The American Institute of Architects Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community held a design competition that asked architects and architecture students to design a descreet, compact, and efficienct shelter for the homeless. The goal of the competition, called "A Safe Place," was to develop a simple, safe, and secure place for an individual to sleep and secure their belongings.
Those participating in the competition had to submit a design in any of the three categories: Un-secured shelter, semi-secure shelter, and shared facility. The submissions were required to be inexpensive to construct (less than $500 a unit), easily constructed without specialized equipment, temporary with no foundation, and protect the occupant from the outside elements through all four seasons.
Here are the winners:
Competition Award Recipient
Rolling Shelter (Un-Secured Shelter)
Eduardo Lacroze, AIA
Lacroze-Miguens-Prati Arquitectos
The shelter utilizes a shopping cart as a core component and means of transportation. With saddlebags for storage on one side and the other consisting of a foldout shelter, the entire unit can be easily transported. In shelter mode, it gives a structured enclosure that incorporates usage and storage within an insulated, weatherproofed, and vandal protected shell. The shelter can be assembled with a screwdriver with does not require any advanced building knowledge. The unit is equipped with a dual rolling Thermarest pad and built-in floor liner that coupled to the high R-value of the component panels themselves, provide adequate levels of thermal insulation.
Following the 2015 AIA National Convention in Atlanta, the shelter was donated to the local non-profit The Mad Housers, for use by their clients and program participants.
Honorable Mentions
Bankhead Box-Up (Semi-Secured Shelter)
Gregory Tsark, AIA, and Jessica Boudreaux
Tsark Architecture, LLC
An elevated box provides a sense of security, rather than resting at or near the ground level. The space beneath provides weather protection for a bicycle or other items. The box area is 8 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall. Polycarbonate side panels provide ample daylighting while obscuring visibility for semi-privacy. Full privacy can be easily added with interior curtains. Security is achieved by locking down the top plank with a padlock and hasp. In the warmer months, upper planks may be removed to provide ventilation.
Sheltering Chicago (Semi-Secured Shelter)
Jeff Bone, AIA
Landon Bone Baker Architects
The shelter is intended to provide basic protection for one person. It will help keep them alive in extreme weather, providing a safe and secure temporary home in which to sleep and store a few personal belongings. The shelters are portable and can be transported around the city to available sites on a flatbed truck or trailer. The shelter module lends itself easily to be set up as a toilet room, food pantry, etc. when facilities are otherwise unavailable. This low threshold alternative to traditional ‘emergency shelter’ housing allows advocates and non-profits to focus on critical outreach, connecting the homeless with services and permanent housing.
The 2015 AIA SPP Small Project Design Competition Jury included:
• Nick Hess, The Mad Housers
• William Carpenter, FAIA, Lightroom
• Bart Shaw, Shaw Architects (Winner of the 2014 SPP Pop-Up)
• Joe A, Mad Housers Client
• Doug Hannah, AIA, Young Architects Forum representative
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Community sports center in Nashville features NCAA-grade training facility
A multisport community facility in Nashville featuring a training facility that will meet NCAA Division I standards is being constructed by St. Louis-based Clayco and Chicago-based Pinnacle.
| Mar 11, 2011
Slam dunk for the University of Nebraska’s basketball arena
The University of Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball programs will have a new home beginning in 2013. Designed by the DLR Group, the $344 million West Haymarket Civic Arena in Lincoln, Neb., will have 16,000 seats, suites, club amenities, loge, dedicated locker rooms, training rooms, and support space for game operations.
| Mar 10, 2011
Steel Joists Clean Up a Car Wash’s Carbon Footprint
Open-web bowstring trusses and steel joists give a Utah car wash architectural interest, reduce its construction costs, and help green a building type with a reputation for being wasteful.
| Mar 10, 2011
How AEC Professionals Are Using Social Media
You like LinkedIn. You’re not too sure about blogs. For many AEC professionals, it’s still wait-and-see when it comes to social media.
| Mar 9, 2011
Hoping to win over a community, Facebook scraps its fortress architecture
Facebook is moving from its tony Palo Alto, Calif., locale to blue-collar Belle Haven, and the social network want to woo residents with community-oriented design.
| Mar 9, 2011
Winners of the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition
Winners of the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition include a high-rise recycling center in New Delhi, India, a dome-like horizontal skyscraper in France that harvests solar energy and collects rainwater, and the Hoover Dam reimagined as an inhabitable skyscraper.
| Mar 9, 2011
Igor Krnajski, SVP with Denihan Hospitality Group, on hotel construction and understanding the industry
Igor Krnajski, SVP for Design and Construction with Denihan Hospitality Group, New York, N.Y., on the state of hotel construction, understanding the hotel operators’ mindset, and where the work is.
| Mar 3, 2011
HDR acquires healthcare design-build firm Cooper Medical
HDR, a global architecture, engineering and consulting firm, acquired Cooper Medical, a firm providing integrated design and construction services for healthcare facilities throughout the U.S. The new alliance, HDR Cooper Medical, will provide a full service design and construction delivery model to healthcare clients.
| Mar 2, 2011
Design professionals grow leery of green promises
Legal claims over sustainability promises vs. performance of certified green buildings are beginning to mount—and so are warnings to A/E/P and environmental consulting firms, according to a ZweigWhite report.
| Mar 2, 2011
Cities of the sky
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Silk Road of the future—from Dubai to Chongqing to Honduras—is taking shape in urban developments based on airport hubs. Welcome to the world of the 'aerotropolis.'