Design Competition at Syracuse U. Reaches Out to Help the Community

Syracuse U. challenged architecture firms to come up with inexpensive, sustainable housing designs, like this one by the Philadelphia firm Onion Flats. (Images courtesy Syracuse U. School of Architecture)

The Architect’s Newspaper reports on the results of a design competition at Syracuse University, where school of architecture asked firms to come up with designs for houses that could be built sustainably and cheaply — in this case, for less than $150,000. The three winners: A partnership between Architecture Research Office and Della Valle Bernheimer, of New York; Cook + Fox, also of New York; and Onion Flats, a Philadelphia development-design-build company. The three designs will be built on Syracuse’s Near West Side, the article says.

The Architect’s Newspaper notes that the design competition is the latest in a series of undertakings that the school’s dean, Mark Robbins, hopes will strengthen the school’s connection to its city.

“The university can provide seed capital to develop strategies in a way that the marketplace can’t afford to,” Mr. Robbins said. “If we make research and design a part of the curriculum, we are building capacity for the students and for the community.”

A house by Cook + Fox, wrapped in a sunscreen, has movable partitions inside.