As part of Detroit's new "green" initiative, the city is looking for contemporary solutions to vacant land usage, including the potential of developing eco-villages—environmentally friendly, affordable housing.

A student team presents its preliminary eco-village design for critique by Architecture faculty and guest "judges" prior to competition submission.

The three accredited schools of architecture in southeastern Michigan— the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Lawrence Technological University College of Architecture and Design and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture— have sponsored a student design competition to design an eco-village on a five-acre site in Detroit's Woodbridge Neighborhood.

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, organized by School of Architecture Dean Stephen Vogel, is intended to both promote green design in Detroit and to make students more aware of green design principles and standards.

Each school has devoted one studio of students to the competition, consisting of teams of three students or less. The studio faculty includes Noah Resnick, UDM; Joel Schmidt, University of Michigan, and Anirban Adhya, Lawrence Technological University. According to Vogel, "There were 19 team submittals, including four from UDM."

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

Architecture faculty Noah Resnick and guest judge Phillip Cooley (left) listen to a practice presentation from the student team of Kenyotta Brown, Edmund Bardhi and Johanna Allan during a critique session.

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 took place over a three-month period, concluding on April 14. Competition judging occurred April 26 at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) with four monetary prizes awarded.

Chaired by Teddy Cruz, AIA, from San Diego, the jury also included Jacob Corvidae for WARM, Mike Corby, AIA from Grand Rapids, Mark Nickita, AIA from Detroit and Lori Singleton, ASLA from Detroit. Following the competition, the works will remain on display for several weeks.

Most importantly, Vogel says, "The village is intended to be economically, socially and ecologically sustainable. And, finally, the village should be inspirational in order to encourage others to become part of the experiment."