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What would be the results if affordable and sustainable design became an important goal for communities, city housing services, and housing developers across the country? What might happen if well-designed homes for low- and moderate-income families flourished in established, even affluent, neighborhoods? Could well-designed houses that use environmentally friendly materials and methods be better not only for the planet but for the families that inhabit them? These are some of the questions raised by The HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing, presented by the Weisman Art Museum, January 28 through April 30, 2006. The exhibition and the design competition from which it springs were organized by the Southeastern Center on Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. SECCA is known for its "Artist and the Community" series, with projects that revise ideas about contemporary art and design, insisting that they can address pressing social concerns and engage directly in community issues.
With housing costs spiraling ever higher and wages not keeping pace, affordable housing has become one of the critical issues of our day. New approaches to the issue are explored in this exhibition of nearly 80 designs of single-family houses for low-to-moderate incomes families. The design competition challenged architects to propose innovative designs, using Habitat for Humanity’s basic three-and-four bedroom house as a point of departure. In addition, the design criteria included the use of environmentally friendly and sustainable materials, technologies, and methods. Twenty-five award-winning designs were selected from a competition of more than 800 entries from individuals and firms in the United States and sixteen other countries. A prestigious jury of architects–Michael Sorkin, Steve Badanes, and Ben Nicholson–chose the award-winners. Several Minnesota-based architects and designers were selected for The HOME House Project, including John Dwyer, Scott Krenner and Andy Saur, Jonah Ritter, Marc Swackhamer, Glenn Waguespack and Adam Wilbrecht.
Participating architects offer a range of design solutions from the adventurous and visionary to more traditional approaches. Design proposals make use of prefabricated structures and elements; recycled, organic, or innovative manufactured materials; passive heating and cooling techniques; and filtered rain and gray water, among other ideas. The number and variety of entries demonstrate the interest of architects in addressing pressing social issues and prove that as technology changes, so does our ability to consider and actualize new solutions to housing problems.
The Weisman showing of The HOME House Project amplifies these social issues and design ideas through a number of additional components. Local efforts in affordable housing are represented by full-scale sections of buildings, models, and inexpensive furniture designs using recycled materials. In addition to work by the local designers in the design competition, other Twin Cities projects are showcased: a collaborative affordable housing project between the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation; work by LHB Engineers and Architects, one of the leading Minnesota firms in designing both affordable and "green" housing; and recycled furniture made by Geoffrey Warner and Alchemy Architects.
The human dimensions of the affordable housing shortage and efforts to address the problem are reflected in photographs by University of Minnesota students in a documentary project with Habitat for Humanity undertaken for a course taught by University of Minnesota art professor Gary Hallman.
Additionally, a supplementary show of artworks selected from the Family Housing Fund’s Home Sweet Home and Home Sweet Home Again commissions will stimulate a consideration of the emotional and cultural elements that create "home" as much as materials, technology, and design. Artists such as Camille Gage, Sandra Menefee Taylor, Bill Cottman, Del Bey, Malichansouk Kouanchao, and others created work in a variety of media concerning the importance of home and shelter.
The HOME House Project examines architects’ new ideas for affordable housing and moves forward the discussion of design and its social implications.
The HOME House Project was organized by the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina and was made possible by grants received from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation; an anonymous gift; and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. The HOME House Project Design Awards were made possible by a generous gift from Bank of America. Its presentation at the Weisman Art Museum has been generously supported by Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP; Target; the Irwin Porter Foundation; the Minnesota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; and the Family Housing Fund.
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