Prototype for Sustainable House Wins Design Award
By Mel Fabrikant Friday, April 02, 2010, 08:05 AM EDT
PREtty FAB, a prototype for an economically and environmentally sustainable single-family house designed by New York City-based GRO Architects, has won a Merit Award in the "Built" category from the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA-NJ). The award was announced at AIA-NJ's annual Design Day event at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J., and presented at a recent awards dinner held at Thomas Edison College in Trenton, N.J.
"We are delighted to be able to recognize these extraordinary designs," said Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, immediate past president of AIA-NJ. "The range of the winning entries -- from a university for Islamic sciences in Libya to a sustainable house in Jersey City -- demonstrates the incredible versatility of our homegrown architectural talent."
PREttyFAB, which was completed last spring, is a prototype for an energy efficient, pre-fabricated housing alternative designed for vacant infill sites in urban neighborhoods. The house is located at 1 Minerva Street in Jersey City.
The house was designed by Richard Garber, a professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) School Architecture and Design in Newark, N.J., and his partner, Nicole Robertson, an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University and Parsons School of Constructed Environments in New York City.
"PREtty FAB is really conceived as a prototype, the first of many in Jersey City and other urban areas, we hope," Garber and Robertson said. "We are intrigued by the possibility of realizing more of these houses, and its potential to demonstrate the broad impact that a relatively small project can make."
The house provides a bridge between the perceived divide between green design and economic viability, the architects say. The energy performance is 30 percent better than a typical single-family home, allowing the owner to be energy independent in seven years -- a feature that makes the design economically viable in both the short and long terms.
"Street tough," "tight design," and inventive with a limited budget" were some of the judges' comments.
The 1,600-square-foot, two-bedroom house, which is set on an undersized 22- by 54-foot lot, uses geometry to optimize solar collection, drainage, and passive heating and cooling. Part of the "green" roof is covered with extensive low-impact vegetation, while the remainder features photovoltaic panels.
The pitched roof provides a contemporary take on the rooflines of the gabled homes lining the street, resembling one-half of such a roof. The roof is rotated to take maximum advantage of sun exposure, prompting comments from the judges on how the architects used the form to receive the sun and how the geometry serves a functional purpose.
Pre-cast concrete insulated-panels (PIPs) are utilized as high-energy performance structural walls between which the small structure is framed. The panels, which fit together precisely, were craned into place over a period of three days.
The costs of design and construction came in at the owner's target price of $250,000.
AIA-NJ announced a total of 11 awards at the design conference. In addition to PREtty FAB, the other winners included the following:
Honor Award winners in the "Built" category were the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Engineering Department for their ferry terminal at the World Financial Center in New York City and Ikon.5 Architects for the Hockessin Public Library in Hockessin, Del., and the Kirkwood Public Library in Kirkwood, Del. Anderson Architects won a Merit Award for the Roberts Soccer Stadium at Princeton University.
The Honor Award winner in the "Unbuilt" category was RMJM Architects & Planners for the Al-asmariya University for Islamic Sciences, Zliten Campus in Zliten, Libya. Two Merit Awards in the "Unbuilt" category went to HDR CUH2A -- for the Headquarters for Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Dubai, U.A.E., and for the Georgia Institute of Technology Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory in Atlanta, Ga.
In the "Design/Build" category, the Honor Award went to Midouhas Architecture for the Nissenblatt Residence in Loveladies, N.J.
In the "Historic Preservation" category, FMG - Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects was the winner of two Merit Awards -- for Princeton University's Whig Hall in Princeton, N.J., and for the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, N.J.
For more information on AIA-NJ, please visit the Web site at www.aia-nj.org.
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