Clark Nexsen Design Team Receives Merit Award in the Activate14 Tiny Home Community Ideas Competition

The most recent Activate14 competition focuses on the role design can play in addressing homelessness. The competition is one of several initiatives across the country considering tiny home communities as an effective way to create affordable housing for people without a stable dwelling place. The Activate14 jury recognized a team of designers from the Raleigh office of Clark Nexsen with the Community Merit Award for their entry titled, “Com_Union.”

The design team was comprised of Corey Baughman, Ryan Cooper, Brian Dautel, Erika Jolleys, Ryan Johnson, Albert McDonald, and Will Pate. Their entry was one of six recognized from more than 100 entries submitted from around the globe. The jury commented that the entry, “had a very livable sense of dwellings and relationship to the street.” They also responded favorably to dedicated spaces for gardening and community gathering, and use of daylighting and orientation.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by such esteemed members of the design community,” said Clark Nexsen architect, Albert McDonald. “We are especially proud to have our work selected in an international competition that is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, where we live. This is an important issue of which our community must not lose sight as we grow. We certainly hope to be a continued part of that conversation from here forward.”

Members of the AIA North Carolina Activate14 committee and the Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness invited designers worldwide to share their ideas on a new typology for urban housing: a twelve unit community of tiny homes to help address the problem of homelessness in urban centers. The competition design brief stated, “Tiny home communities cannot eliminate poverty or homelessness, but they can create a more lively, caring, and diverse city. The goal is to generate innovative tiny home communities that can repair and enliven our social fabric and help people transition out of homelessness.”

The awards ceremony was held at The Center for Architecture and Design (CfAD) in Raleigh on June 25. The event featured a public discussion lead by a panel of experienced professionals and advocates of transitional housing and alleviating homelessness. Finalists will be exhibited at CfAD and the ideas will be discussed at an Urban Housing Symposium. The competition winners and an overview of ideas generated will be presented at the annual AIANC Design Conference in Durham, North Carolina in September 2015.

The jury was comprised of Bryan Bell of Design Corps, Andrew Freear of Rural Studio, Dan Rockhill of Studio 804 and Rockhill and Associates, and David Smoot, Board Chair of Raleigh Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness.

Tiny Home Community Ideas Honor and Merit Award Winners:
Honor Award – Greece entry #168
Community Merit Award – United States entry #269 titled “Com_Union”
Aesthetic Merit Award – United States/Turkey/Italy entry #231
Affordability Merit Award – United States entry #214
Citizen Engagement Merit Award – United States #209
Prefab Construction Merit Award – Spain entry #151

A pdf of all of the winning entries can be viewed at: https://activate14.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/winners_final.pdf

About The Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness
Created in 2006, The Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness is the integrated efforts of The City of Raleigh and Wake County governments to address the need to end and prevent homelessness. Their mission is to strategically lead and engage the community in collaborative efforts to prevent and move people out of homelessness. Their involvement is a contribution of three guiding principles; advocacy, convening and communicating.

About Activate14
Activate14 is an outreach initiative by the AIA North Carolina and the Center for Architecture and Design (CfAD) to strengthen the civic role of architecture and design in our community. They organize and host events at CfAD that marry architecture, design and the public. Each event is a call to action for those interested in building community and designed to empower people to make a difference in shaping the world around them. Activate14 hosts multiple events throughout the year as well as two design competitions.