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New Orleans Stoop House
The United States Green Building Council has initiated a nationwide design competition for a LEED platinum, single family home for the Broadmoor district of New Orleans, LA. This competition, entitled USGBC’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition, targets innovative design solutions from students and emerging professionals, while challenging designers to create an inexpensive (under $100K construction budget) contextually sensitive home.
A small group of HAA designers have challenged themselves to create the new archetypal home in New Orleans – a home that engages the existing neighborhood and city infrastructure from the elevated platform of post-Katrina housing. Four winning designs will be constructed by the Salvation Army, measured and verified during a designated sustainable testing phase, and then only afterwards will a final winner be selected.
‘Stoop as the social middle ground’
The porch is a critical space for residents of New Orleans. Analogous to the traditional public forum, but built to a more intimate scale, the New Orleans ‘stoop’ functions on multiple scales. Prior to Katrina, residents used their stoop to obtain relief from the oppressive summer heat, socialize with neighbors and friends, and maintain security in the neighborhood. Post Katrina, the New Orleans stoop became an unofficial town hall, community center, and religious facility.
As a symbol of public discourse, however, the stoop is becoming an endangered space. Newly constructed homes are being designed and constructed to a towering 7’ above existing street elevation. Similarly, designated existing homes are being lifted to the new flood plain datum. While these elevational shifts attempt to resolve future flood issues, the simple change in stoop height produces severe physical and social disconnections within the communities. By disrupting the existing neighborhood fabric, we could be eliminating the very sense of community that defines each area.
Our design concepts begin to address these issues by conceptually breaking down the front portion of the home into a series of cascading public spaces, each with varying elevations above the existing street infrastructure. We propose to occupy the interstitial space (the stoop) between the sidewalk and the elevated porch, thereby creating the necessary physical space for community interaction. All designs strive to solve ‘elevated living’, once again opening up dialogue between community members, regardless of their height above sea level.
Work in progress
All project submissions are due May 31st. As we further develop our competition proposal, we will post additional design concepts, sketches, and relevant topics. Upon completion of the project, we will post our final work, and look with great interest towards the pool of submissions being offered from around the country.
