Perspective
Project Outcomes Summary: While the DESIGNhabitat 2 program builds on the prior (and on-going) work of professional designers and academy-based modular initiatives, it also moves this work forward. Most significant among these accomplishments are:
- • The DESIGNhabitat 2 home is among the first homes completed for Habitat for Humanity in the region to integrate this particular mix of design quality and energy-performance objectives with the modular construction process. As such, it offers valuable lessons for Habitat regarding the integration of design quality objectives, climate-appropriate design features and energy performance into their efforts to re-think their delivery model in the wake of the Gulf Coast disasters.
- • The DESIGNhabitat 2 home is among the first academy-based modular home design initiatives to be built via direct collaboration with a production modular builder - integrating the industry's experience with prefabrication and the innovation and imagination of a faculty/student design team. Together with recent and on-going academy-based initiatives involving pre-fabrication, this project offers valuable lessons for future research and design.
- • By utilizing a combination of climatically-based passive design elements and a high performance building envelope, the DESIGNhabitat 2 home offers significant evidence that the gap between the design and energy performance potential of factory-based construction and the realities of affordable housing.
Beyond these accomplishments, the DESIGNhabitat 2 program’s integration of design/build and service-learning teaching methods has provided the students involved with a powerful model for meaningful action in the face of a natural disaster of overwhelming magnitude. In the process of creating a building of high design quality for a client type rarely served by the profession, they have developed invaluable insights into the collaborative nature of effective community engagement and the critical competencies to become effective “citizen architects” in their professional lives.
