions of the competition. For the housing portion, each design team shall choose one specific area to design for, yet the design should be flexible enough to be adapted for multiple communities. The new home(s) developed as a result of this competition may be used to assist families replacing homes impacted by Hurricane Harvey. In Gulfton, the selected area is a streetscape and intersection where the design will be focused on a solution of “tactical urbanism.”
This competition seeks to elevate design in Houston’s affordable housing landscape by soliciting conceptual design entries for resilient single-family houses and one streetscape in the five pilot neighborhoods designated by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner as “Complete Communities.” The Complete Communities initiative aims to revitalize Houston’s under-resourced communities, including enhanced access to quality affordable homes and improved public infrastructure. The five communities for this competition are: Acres Homes, Near Northside, Second Ward, Third Ward, and Gulfton.
One area within each Complete Community has been selected for the competition and confirmed by the City of Houston’s Housing Director, Tom McCasland, in coordination with the AIA Houston 2020 Visions Steering Committee. These areas reflect the local character and neighborhood texture for which the competition entries should be designed. There are two parts of this competition: a design of a single family home, and an urban design solution. Teams may submit entries for one or both portions of the competition. For the housing portion, each design team shall choose one specific area to design for, yet the design should be flexible enough to be adapted for multiple communities. The new home(s) developed as a result of this competition may be used to assist families replacing homes impacted by Hurricane Harvey. In Gulfton, the selected area is a streetscape and intersection where the design will be focused on a solution of “tactical urbanism.”
