Mud House Design Competition 2016, Ghana design contest, African earth architecture prize news

Mud House Design Competition

Nka Foundation: Earth Architecture Contest in Ashanti Region of Ghana, Africa

19 Jan 2016

4th EARTH ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION

CALL FOR DESIGN ENTRIES

Designing a School for Ghana

Nka Foundation announces a call for entries for its 4th Earth Architecture Competition: Designing a School for Ghana, an international architecture competition open to graduates and advanced students of architecture, design and others from around the world who think earth architecture can be beautiful.

Mud House Design Competition 2016 News

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE?

The challenge is to design a unit of a school for students of ages 12 to 18 years that can be built with earth and other local materials in rural Ghana. Total costs of constructing the design entry must not exceed $8,000 (USD) for materials; local labor excluded from this price point. Jurors will award prizes for 1st: $1,500; 2nd: $1,000; and 3rd: $500. Honorable mentions may be awarded at the discretion of the jury but will receive no cash prize.

WHERE IS THE CONSTRUCTION SITE?

The construction site will be Abetenim Village, near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

HOW TO REGISTER AND SUBMIT AN ENTRY

Registration deadline is April 25, 2016 and submission of entries is until May 31, 2016. Here is the design brief: http://yadi.sk/i/3uq0K1wimtFBB
To participate, register at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-earth-architecture-competition-tickets-20450604308 and submit your design entry via mudhousedesign@mail.com . For additional information, see the competition discussion board: http://nkaprojects.boards.net or contact info@nkafoundation.org / http://www.nkafoundation.org

8 Dec 2015

Winners of 3rd Earth Architecture Competition, Designing for the Arts

MUD HOUSE DESIGN COMPETITION

Reinventing the African Mud Hut Together

WINNERS OF 3rd Earth Architecture Competition
(DESIGNING FOR THE ARTS)

Nka Foundation Announces the Winners of the 3rd Earth Architecture Competition, Designing for the Arts in Ghana.

Winner:

The 1st prize winning design is Abode+Adobe by the design team of Sheikh Ahsan Ullah Mojumder, Chowdhury Mohammad Junayed and Erum Ahmed of the Sheikh Ahsan Ullah Mojumder & Associates in Bangladesh; the 2nd prize winner is eARThouse by Lorenzo Conti in Italy; and the 3rd prize is awarded to Weft Wall by the design team of Eddie Winn and Samantha McPadden in the USA. Four honorable mentions are awarded, each will receive a certificate of recognition. The honorable mentions go to the Sculptors Domain by the design team of Shahid Sayeed Khan, Dania Faruq and Mohammed Ansir in Pakistan; Bamang Earth House by Sanne Eekel in the Netherlands; Arthouse by the design team of Santiago Merello, Antonella Sinacore and Claudia Varin in Uruguay; and Asase House by the ASA Studio in Rwanda.

Winner:

Through the 3rd Earth Architecture Competition, Nka Foundation issued a challenge to recent graduates and students of architecture, design and others from around the world to use their creativity to come up with innovative designs for modest, affordable housing for the arts that can be built with earth and other local materials in Ghana. The challenge was to design a mud house type of about 2400 sq feet that sleeps 8 to 10 persons to be built on a plot size of 80 x 100 feet.

Winner:

The construction site is Abetenim Arts Village, near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The building was to be designed for use by either musicians, theatre artists, potters, sculptors, painters, textile artists, designers, writers, or media arts practitioners. Total costs of constructing the design entry was not to exceed $7,000 (USD) for materials and labor; land value was excluded from this price point. Because the construction of best design entires is a priority, each design team gets an opportunity to build their design entry at the arts village in Ghana.

The selection Jury consists of architecture professors, administrators with relevant experience and architects who have led building workshops at the Abetenim Arts Village. The jurors are Christina ANTONELLI, Construction Project Manager at Construction for Change in India; Gilberto Duarte CARLOS, Professor and a Researcher at ESG|Escola Superior at Gallaecia in Portugal; Paolo CASCONE, Associate Professor of Building Technology at the Milan Polytechnic in Italy; Jean GU, M.Arch Candidate at Columbia University in New York in the USA; Bruno MARQUES, professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Oporto Lusíada University in Portugal; Louis MAYES, history of architecture student at the London Metropolitan University in the UK; Tai SCHOMAKER, DoYouSpace Architecture at Berlin in Germany; Christopher TOMASETTI, student at Masters degree in Architecture and Masters in Real Estate Development at Columbia University in New York in the USA; and Anna WEBSTER, Part 2 Professional Diploma in Architecture at London Metropolitan University in the UK. The jurors used judging criteria involving functionality, aesthetics and technical matter to evaluate all design entries in the contest. Prizes for first, second and third place consist of a commemorative certificate and a choice of cash reward or construction of winning design in Ghana.

2nd place:

3rd place:

What is next?
THE BUILDING CHALLENGE!
As the construction of the best design entries is our priority, between May 2016 to December 2017, we are collaborating with some of the design teams in the competition to run construction workshops to build their design entries based on site in Ghana. Through an open call for participation, each workshop will bring together enthusiastic volunteers from around the world including students and recent graduates of architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, interior design, the arts and anyone interested in construction to join the workshop and play a part in line with their expertise. By immersing the design team in the full circle of designing and building their design, the team members will not only garner project management skills, we anticipate that at the completion of the design-build process, the emerging architects will learn to design what is buildable to make a well-rounded graduate. For the professional, you will find the hands-on earth building experience a pause from your office work to rediscover the rudiments of architecture and nuances that can refresh your practice.

Do you have a passion for sustainable architecture? Prove it! Join one of the building workshops to building a design entry in the 3rd Earth Architecture Competition! The building workshop to construct the 1st prize winning design entry, Abode+Adobe will be from August 1 – October 28, 2016. The building workshop to realize the 2nd prize winning entry, eARThouse will be held from July 13 – October 14, 2016; and workshop to realize the 3rd prize winning entry, Weft Wall will be from June 3 – August 31, 2017. Whereas, workshop to realize the design entry, Asase House will run from June 3 – August 31, 2016. The workshop for the Sculptors Domain will be February 2 – April 30, 2017; and that for Art House will be from February 24 to May 25, 2017. Call for participation in these building workshops will be posted at http://nkaprojects.boards.net .

And so, we are inviting schools of architecture and design, architecture associations, volunteer-sending organizations, Without Borders organizations, and community-spirited individuals to join us as project partners and supporters in building the best design entries in rural Ghana. Each building workshop will run for about 12 weeks. Volunteers can join at any time and participate for a minimum of two weeks. Students can use the workshop opportunity to fulfill their college requirements for internship, thesis, or to volunteer just for learning-by-doing on the prototyping project.

Interested? Then, contact info@nkafoundation.org / www.nkafoundation.org.

Mud House Design Competition information / images received 071215