Abstract

In 2007 the City of Portland, Oregon, sponsored a courtyard housing design competition. The goal of the competition was to revive affordable and child-friendly housing in the city, while promoting social and environmental sustainability. The author and his colleagues participated in the competition by proposing a scheme based on generative and sustainable design processes rooted in local precedents and detailed user considerations. The entry did not win but important lessons were derived from this design work. In this paper the author will present Portland courtyard housing precedents, the generative and sustainable design processes employed in the team’s entry and the outcome of the proposal. The paper will conclude by discussing lessons learned and making proposals for improving design competitions and bridging the gap between aesthetic and social concerns in housing design.