The Future of Affordable Homes & Communities Is Unveiled!

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Home Matters®, the national movement focused on raising awareness and funds to make Home a reality for all, today announced the three winners of its Re-defining Home: A Design Challenge contest – the first US-wide competition that aims to address one of our nation's most critical challenges: how to create affordable homes and communities that enable every individual to thrive.

The competition, supported by the Wells Fargo Housing Foundation, the Autodesk Foundation and in partnership with San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIASF), challenged architects and designers to re-imagine the Home of the future and develop practical solutions to our nation's housing crisis. By introducing a bold new approach – that goes beyond shelter to community design – the Home Matters movement hopes to spark a powerful public dialogue to address one of our nation's toughest challenges: making better homes and communities for all. Research studies have shown that having an affordable, stable home and community can greatly affect one's life – from better health and educational outcomes to improved public safety, economic indicators and personal success.

The three winners were selected because their designs went beyond housing and animated the connections between housing and other important social factors of community life. The winners include:

1^st Place Winner: Geoff DeOld & Emily Andersen of DeOld Andersen Architecture, LLC  with their project entitled "HomeWork". They received $10,000 in prize money.

2^nd Place Winner: Jerry Kler, A.I.A of Jerry Kler Architects with their project entitled, "Cross Pollination". He received $5,000 in prize money.

3^rd Place Winner: Ben Tillman, an Architectural Designer with his project entitled "New Leaf". He received $3,000 in prize money.

"The 1^st Place winner did an exceptional job of designing a project called "HomeWork" which pairs home with work, providing both housing units and space for small businesses for individuals and families that need support to start or run their own business. This live work model is combined with shared amenity spaces to encourage community building, and that truly grabbed all the judges' attention," said Home Matters' CEO Dave Brown. "HomeWork" brought out fundamental ideas of the Home Matters message: that wherever you call Home in this country, it should be a safe and nurturing place to live – Geoff and his team really captured that with their design."

Emily Andersen of DeOld Andersen Architecture, LLC, on receiving the 1^st place award, commented, "We entered this competition because we care about urbanism, and good housing is a key component of a good city, and affordable housing is a huge issue in many cities. Creating good urbanism means creating a mixture of uses that can eventually reinforce communities. We used this competition to test these ideas." View the video of the winning design: http://www.homemattersamerica.com/design/1st-place/

About Home Matters®
The Home Matters® (www.HomeMattersAmerica.com) movement was launched in 2013 by a group of visionary housing professionals and leaders that identified a gap in public discourse. Fundamental social challenges in our nation – from health to education, to public safety, the economy and individual success – all have a common denominator: their connection to Home. With a high-level, holistic approach to housing, Home Matters underlines the link between Home and these core societal issues such as health, education, safety, individual success and the economy.

About The Re-defining Home: Design Challenge Partners
17 architectural & design partners and organizations supported this this competition - from our lead partner AIA SF to AIA Atlanta, AIA Austin, AIA California Council, AIA Chicago, AIA Denver, AIA Dallas, AIA Los Angeles, AIA New Orleans, AIA Northern Virginia, American Architecture Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, Boston Society of Architects/AIA, Enterprise Community Partners, Public Architecture, SPUR and the Urban Land Institute.

Video - http://youtu.be/rH7OqEF6Y3M

SOURCE Home Matters

Related Links

http://www.HomeMattersAmerica.com