ARCHITECT design editor Katie Gerfen shares the winners of this year’s Residential Architect Design Awards:
Each year, RADA celebrates the best in housing design. But this year’s jury, which included Stella Betts, Dirk Denison, and Rosalyne Shieh, evaluated the nearly 600 entries with an eye not to where we have been, but rather where we should be going.
The 20 winners that you will see in the following pages reflect the jury’s emphasis on doing more with less (be it space or resources), focus on sustainability (by reusing existing building stock or pursuing new technologies), and resolve that everyone deserves thoughtful, elegant, and well-designed housing (whatever their economic status). Whether it’s a micro-unit that can grow vegetables for its residents, a rethinking of the Los Angeles ranch house, or the transformation of a local eyesore into a luminous destination, these winners show that architects can innovate to make better housing for a new era of living.
