Each year, the Innovation in Affordable Housing competition invites graduate students enrolled in accredited educational institutions in the United States to form multi-disciplinary teams to respond to an existing affordable housing design and planning issue. The competition requires teams composed of graduate students in architecture, planning and policy, finance, and other areas to address social, economic, environmental, design, financial, and construction issues in addition to an affordable housing design challenge.
The theme for the 2025 competition is “designing for disasters.” The graduate student teams were challenged to address the lack of affordable housing in Palm Beach County due to a shortage of land for development, while also considering the property is subject to Florida weather related to heat, heavy rains resulting in flooding, hurricanes and high winds, as well as post-disaster safety concerns. The student teams were tasked with redeveloping an underutilized 13+ acre of land owned by PBCHA that currently has a 134-unit public housing development and a maximum density of 350 units.
This year's finalists include:
- Team Blue (University of California, Berkeley)
- Team Gold (University of California, Berkeley)
- Team KU (University of Kansas)
- Yale Housing Workshop (Yale University)
In early May the finalist graduate student teams will present their final projects to a jury of practitioners, and Jurors will determine the winning team later in May. That winning team will be awarded a cash prize and present their design at CLPHA’s Summer Meeting, hosted by Atlanta Housing, on June 13, 2025 in Atlanta, GA. The jurors include:
- Jonathon Brown, Director, Palm Beach County Housing and Economic Development
- Sonia Chao, Associate Dean for Research, Director, Coastal Resilience (CoRe) Lab, Faculty Lead on Climate, Environment & Resilience, Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas, University of Miami
- Byron Jones, CEO, Atlantic Development Consulting
- Tammy McDonald, Chief Development Officer, PBCHA
- Marcus J. Williams, Director of Real Estate Development, PBCHA
Teams from the University of California, Berkeley, University of Kansas, and Yale University Named as Finalists for Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design and Planning Competition
CLPHA, PBCHA, and Sponsors Support Continuation of 2025 Competition
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