How do we define “home”? Although our ideas about home are constantly being rethought, the careful examination of “home” has recently come to our attention for architects and nonarchitects alike. Almost everyone has had to confront their perspective of “home” as they have adapted workplaces, social gatherings, fitness routines, and everyday life. We now not only internalize a home, but look at how our homes digitally connect to the rest of the world.

Nonetheless, “home” remains the most significant architectural place we experience throughout our lives. Home represents safety, ownership, privacy, and stability. Home is where we can be alone and with people we care about most. Historically, the home has been a place of permanence. Despite how chaotic our lives are, we cherish the consistency of sleeping in the same bed and performing the same daily rituals here.

Through the ages, architects have continuously investigated the role that homes play in our lives. These investigations present us with new notions of home environments that completely rethink the home, like Peter Eisenman’s House VI or Kurokawa’s Nagakin Capsule Tower, and sometimes rethink specific things within a home, like the elevator in OMA’s Maison Bordeaux.

The HOME competition invites all designers to explore ideas of domestic architecture for the future. Designers may consider the impacts of global population shifts, proximity of major cities to coastlines, new materials and building techniques, as well as the rise of co-housing, tiny homes, smart houses and marketplaces like Airbnb. HOME creates a platform to speculate the ways new technological, political, environmental and cultural changes can redefine the spaces where we live.

What do you believe will be the future of home?

Awards

Overall winner: $5,000

Pragmatic Award: $1,000

Innovation Award: $1,000

Adaptability Award: $1,000

Total Awards: $8,000

Guidelines

Submissions may propose a single-family home, a multifamily building, an adaptable structure, a temporary living experience, or a home that takes the shape of any model or scale. All submissions should clearly define how a resident or residents interact with the proposed living space through graphic representation, text summary, or both.

Designers may propose any geographical location for their home design but should consider the relationship between their proposal and its site, taking into account the inherent benefits, drawbacks, and unique characteristics. Additionally, designers can propose homes with no defined site.

Submission Materials: ( 4) 12′′ x 12′′ (30.48cm x 30.48cm) graphic representations and (1) 12" x 12" project text summary (under 200 words) submitted as a combined PDF document. Graphic representation boards may not include text other than number labels (ex. 1 2 3). Graphic boards will be reviewed by jury members alongside their respective text summaries, where number labels may be defined. Upon competition results, all recognized proposals will appear with the text summary directly beneath graphic representations.

Jury

Tatiana Bilbao, Founder | Tatiana Bilbao Estudio
Jennifer Bonner, Professor | Harvard Graduate School of Design; Founder | MALL
Sean Canty, Principal | Studio SC
Vishaan Chakrabarti, Founder | PAU
J. Yolande Daniels, Founder & Design Principal | studioSUMO
Neil Denari, Founder & Principal | Neil M. Denari Architects
Peter Eisenman, Founder & Principal | EISENMAN ARCHITECTS
Amanda Levete, Principal | AL_A
Aya Maceda, Founder & Principal | actLAB
Toshiko Mori, Founder & Principal | Toshiko Mori Architect
Jennifer Newsom, Founder | Dream the Combine; Assistant Professor University of Minnesota
William O’Brien Jr., Principal | WOJR; Professor | MIT Department of Architecture
Clark Thenhaus, Founding Director | Endemic Architecture
Andrew Zago, Principal | Zago Architecture

Schedule

Competition Release: June 1

$55 Advanced Entry Ends: July 19

$75 Early Entry Ends: Sept 6

$95 Final Entry Ends: Oct 25 

Submission Deadline: Oct 26 

Results Announced: December 2020

Read more info about competition here, register competition from the website.

Top image courtesy of HOME

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