Rockaways rebuilding competition design winner to cost only $50K

Resilient house (Credit: Sustainable.To Architecture + Building/AIA
Resilient house (Credit: Sustainable.To Architecture + Building/AIA

A $50,000 storm-resistant home will soon be on offer in the Hurricane Sandy-ravaged Rockaways.

The winning design from an American Institute of Architects and Architecture for Humanity competition, sponsored by Dow Building Solutions and organized by the Make It Right charity, was dubbed Resilient House — a modern twist on the Rockaways’ classic bungalows. Crowned with a split roof that creates rows of windows that brighten and warm the home year-round, the home requires almost no heating and cooling, according to Toronto-based architects Sustainable, who designed the home on commission from the charity.

“Even if the power goes out, the house remains livable,” Sustainable’s Craig Rice told the New York Daily News.

The St. Bernard Project, a New Orleans-based organization that built hundreds of homes in the South after disasters and dozens in New York following Hurricane Sandy, will join forces with Friends of the Rockaways to choose the family to get the home. The team will also raise money for additional homes.

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The designs for all four environmentally-friendly and affordable homes are available to the public, because “you should be able to live in a sustainable, resilient home, even if you can’t afford your own architect,” Zack Rosenburg, executive director of the St. Bernard Project, told the Daily News.

This being New York, area residents wasted no time sharing their opinions on the winning design.

“The winner might work for young folks, but I prefer a Victorian,” Denean Ferguson, a resident of Beach 29th Street, told the Daily News. [NYDN]Julie Strickland