4th Annual Outside the Box Awards
By: Sheri Craig
Four years ago Building organized an annual Outside the Box competition to encourage creative, imaginative and non-traditional concepts in architecture. Most of the entries that were received respected this goal, showing imaginative thinking and a wide range of innovation in building projects across Canada.
This year we decided to take the competition one step further, teaming with the Institute without Boundaries (IwB), a program of the School of Design at George Brown College in Toronto, to find solutions for an international problem. The challenge was to design appropriate housing for Costa Rica’s rural northwest province of Guanacaste, a region that suffers from water shortages and lack of adequate accommodation for its residents.
The government of Costa Rica was involved as a sponsor and the results of the competition will be presented as part of the World House Costa Rica exhibition at the National Gallery of Costa Rica in San Jose in 2009. The designs have the potential to be used as case studies for projects within Costa Rica or other communities around the world.
Guanacaste is a region experiencing economic, social and cultural changes as a result of rapid growth and global investment. Through an online charrette, students and professionals were invited to design and submit housing models suitable for low-income families in the community of Matapalo. The IwB held an on-site, four-day charrette in February at George Brown to work out designs with George Brown architecture technology students, divided into 11 teams, each having an IwB student as project facilitator and a professional advisor who reviewed sessions with the team. Other entries from other schools were submitted separately.
The housing designs were intended to provide homes for working citizens and temporary quarters for itinerant migrants and/or working tourists, durable homes that could ensure economic equity for their residents. Criteria for the designs included:
- US$8,000 budget to build a 42-sq-m. dwelling that includes two bedrooms, kitchen and a washroom;
- The potential addition of rental units of 10-15 square metres, each including one bedroom and one washroom;
- Creation of larger units, wrapping the 42-sq-m and 15-sq-m modules around patios to provide accommodation from 40 to 160 square metres;
- Sustainable building techniques used with a special emphasis on water conservation and appropriate sanitation systems that would not harm the rural environment;
- Accommodation made for aging in place and use by individuals with special needs;
- Designs that would reflect the regional identity and local social customs;
- Designs that responded to the tropical climate.
A panel of judges including Mitchell Hall, senior associate at Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, Margaret Graham, principal of Superkul, and Gregory Woods, architect and Alsop Associate, met to review the 16 entries. They selected four winners, two from the four-day on-site charrette and two from other entries submitted online. The top on-site charrette winner was Team 10, with a design concept that focused on community, and second place went to Team 5. Tied for first place among the entries submitted online were teams 13 and 14, both from Ryerson University, Toronto.
First place winners received $500 to be split among team members; the second place winner received $200 for the team. The rest of the entries received gift certificates.
In addition to IwB, the government of Costa Rica and Building, another sponsor of the competition was Toronto-based Octopz, a software development company facilitating online collaboration in real-time or at a participant’s convenience. Octopz technology was used for the judging session.
To view all the entries including the winners, visit http://www.worldhouse.ca/onlinecharrette/gallery.htm
