What first attracted me to the competition was the 'healthy homes' - it is a subject I found to be alarmingly impactful and at the same time barely talked about. The second reason was that unlike most architecture competitions here the engineering and building physics was a central component that would be evaluated by an international team of university experts.
The healthy homes competition was a brief for an appartement building at the outskirts of Rotterdam - it is big site near the dike and the river, thus it seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce Tiny Homes.
The competition would select 4 winning teams who would be invited to the CLIMA 2022 conference. In the end they awarded also an honourable mention to OnetinyStep.
Clearly the concept was Tiny Homes & their reduced footprint, but this was supported by 3 main reasons:
80% of buildings made are aimed at families, while 50% of our society lives in a single or 2 person household.
2. The site is located next to an industrial area. It has been shown many times over that industry can bring unexpected consequences, and these tend to disproportionally affect children. A recent example is the second scandal of Umicore in Hoboken...
3. The site is not included in teh cities protected area for flooding, the brief asked to keep in mind a 1m flooding event. However it is 2022 and we can't work with fictional numbers. Either a full assessment should be made of flooding danger - specifically targeting different climate change scenarios - or as with Tiny Homes, you can simply remove the homes and drive them back after the water has receded.