The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the 18 recipients of the 2010 Housing Awards. Now in their tenth year, the awards were established to recognize the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit and a valuable national resource. The jury for the 2010 Housing Awards includes: Andrew V. Porth (chair), AIA, Porth Architects, Inc.; Jane Kolleeny, Architectural Record and GreenSource; Natalye Appel, FAIA, Natalye Appel + Associates Architects; Geoffrey Goldberg, AIA, G. Goldberg and Associates, and Grace Kim, AIA, Schemata Workshop.

The jury recognized projects in four award categories: One/Two Family Custom Housing, One/Two Family Production Housing, Multifamily Housing, and Special Housing.

One/Two Family Custom Housing

The One and Two Family Custom Residences award recognizes outstanding designs for custom and remodeled homes for specific client(s).

Diamond Project; San Francisco, Terry & Terry Architecture

The house scales an uphill lot, with views to the west. Concrete walls run parallel along the side lot lines, forming the sidewalls of the house and continuing beyond to contain a protected garden. It contains the common spaces, beginning with a view balcony at the front of the house that extends from the living room, back to a large, kitchen/dining area that opens to rear, outdoor living spaces. There is a shared language of simple materials and clean detailing throughout that unifies the space.

Ferrous House; Milwaukee, Johnsen Schmaling Architects

The project is a case study for a resource-conscious suburban renewal in a time of economic and ecological distress, demonstrating how an obsolete house can be radically reinvented to accommodate contemporary lifestyles. A new shed roof, supported by exposed metal and wood trusses, adds height to the re-organized living spaces and allows northern light to wash the inside of the house through a long band of translucent, aerogel-filled polycarbonate glazing. The building, which is wrapped in a screen of weathering steel panels, features sustainable systems and materials, including low-VOC paints and stains, recycled steel, high-efficiency mechanical systems, Energy Star-rated windows, and locally sourced woods.

Port Townsend Residence; Port Townsend, Wash., Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

A line of exposed steel structure and a series of wood columns extend the length of the slender building, supporting wood beams and rafters. The primary spaces of the home are to the west of the steel structure, oriented to expansive views from the Olympic Peninsula to Washington’s northern islands. Varied materials, from refined to rustic, reduce the scale of the building and define each volume. Sustainability was a strong consideration from site strategies through rainwater harvesting, selection of materials, natural ventilation, and sun shading. Louvers provide solar shading at the high south windows and a long canopy provides a deep overhang at lower windows.

Dry Creek Outbuildings; Woodside, Calif., Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

This guest cottage and office are set along the steep bank of Dry Creek. The two structures are stretched along the verdant edge of the creek between the public world of the entry drive and the private world of the forested creek. Material, structure and craftsmanship played a vital role in the realization of these two modest buildings. These small buildings assert themselves when necessary and yet they float softly in their surroundings, clear responses to their place.

Sky Ranch; Seattle, The Miller|Hull Partnership

This single-family residential home and caretaker’s unit is situated in the unique location of a warehouse roof. This project focuses on the employment of warehouse roofs in its style and construction. In Seattle, many warehouses are near the waterways and have territorial views of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. This project is one example of what is possible if we look at these forgotten landscapes as new opportunities and rediscover them in an industrialized urban setting. It follows a simple central idea: a small box on a big box.

Spiral House; Old Greenwich, Conn., Joeb Moore + Partners Architects, LLC

Situated along the Connecticut shoreline of Long Island Sound, this single-family house is conceived of as an extension of both its natural and social contexts. The crux of the project lies in the juxtaposition of two systems of geometry—projective and radial—defining the project’s response to these environmental and social conditions in both formal and conceptual ways. Projective geometries render the site as pure landscape; that is, as an expanse of scenery that can be viewed from a single point. The radial geometry at work in the house, tied to notions of water, waves, and sea, creates the spiraling form that relates social spaces to private spaces and seamlessly adjoins interior with exterior.

Sheldon Gatehouse; Cle Elum, Wash., Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

The modest project included one bedroom, a guest suite for friends and family, and a garage that could be adaptable for use as a studio/workspace. The two spaces mirror one another, each with a fireplace and one wall that is open to the view of the forest meadow. Each living space accommodates the subtle differences between day and evening needs. In winter the interior living room becomes primary, with its broad hearth and views out onto the growing drifts of snow. During the milder months, the courtyard living space serves as the center of the home. Its deep overhangs protect the occupants from sun, rain and snow, and the exterior stainless steel fireplace warms them on cool evenings.

T42 House; Minneapolis, VJAA

The project expands an 1100 square foot 1939 Cape Cod with a small addition. The new addition was designed to reorient the house towards the south to capture winter sun and summer breezes, while creating a new courtyard space. In addition to making stronger connections to the outdoors, it optimizes summer breezes from the southwest and blocks winter winds from the northeast. The project adapts old forms to suppress detail/decorative quality and re-emphasize surface, form and space. The design for the house was based on Passiv Haus criteria for passive solar design of the envelope, glazing specifications, and setting criteria for thermal mass and insulation requirements.

One/Two Family Production Housing

The One and Two Family Production Homes award will recognize excellent design of homes built for the speculative market,

Cellophane House; New York City, KieranTimberlake

This project is a five-story dwelling that demonstrates a holistic approach to off-site fabrication. The aluminum frame provides the structure and the means to attach factory-made elements like floors, ceilings, stairs, bathrooms, and mechanical rooms. When it is no longer needed, the house can be disassembled. The house is not site-specific, and can therefore adapt to a range of climatic factors, solar orientations, slopes and adjacencies. Homeowners can alter the array of materials and floor plans as desired and regardless of the changes, the method of fabrication remains the same.

14 Townhouses; Brooklyn, N.Y., Rogers Marvel Architects, PLLC

Each house is a modern interpretation of the classic townhouse type. Together, the houses establish a unified but lively streetfront; the composition of each house is subtly varied to create quiet but distinct differences. Development of fourteen individual homes provided a singular design opportunity; not since the late 1920’s has New York City seen a new uninterrupted blockfront of market-rate townhouses. Taking design cues from the historic houses adjacent and across the street, the townhouses’ facade planes, assembly details, openings, and entries produce a visually compelling procession

Multifamily Living

The Multifamily Housing award recognizes outstanding apartment and condominium design. Both high- and low-density projects for public and private clients were considered. In addition to architectural design features, the jury assessed the integration of the building(s) into their context, including open and recreational space, transportation options and features that contribute to livable communities.

Gish Apartments; San Jose, Calif., Office of Jerome King, FAIA

Located in downtown San Jose, California, this 35-unit family apartment complex provides affordable housing for households earning 35-50% of the area median income. The mixed-use plan includes a ground floor 7-Eleven and beauty salon to serve the neighborhood. Housing Choices Coalition provides resident services coordination for residents who have developmental disabilities, and facilitates communication between residents, their individual case managers, and the property management team. This project became the first multifamily development in the United States to receive both LEED-NC and LEED for Homes Gold certification.

OneEleven Mixed-Use Development; Baton Rouge, La., Remson | Haley | Herpin Architects, APAC

The project activates the public realm by placing commercial/retail space on the ground floor, and by locating community-use spaces and public-oriented balconies along the public way. Varied outdoor living spaces are created for the residents, from public gathering spaces to secluded semi-private balconies; all taking advantage of views of the resurgent downtown area. Through its density and connection to community as an urban infill project, this project enjoys a natural sustainability, and also encourages walking and public transportation.

Formosa 1140; West Hollywood, Calif., Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects

Located in West Hollywood, this new eleven-unit housing project emphasizes the importance of shared open space. This project takes what would be the internalized space of the courtyard and moves it to the exterior of the building, creating a public park which occupies approximately one-third (4,600 sf) of the site. Units are organized linearly, allowing for ‘park frontage’. External circulation is used as a buffer between public and private realms and articulated through layers of perforated metal. Within its own genetic code, Formosa 1140 contains the imprint of a larger urban design that offers some kind of public space back to the city and in so doing, distributes a patchwork of parks across Los Angeles’ formidable grid.

Safari Drive; Scottsdale, Ariz., The Miller|Hull Partnership

Small commercial functions – live/work lofts and ground floor retail spaces – are mixed among the residential units, contributing a shared energy to the public spaces. Outdoor rooms, shaped and shaded by the enclosing buildings, are the organizing framework for the project. Native, drought-tolerant landscaping is provided throughout the development. A “cool tower” passively cools a public courtyard with a simple, wind-driven technology borrowed from Middle-Eastern desert vernacular, and provides prospect and visual focus for the project. The project has been certified by Scottsdale’s Green Building Program for Multifamily Dwellings.

The Waterworks at Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Hill, Mass., Gund Partnership

This innovative public/private development involved the adaptive reuse of three late 19th century buildings - two landmark public works buildings that originally housed steam-powered pumps and their adjacent carriage house. Thirty-two unique residential units were created within the historic structures. Challenges included preserving the historic facades and designing functional residences that fit within the existing parameters. An interior courtyard was incorporated into the existing footprint of the former Low Service Pump Station to maximize natural light into the residential units. A portion of the former High Service Pump Station was preserved as a public museum that showcases the landmark pumps and celebrates the history of the site,

Special Housing

The Special Housing award recognizes outstanding design of housing that meets the unique needs of other specialized housing types such as single room occupancy residences (SROs), independent living for the disabled, residential rehabilitation programs, domestic violence shelters, and other special housing.

Step Up on 5th; Santa Monica, Calif., Pugh + Scarpa

This new structure contains 46 studio apartments of permanent affordable housing and supportive services for the homeless and mentally disabled population. The building distinguishes itself from most conventionally developed projects in that it incorporates energy-efficient measures that exceed standard practice, optimize building performance, and ensure reduced energy use during all phases of construction and occupancy. The planning and design of the project emerged from close consideration and employment of passive solar design strategies. While California has the most stringent energy-efficient requirements in the United States, Step Up incorporates numerous sustainable features that exceed state-mandated Title 24 energy measures by 26%.

The Housing Tower; Stockbridge, Mass., The Rose + Guggenheimer Studio

Utilizing sliding sun screens, radiant cooling and heating, daylighting and natural ventilation, and a sophisticated yet deceptively simple site strategy, the Housing Tower establishes itself as a cornerstone of sustainability for the institution while enabling human connections to the Berkshire context in all seasons. Though expansive, the project fits into an economically scaled plan and section, growing upward rather than outward. Radiant cooling and heating modulate temperature changes via the thermal mass of the concrete structure. When combined with natural ventilation, a slatted-wood rain-screen, and a highly insulated envelope, the integrated architectural design and climate control strategy consumes 40% less energy than a typical discrete forced-air based system.

Swarthmore College Residence Halls; Swarthmore, Pa., William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc.

Alice Paul and David Kemp Residence Halls provide a residential setting supportive of the rigorous academic mission of Swarthmore College. These decidedly modern buildings contribute to a campus notable for its intense landscape and its long tradition of stone buildings. Anchoring the southern end of Parrish Lawn, Swarthmore’s iconic open space, the Residence Halls mark the point where the campus fronts onto the center of town. Reflecting Swarthmore’s long term engagement with environmental issues, the buildings incorporate many sustainable design features, including abundant natural light and a green roof.