Submission: November, 2014
Registration: November, 2014
Language: English
Location: Coachella Valley, USA
Prizes: A total of $350,000 USD in prize money will be awarded to winning entries, finalists, and awards of merit.
Type: Open competition for architects and architecture students (students section) from around the world.
Breaking New Ground is an international design and ideas competition addressing the urgent affordable housing needs for farmworker and service worker families in the Coachella Valley. Efforts to improve living conditions suffer from a lack of funding and coordination. Going beyond design, the competition seeks to envision new precedents, mechanisms, and policies for affordable housing implementation and development, with implications for California and the nation.
At the competition’s conclusion The California Endowment and County of Riverside will work together to build an affordable housing project based on the winning entries. The winning team may also be selected to participate in the design and construction of the new project.
There will be an Open Division as well as a Student Division, and registration opens October, 2014. The Student Division will last one round and the Open Division will take place over two rounds.
In Round 1, competitors will be given six to eight weeks to complete their submission, with entries due in November 2014. The jury will convene and assess the highest scoring projects to determine four winners from the Student Division and four finalists from the Open Division.
The finalists from the Open Division will move onto Round 2 in January 2015 with entries due roughly six weeks later. Finalists will conduct a live presentation and the jury will announce the winner(s) at an awards ceremony in March 2015.
