"The Box and Beyond" had students take a leadership role in interacting with architects, other design professionals, and clients to develop a new typology for the Newark Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Directed by Darius Sollohub, AIA, students met with architects, engineers, city planners, sustainability consultants, Habitat staff, and current owners of Habitat-built homes to create a winning design, a runner-up, and six honorable mentions that Habitat for Humanity would consider for future projects. The student with the winning design and the runner-up received an internship at the participating architecture firm to advance the house through the construction documents phase. The entire studio will build the house this fall.
According to the NCARB Prize jury, the project “incorporated excellent involvement of an outside architect in a real world context” and taught “involvement and commitment beyond its architectural lessons.” It also “balanced the professional and technical learning with social and cultural realms.”