The Great Big Home and Garden Expo, February 6-14 in Cleveland OH, will showcase ten high school teams' model home designs from the 13th annual Student Model Home Design Contest, held January 22, 2010.
The Great Big Home and Garden Expo, Schill Architecture, Ohio Concrete NE, American Concrete Institute NE Ohio Chapter, and IMAGINiT Technologies sponsored the contest, nationally recognized by the International Technology Education Association for promoting technological literacy, energy efficiency and being environmentally conscious.
This year's student contest theme was "Thinking Big, Building Smart." Students were to design a green home for a family of four who plans to build in the Cleveland area. The family intends to build the home on a minimal footprint lot, incorporating smart and green technology, yet have most amenities and features seen in a large contemporary home. The students were instructed to design the home featuring an above grade concrete home (ICF - Insulated Concrete Form) system, while incorporating appropriate and creative use of other building elements, such as energy efficient and environmentally conscious products and systems to reduce energy costs.
Using their knowledge of architectural design, green building design technology, and concrete construction, student entries featured a complete architectural set (including floor plan and elevation drawings) as well as scaled model homes made of matt board or foam core. They were judged in several categories, including design, planning and innovations, energy-conserving features, drawing presentation, model presentation, and exterior design. There were ten schools from all across northeast Ohio entered in the contest this year. A panel of building industry professionals from across the area evaluated the designs.
"The students were very innovative this year designing their homes to incorporate 'Big' thinking yet still being able to maintain costs within the given budget. Including many Green building features in the home was a great way to bring new construction technology into a contemporary style home" said Scott Kutz, architecture, engineering, and design instructor at Westlake High School. "It'll be a highly visual display at the I-X Center for this year's Expo. We are very fortunate to have The Great Big Home and Garden Expo management provide a first-class venue to showcase the students' work."
A.J. Suever and Jeff Thaler, winners of the overall grand prize, stated that they "worked countless hours developing their design strategies and putting on finishing touches to their presentation in order to complete the entire project on time." A sub-grade garage entry and an impressive front elevation facade embellished with flat gray stone was a main feature of their design, along with numerous green building technologies and systems throughout the home.
"One very exciting and prestigious element of this contest, in addition to the cash awards, is the fact that the winning entries will be on display for the full nine days to the many thousands of visitors who will attend The Great Big Home and Garden Expo." said Sue Huff, show manager. "It's truly a great way to recognize and honor the outstanding efforts made by these high school students."
