Foreword

Buildner is pleased to present the results to the Vancouver Affordable Housing Challenge!

This competition is part of Buildner’s Affordable Housing series, in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS, showcasing projects that invent new means for driving down housing prices. Designers were tasked with proposing a flexible, innovative, pilot-phase concept for affordable housing within Greater Vancouver. Winning projects will be featured in ARCHHIVE BOOKS’ second edition of its publication, What is Affordable Housing?

Buildner’s Affordable Housing design series posits that there is no one right answer to making housing affordable. Today, a host of new ideas and platforms are enabling people to own or purchase homes. These creative methods include everything from community co-living facilities, to 3D-printed homes, stackable modular homes and new forms of transit-oriented development.

In addition to rising interest rates and a limited housing stock putting pressure on Vancouver’s housing market, the city is also restricted by zoning laws that render most types of housing - other than single- family detached homes - impossible to construct in many regions of the city. These issues, as well as many more political and economic factors, contribute to Vancouver’s mounting housing challenges. This competition tasked participants with proposing design-related solutions to the city’s housing crisis. They were encouraged to submit flexible solutions to accommodate a range of unit sizes including families, single professionals, and couples. There was no set competition site or scale, and participants were encouraged to be as creative as possible. The jury sought projects that challenge typical ideas of housing, design, and the community at large, while at the same time maintaining a practical element that could potentially see these designs realised.

Buildner collaborated with a regional and international interdisciplinary jury panel. The full panel included: Marianne Amodio, Principal of Vancouver-based MA+HG, a registered Architect with the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, Chair of The City of Vancouver's Creative Advisory Panel for Housing Innovation, and a member of the City of Vancouver Mayor's Advisory Committees for Housing; Nicky Bruun- Meyer, a Toronto-based Architect and a Co-Founder and Co-Publisher of The Site Magazine, a leading independent journal of contemporary architecture, landscape, urbanism, and design in Canada; Avi Friedman, a professor of architecture at McGill University Peter Guo- hua Fu School of Architecture, and president of Avi Friedman Consultants, Inc., a design firm with a focus on affordable and sustainable residential environments; Bryan He, an Intern Architect with Gair Williamson Architects, with experience in small to medium size residential, commercial and institutional projects in Vancouver; Melissa Higgs, Principal of Vancouver-based HCMA Architecture + Design, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, and an Adjunct at UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Tom Schroeder, a senior architect with Patkau Architects and adjunct faculty member at the University of British Columbia; and Surabhi Shakkarwar, an Urban Planner and Intern Architect with Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects focusing on the design and delivery of complex residential mixed-use projects in Metro Vancouver.

Buildner and its jury panel thank all individuals and teams that submitted proposals.

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Vancouver  Affordable 
Housing Challenge
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Bridge

Turning unused bridge areas into lively homes

Affordable Housing Series 17th Edition ideas COMPETITION

1st Prize Winner

Project name

Laneway Village

We participate in architecture competitions to improve our design knowledge and to challenge our ways of thinking. Through the speculative lens in which we propose solutions to a competition prompt, we often discover new ways of practicing that we tend to oversee. Combining this with exposure to real world project delivery, we’ve always learnt something new that we carry with us into future pursuits.

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Authors Xian chris Li, Elitsa Vutova, Nadthachai Kongkhajornkidsuk
Country United States

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Living Trails

My first ten years as an architectural apprentice was spent in a leading architectural practice in Singapore, where in the 80s and 90s, every urban renewal project was an international architectural competition. These transformative years instilled in me that the best design solutions are often achieved and celebrated in the competitive realm. Over the years, I taught myself that participation in competitions was not always to win but to learn and equip oneself better in resolving design solutions, where the real-world agencies can never provide such opportune.

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3rd Prize Winner +
AAPPAREL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD

Project name

tall trees, tall houses

I usually don't participate in competitions, but the topic of solving affordable housing (simultaneously with the problem of sprawl) is near and dear to me as someone who values nature's role in cities, and wishes for everyone to be able to live with dignity and comfort. Affordability shouldn't be about living with less, but rather offering good value by reducing scarcity in an environmentally responsible manner.

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Author Martin Chow
Country Canada

ARCHHIVE STUDENT AWARD

Project name

Crossroads

During our 3rd year at the university we realized the urgent need to broaden our horizons and indulge into larger projects that tackle the needs of the society as a whole rather than those of individuals, and formed a team to participate in international competitions. Most notably, unlike conventional practices, this experience gives space for creativity and experimental ideas to emerge, which is crucial in such a volatile field of work as architecture.

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Authors Mariia Pykhacheva, Olesia Ivleva, Alika Appaeva, Ekaterina Klyusova
Country Czech Republic
+78 points Buildner University Rankings

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

Living Waterways

Authors Evan Williams, David Phan, Rodolfo Escamilla
Country United States
Project name

The Vancouver Valley

Authors Arjan Hebly, Sitong Luo
Country Netherlands
Project name

Less Parking More Housing

Author Andre Halim
Country Indonesia
Project name

Habitat-360

Country United Kingdom
Project name

A NEW TOGETHERNESS

Authors Christopher Doray, Piotr Pasierbiński, Nahal Jafari, Gina Zhang
Country Canada
Project name

laneway specials

Country United States

Shortlisted projects

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A NEW TOGETHERNESS

Christopher Doray

Piotr Pasierbiński

Nahal Jafari

Gina Zhang

Chris Doray Studio

Canada

Pivot

Jordan Bussiere

Canada

COHAUS

Sarah Cosentino

Canada

New Growth on Old Growth: A Design Scenario for Affordable Housing in Vancouver, BC.

Joshua Clarke

Canada

Parallel Houses

Eunkyoung Kim

Hyunchang Cho

United States

Swing Housing

Hong jib Kim

South Korea

Noise

Timofey Poplavskiy

Georgy Lyaleko

Moscow Institute of architecture - MARHI, Московский архитектурный институт - МАРХИ

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

RE-WOOD HOUSING

Sebastian Kawalec

Dominika Bezulska

Adam Struski

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Politechnika Wrocławska)

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

Grafted Village

Zaiheng Liang

Lan Wang

Canada

OpenFabric

Suraj Kadam

Anubhav Malhotra

India

Greener tower

Yu Gong

China

The Vancouver Valley

Arjan Hebly

Sitong Luo

Netherlands

Growing affordable house

Bochuan Zheng

Xiao Yang

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

HOME BOUND Experiencing Quality of Life through Passive Design in Affordable Rentable Homes

Zorell sibugan Rivas

Hannah grace gulayan Laguna

Ateneo de Davao University

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Philippines

FVW Grid Housing

Kento Usami

MAEDA CORPORATION

Japan

stacked family homes with shared green and water

Jeroen Derksen

David Windt

Fija van der Laan

Netherlands

DIAGONAL UNIT HOUSE

Yumi Akimoto

MAEDA CORPORATION

Japan

Crossroads

Mariia Pykhacheva

Olesia Ivleva

Alika Appaeva

Ekaterina Klyusova

Moscow Institute of architecture - MARHI , Московский архитектурный институт - МАРХИ

+78 points Buildner University Rankings!
Czech Republic

Habitat-360

Conran & partners

Conran & Partners

United Kingdom

The suburban nightmare

Elizaveta Tsanava

Serofim Shilnikov

Tatiana Kafanova

Anastasia Savelyeva

Moscow Institute of architecture - MARHI , Московский архитектурный институт - МАРХИ

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Georgia

Laneway Village

Xian chris Li

Elitsa Vutova

Nadthachai Kongkhajornkidsuk

United States

Less Parking More Housing

Andre Halim

Indonesia

Space In Space

Mungyo Lee

Inha Technical College, 인하공업전문대학

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
South Korea

VANCOUVER TRIANGLE HOUSE

Seo young Bae

Inha Technical College, 인하공업전문대학

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
South Korea

Green Line House

Sangwoo Kim

Inha Technical College, 인하공업전문대학

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
South Korea

Promenade Architecturale

Hyeyeon Kwon

Inha Technical College, 인하공업전문대학

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
South Korea

Prefabulous Small Houses

Valeria Alexei

Romania

SO-HOUSING VANCOUVER

Abdullah Abdullah

Poznan University of Technology , Politechnika Poznańska

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

The Adaptive Midrise

Tianyao Song

The University of Melbourne

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Australia

tall trees, tall houses

Martin Chow

Canada

miniature towns

Xincheng Luo

China

laneway specials

Chang yuan max Hsu

United States

Modular city constructor

Uladzislau Kastsiukevich

Belarusian National Technical University

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Belarus

LIVING ON INTERSECTIONS

Hyosik Kim

Youngjun Lee

Hyeju Cho

South Korea

PORT[lands] housing

Jessica Iozzo

Canada

Green Living

Misak Terzibasiyan

Shadi Hashemian

UArchitects

Netherlands

Living Waterways

Evan Williams

David Phan

Rodolfo Escamilla

United States

LIVABLE PARKINGS

Mora Manzouri

Faezeh Khodakhah

Azin Rezaei

Masumeh Rahimi

Canada

Living Trails

Christopher Doray

Piotr Pasierbinski

Yekta Tehrani

Lukas Vajda

Canada

Insede the box

Aquitofel Mananga

Angola