Rice architects to design ‘Extra-Small House’

CONTACT: B.J. Almond
PHONE:
(713) 348-6770
EMAIL: balmond@rice.edu

RICE ARCHITECTS
TO DESIGN ‘EXTRA-SMALL HOUSE’
Rice Building Workshop will use grant to
support project

While townhouses with
six-digit price tags are springing up in midtown Houston, architecture students
and faculty at Rice University are planning to design and build a small home
that is affordable to people displaced by the larger, more-expensive
structures.

With a $5,000 grant from
the Rice Design Alliance, about 30 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled
in the Rice Building Workshop will create a house that is no bigger than 500
square feet on land donated by Project Row Houses in Houston’s Third
Ward.

“The Extra-Small House
project for 2002 will address a part of the housing market that is often
forgotten,” said Nonya Grenader, associate director of the workshop and a
visiting critic at Rice’s School of Architecture. “We’re designing a small home
for one or two people who might need a starter home, an accessible home for
someone with a disability, a home for someone with limited financial resources,
or just a home for someone who merely wishes to live simply and doesn’t want an
apartment.”

Danny Samuels, director
of the Rice Building Workshop and a visiting professor at Rice’s School of
Architecture, said the small scope of the project presents a special challenge
to students.

“A small house can be
rich with innovation, invention and ideas,” he said. “Ideally, our students will
come up with a design that can be easily replicated, thereby increasing the
stock of affordable alternative housing in Houston.”

Part of the design
challenge is finding materials that will not exceed the maximum budget for the
house—$25,000. Students can investigate new materials as well as recycled
and
salvage materials. The design should also take into account the Houston
climate, closing off west exposures and optimizing north exposures and cross
ventilation.

Design and construction
documents for the Extra-Small House will be prepared in spring semester 2002,
January through April. City approvals, testing and fabrication of selected
components will be handled during the summer. Construction of the house is
scheduled for fall semester 2002, September through December.

The Rice Building
Workshop gives architecture students an opportunity to turn ideas into built
products. By following through on a project from design to construction,
students can become more aware of the real-world building process and learn from
experience how the process can alter design concepts.

The $5,000 grant awarded
to the Rice Building Workshop by the Rice Design Alliance for the Extra-Small
House will be supplemented by other funding, Grenader said.

The Rice Design Alliance
is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of architecture, urban
design and the built environment in the Houston region.