Competitions, Housing, and Final Projects

I've become very familiar with design competitions over the years. As an architecture student, they were part of the curriculum and culture of the profession. Often times they resulted in outlandish solutions that neglected to consider and address how the solution could be implemented in the real world without requiring some drastic overhaul (Masdar City, anyone?). But, they make you think about, or more importantly re-think, what's possible. What was so appealing to me about the X-Prize Foundation reading is the way they are able to both push the envelope of what's possible and provide a structure to make those ideas a reality.

In researching our group project on low-income and modular housing, it seemed like much of the lack of innovation in that area was due to a lack of incentive (as stated in this paper). I was able to find a recent design competition, Texas Grow Home, that attempted to address the housing crisis in the gulf coast of Texas. The winning designs were then to be prototyped and hopefully used in the future as permanent housing for disaster victims. The main incentives for entering and winning the competition seemed to be more prestige and altruism because the "award" was a total of $8,000 for the winning entries. Some high profile architecture firms did enter the competition and there were a few novel ideas in the winning entrants, but nothing that was truly revolutionary. As much as we want to believe that money is not a more powerful motivator than the need to do good, I'm left wondering if the prize had been $1 million would there have been more entries and more revolutionary designs.

As an aside, these designs differ from our group's project in a few ways. Perhaps the most notable difference is the site. Because we are dealing with an urban infill situation, it is difficult to use large modules due to the size and constraints or obstructions (e.g. power lines, neighboring structures) of the site. Whereas once a disaster happens and land has been cleared, the sites are largely unencumbered and free of obstructions. Additionally, the weather around the gulf coast doesn't require a continuous foundation to withstand the freeze/thaw cycles of the seasons we experience in this area.

What is so beautiful to me about the way the X-Prize Foundation operates is the competition model. They are able to get such a higher yield for their "donation" by structuring it as a competition prize. Their foundation has reached a level of prestige that now carries a built-in audience. However, regardless of the competition sponsor a million or multi-million dollar prize is going to attract attention. My questions are about what happens once the idea is out in the world.