San Francisco Affordable Housing Challenge

San Francisco is one of the trendiest and most-popular cities in the United States, which also happens to make it one of the most expensive cities in the world. Home of Silicon Valley, San Francisco has become the go-to city for tech companies within the US, and with countless tech employees flocking to the area with size-able paychecks, it’s not hard to see why the prices in the Bay Area have skyrocketed in the previous decades.

Add to this the strict zoning laws within the city limits and the greater Bay Area, San Francisco has seen an ever-increasing gap between the supply and demand for housing. Zumper, a platform that tracks national rents, recently recorded the highest ever median rent for a one-bedroom apartment. At $3,700 per month, San Francisco is now officially the most expensive city in the country.

The San Francisco Affordable Housing Challenge is the latest in the Bee Breeders Affordable Housing competition series. In partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS, this affordable housing challenge is tasking participants with conceiving a solution to the city by the bay’s housing crisis.

There are no specific requirements for this competition, and so participants are encouraged to be as creative as possible with their proposed solutions. Project designs should be flexible, enabling them to accommodate different inhabitants and their varying requirements. e.g. families, single professionals, couples, etc.

The jury will also be looking for designs that challenge typical ideas of housing, design, and the community as a whole, while at the same time incorporating a practical element that could see these projects offering a real, valid solution to the city’s affordable housing crisis.

Selected winning designs will not only receive prize money, but will also be featured in the next ARCHHIVE BOOKS publication on the topic of affordable housing, scheduled for publication in Winter 2020.

MORE: sanfranciscochallenge.beebreeders.com

PRIZES

3 winning proposals and 6 honorable mentions will be selected. Bee Breeders will award a total of US $6,000 in prize money to competition winners as follows:

• 1st Prize - US $3,000 
• 2nd Prize - US $1,500 
• 3rd Prize - US $500 
• + 6 honourable mentions 
• BB Student Award - US $500 
• BB Green Award - US $500

COMPETITION SCHEDULE (extended)

• Closing date for registration: MAY 21, 2020 
• Closing date for submission: JULY 3, 2020 (11:59pm GMT) 
• Announcement of the winners: JULY 23, 2020