Clemson students win national award for sustainable home design

Published: September 26, 2012

By Kelly Borglum

CLEMSON — Two graduate students from Clemson University’s School of Architecture have been awarded first place in the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s 2011-2012 Sustainable Home Design Competition.

Nick Barrett of Irmo and Sam Pruitt of Greer teamed up to create their design, titled “NOTBLOX Affordable Housing Project: Assembling Sustainable Communities with Insulating Concrete Forms.” The project’s sophisticated design earned them a title as the South regional winners. Barrett and Pruitt are graduate students in Clemson’s School of Architecture.

The competition centered on Habitat for Humanity’s mission of creating sustainable, healthful and affordable homes; and challenged students to design housing that reflected these values. Four regional winners were selected, along with one prize awarded for the best use of vinyl building materials. The competition received more than 100 design submissions from universities across the country.

“With our proposal for Habitat for Humanity we wanted to demonstrate that sustainable and affordable can also be comfortable and stylish,” said Pruitt. “So many people tend to think that sustainable measures are cost-prohibitive or, at the very least, unpalatable in the mainstream market. We wanted to try and fight this notion.”

The winners were announced on the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s website.

Architecture assistant professor Ulrike Heine, the faculty sponsor of this competition, was approached and offered sponsorship by sustainable-building material provider NOTBLOX because of her research on the design of zero-energy houses.

“I was glad to share with Nick and Sam the idea of my research on the design of affordable and marketable housing that perform in an energy-efficient manner,” said Heine. “The collaboration with an industry partner was very fruitful and gave the students an inspiring framework for their design.”

The winning project will be exhibited at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 101^st annual meeting in San Francisco, as well as at the American Institute of Architects’ National Convention in Denver.

The National Endowment for the Arts co-sponsored the competition alongside the Vinyl Institute.

END