Designs for Carbon Positive Affordable Housing
Why this competition? Why Now?
Courtesy of cove.tool
Why this competition? Why Now?
cove. tool's core mission is to fight climate change by helping architects, engineers, contractors, and developers use data-driven design through automation and cost optimization. Creating a competition premise that called attention to this critical issue was important. With the recently published landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2021 report that warned of increased extreme heatwaves, droughts, and flooding, as well as a key temperature limit on track to be broken in just over a decade, it further highlighted the urgency. As climate change intensifies, housing stability will be increasingly under threat. These two inextricably linked issues had the potential to spark innovative ideas from the international design community and community-at-large. With the sizeable grand prize of $50k, the goal was to solicit entries from all over the world and help facilitate more conversations about carbon positive, affordable housing that could be replicated in multiple neighborhoods, cities, and countries. Sustainability and affordability are often two topics that are at odds. However, this competition proved that there are creative solutions to complex problems.
