Denver Single-Stair Housing Challenge competition Honorable mention winner - Cadence Merrie Bayley

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the Honorable mention winner of our "Denver Single-Stair Housing Challenge" competition – Cadence Merrie Bayley from United States!

Cadence Merrie Bayley with Team

Please tell us about your company (when it was founded, where it is based, how many employees, etc) Alternatively, if you do not have a company, please give us some insights on your own professional/academia background.

Nominal is a Boston-based architecture and design partnership founded to provide creative solutions to common problems. Nominal is led by Cadence Bayley and Sam Naylor. We met in graduate school, finding a common passion for affordable housing, low-carbon materials, and walkable urbanism. Together, we have two decades of professional experience working on award-winning projects that focus on improving the places and spaces we live in and share with others.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been Involved?

Housing is central to our practice, both personally and professionally. While it shapes daily life and reflects cultural values, it remains widely underdesigned and underproduced. We engage at every scale of housing design—from flashing details to zoning reform.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

To challenge given constraints within a context by leveraging a broad set of knowledge about the built environment and design.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We do a very select number of competitions, and use them as a way to test design ideas or showcase a method or scale of working that we do not have previous experience in. We like the concise brief and constraints of a competition, but do not always enjoy the limited public/stakeholder engagement nor the minimal opportunity for reimbursement of labor. This one was about a code reform movement we have a deep passion for and wish to showcase its potential as a form of advocacy.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

Devoting free labor and creative thinking to an unpaid project with no prospect of repayment or construction has the potential to undervalue the work that we do as architects. However, in certain circumstances, competitions have the ability to leverage experimental design thinking to broaden the public's imaginary of what is possible for our housing and our cities.