Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions has announced winners for Sydney Affordable Housing competition. The Sydney Affordable Housing competition aimed at garnering global attention to the important issue of housing in Sydney, Australia, where the economy is strong but where residential space is among the least affordable according to surveys of major metropolitan markets. The jury panel selected the winners for their flexibility and applicability to different locations across the city.

"The winning submissions sought to create livable housing spaces, and offered more than just affordable housing; often including larger-scale urban plans," said Bee Breeders team.

First prize went to Tae Jung, Pauline Sipin, Hazel Ventura from the USA for their project Bridging Affordable Housing. While second prize was awarded to the project Newborn in the Crevice, submitted by Xu Jiatong, Gao Xinyuan, Shi Ying from the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts in China.

Third prize was awarded to Olga Filipowska, Tomasz Twaróg - students at Podhale State College Of Applied Sciences in Nowy Targ in Poland - for their submission, TOD & waterfront housing. Finally, the BB Green Award went to the Water smart home Sydney by Australia natives Kevin Pham and Alex Hoang.

The competition attracted a range of proposals that addressed this sensitive topic at all scales. As the design brief outlined, the jury evaluated proposals based on flexibility, and applicability to different locations across the city. The competition set no specific sites, and participants were requested to choose a theoretical site or collection of sites within Sydney. The jury evaluated equally those submissions proposed in the suburbs, and those inserted within the densest parts of the city.

A number of trends were evident in the proposals. Particularly noticeable was modular design. The jury evaluated positively those proposals which sought to create livable housing spaces, over those that attempted to make sense of interesting but altogether difficult modular geometries. Stacked hexagons, beehive forms, cubic buildings, prefabricated units that stack in different organisations over time, and the use of shipping containers were examples of typologies proposed in multiple submissions, many of which were successful.

Another topic several proposals sought to tackle was affordability of construction: prefabrication; adaptive re-use of materials from existing infrastructure; locating obsolete, under-used, or under-valued sites within Sydney; establishing completely new financing models based on leveraging the tech industry, or municipally-owned lands like streets, highways, and park systems; or balancing profit-earning commercial spaces with low-income housing units. The most interesting submissions offered much more than just affordable housing, and included larger-scale urban plans for commercial spaces, transit-oriented development, transportation hubs, and green spaces, in an attempt to give new value to lands, thereby recapturing development costs.

The jury reviewed each of the proposals and asked: What is specific to Sydney about the design? Does the idea have potential to offer real affordable housing solutions? Does it also strengthen the city fabric in some other way? Even if abstract and conceptual, can it push the city to reconsider housing in new ways? Bee Breeders was impressed with the range of submissions and would like to thank each participant.

See some selective visuals from the winners' projects below with jury comments:

1st prize: Bridging Affordable Housing by Tae Jung, Pauline Sipin, Hazel Ventura, Diana Lopez - US

Jury comments:

"The jury's favorite proposal succeeds in offering Sydney both a new housing network and a network of green spaces. 'Bridging Affordable Housing' is comprised of a simple module: a structural bridge pier with decking that contains prefabricated housing units topped by a green roof." 

"The proposal recalls the re-purposed railways that have become NYC's successful Highline or Paris' Coulée verte'. One can imagine this new elevated linear housing/park snaking through Sydney organically, growing from multiple locations and eventually merging like connective tissue within the city. The jury encourages the designer to further develop the proposal, so one may get a sense of what it might be like to live in such a space suspended above the city streets: How are the interior spaces organised? How do they relate to the garden above?"

Read interview with the 1st winners

2nd prize + BB Student Award: Newborn in the Crevice by Xu Jiatong, Gao Xinyuan, Shi Ying from Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, China

Jury comments:

"Newborn in the Crevice' is a vertical or linear collection of cubicle housing blocks intended to fit into existing narrow sites within Sydney's dense center. The underlying grid by which the blocks are organised avoids monotony with a collection of colorful openings of various sizes, which give the overall simple form a playful and dynamic quality." 

"The interior section with its range of stacked and linear spaces is particularly effective. It includes housing units in addition to common spaces. While the argument for constructing alongside existing high-rise buildings is perhaps the least probable (how does one convince existing building owners to give away their highly-valued views?) the jury would be interested in seeing this project take real form."

Read full interview with the 2nd prize winners

3rd prize: TOD and Waterfront Housing by Olga Filipowska, Tomasz Twaróg from Podhale State College Of Applied Sciences in Nowy Targ - Poland

Jury comments:

"TOD and Waterfront Housing' takes the form of stacked prefabricated units floating within the bays of Sydney. TOD, or transit-oriented development, is the basis of design on an urban scale. In particular industrial waterfront sites are proposed to be rethought as points of housing with commercial space at the periphery of the dense city, set along a rail system to reduce the need for cars. The jury is skeptical of the case for 'expansion' of units once built but it is certainly a topic to be explored. Water-based construction avoids increased congestion on the streets of Sydney and has many potential benefits for the city's extensive waterfront."

Read full interview with the 3rd prize winners

BB Green award: Water smart home Sydney by Kevin Pham, Alex Hoang - Australia

Read full interview with BB Green Award winners

World Architecture Community is media partner for Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions and see  Bee Breeders' next competitions here.

All images courtesy of Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions

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