Andes Sprouts Society Announces Final Winner of Design/Build Competition

The Andes Sprouts Society of Andes, NY announced the final winner of its Design/Build Competition. Launched in December 2008, the competition set out to address AS Society’s new media artist residency program needs by issuing an open call out to architects both locally and abroad to submit designs. Entrants were challenged to design a 300-square foot, portable, off-grid studio on a $5,000 budget. In addition to heeding budgetary constraints, entrants were asked to incorporate an agricultural and sustainable energy component into the design.

After considering nearly 80 entries, the jury selected three finalists in early June. Finalists had one month to address the jury’s questions and concerns before resubmitting their plans with any adjustments. The six-member jury voted again last week, finally KTC‘s design, The Recipe House, received the most votes (previously on Bustler)

KTC (Kate Cahill, Tara Marandino and Caroline Woolard) of New York have designed “a house that can be built by people who have never built a house before.” Using found materials, KTC’s studios will be “cooked” according to a design “recipe” that allows-just like the best kind of cooking-for flexibility, resourcefulness and last-minute substitution. “This house is an education in a lifesyle that promotes making the most of what you have and learning how to find and creatively reuse materials. We use every part of the buffalo,” KTC specified in their proposal.

Juror Usman Haque said of The Recipe House: “I really love this project - I believe it should be seen as a description of a collaborative construction process; not as a formal solution to a set of knowable constraints.”

The Design/Build Competion was conducted under “open submission,” meaning that entrants were encouraged to share their plans (normally kept confidential) in a forum on AS Society’s website. Competition organizers hoped that not only would this make the process transparent, but that the designs would subsequently be available to anyone interested in sustainable building.

AS Society farm sits on 24 acres in New York’s Delaware county within the Catskill Mountain Region. AS Society resident artists will be engaged in developing media art projects with crossover activities in emergent technologies and organic farming. The AS Society works toward the exchange of knowledge and labor of urban gardening and field farming, the sustainability of the land, while engaging artists on eco-bio issues from an international perspective.

The other two finalists were Austin+Mergold with “Living in the Plants,” and G Tects,

The winning design “Recipe House” is to be built this August. Many of the leading designs can be found on AS Society’s website.

Images: Andes Sprouts Society