Volume Zero, an international architecture magazine, has launched a new competition called "Micro Housing 2019". Volume Zero has initiated a design challenge to rethink and reimagine the idea of urban dwellings and come up with inventive solutions to the persistent issues of space crunch and growing population in our cities. The competition aims to encourage the creative imagination of young designers and students from around the globe to explore their creative limits.

Introduction

Since the beginning of time, a HOME has continued to be an entity that is intimate to all living beings on the planet. Apart from being a physical shelter for humans and their daily lives, a home forms a distinct, intimate connection with its users.

Today, across the globe, we are experiencing a rise in densely populated urban areas, along with a lack of land resources to provide sufficient housing for the masses. This phenomenon has given rise to a new movement of Micro-Housing; one that commands the idea of simple but inventive living in today‟s urban areas.

The concept of these revolutionary homes encourages making the innovation of maximum functional area in a minimum footprint, thus redefining the perception of Sustainability in urban dwellings. With the idea of Micro-Housing, designers are now coming up with various, inventive solutions to solve the persistent issue of "space crunch" in cities to provide the imperative requirement of respectable housing to as many people as possible.

Opportunity

People today are facing financial and environmental concerns along with the aspiration to improve their standard of living and have more freedom in the realm of urban housing. This has led them to follow modest and efficient ways of living.

The world now, with development in technology and smart living concepts, is looking at innovative design ideas to create residential spaces that offer suburban serenity and urban energy while optimizing the functionality of the habitable areas. The users looking for residences today know the value of space and want sustainable, safe and functional homes. The competition now has a golden opportunity to bring innovative, unconventional design concepts for creating resourceful spaces complete with the personal touch of homeliness to the otherwise conservative world of residential architecture. The competition invites designers around the world, belonging to various factions, to create inventive, experimental architectural solutions which would surprise today‟s housing market and call for a sense of living based on community spirit.

Arranged in self-contained, integrated communities, the residential units would be representative of innovation and creativity in the modularity of spaces. It's time to design novel residential communities that reflect the ideology of "less is more".

"It is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart" - Mathew Desmond, American Sociologist.

Challenge

The participants are to design a prototype of a micro-housing unit that reflects the personal needs and culture of the residential community chosen. A suitable aggregation of these micro-housing units should be done in an urban context, mirroring the communal needs of the group of users.

A total of 100 users should be considered for the design. Participants are to choose a site relevant to the topic, in the urban context.
The design has to serve as an upgrade to the standard of living of the users. While being very functional in nature, it should also be aesthetically pleasing.

The built-up area of each residential unit should not exceed 350 sq.ft.and should house up to 4 individuals. The unit should be a prototype, making the optimum use of space, and it needs to be explained in detail. The designed units should cater to personal needs (rest, bath, cook, and work) and community requirements (interact). As per their discretion, the participants are free to add more spaces required in their designs. The design of the micro-housing residential complex should also provide solutions for circulation such as staircases, passages, etc. These units should also be stacked in a manner to create clusters that can address various issues in the metropolitan city.

Awards

Prizes of total USD 4000, broken down as follows:

1st Prize: USD 2000 + Certificate + Publication 

2nd Prize: USD 1200 + Certificate + Publication 

3rd Prize: USD 800 + Certificate + Publication

10 Honourable mentions: Certificates

Winners and Honourable Mentions will be published on Volume Zero website and several international architecture and design magazines. To show our appreciation, all the participants would receive participation certificate.

Schedule

Early bird registration: 18th June 2019 to 22nd August 2019 

Standard registration: 23rd August 2019 to 21st September 2019 

Last day for queries 27th September 2019

Closing date for Submissions: 4th October 2019

Announcement of winners: 27th November 2019

Registration:

Early Bird Registration:

Participants from India - 1800+18% GST = INR 2124 (per team) 

Participants from Other Countries - 70 + 18% GST = USD 82.6 (per team)

Standard Registration:

Participants from India - 2400 + 18% GST = INR 2800 (per team) 

Participants from Other Countries - 85+ 18% GST = USD 95 (per team)

Jury

Yet to be announced

Eligibility

Micro Housing 2019 – Architecture Competition is open to all. We invite architects, students, engineers, product designers, thinkers, companies, organizations and everyone interested in the mission of the competition to submit their ideas. No professional qualifications are necessary.

To join this competition, please visit the competition's website. 

Top image courtesy of Volume Zero

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