Architecture students participate in eco-village design competition

The University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture has sponsored a student design competition along with two other accredited schools of architecture in southeastern Michigan, the Master of Community Development Program at UDM, WARM Training Center, the Woodbridge Community Development Corporation and the City of Detroit also helped sponsor the competition.

The competition requires students to design an eco-village on a five-acre site in Detroit's Woodbridge Neighborhood and is intended to both promote green design in Detroit and to make students more aware of green design principles and standards.

The UDM team composed of Edmund Bardhi, Johanna Allan and Kenyotta Brown, received one of the four equal prizes.

School of Architecture Dean Stephen Vogel explains the criteria for judging, saying, "The eco-village will be a mixed income community, with a minimum of 30 percent of the users requiring affordable housing. There will be no physical design differentiation between affordable and market rate housing. Residents will be a mixture of empty nesters, single parents, families, and young urban professionals." In addition, he adds that co-housing concepts or other space-saving alternative living styles are encouraged.

The competition was held at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) with four monetary prizes awarded.

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The University of Detroit Mercy is Michigan's largest private Catholic University, offering approximately 100 majors and programs in 60 academic fields. Sponsored by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the University has three campuses located in downtown and northwest Detroit.

UDM was ranked among the top tier of Midwestern master's universities in U.S.News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" – 2009 edition.  UDM was also rated one of the top 15 institutions in the "Great Schools, Great Prices" category.

Publish date: June 08, 2008