Living Building Challenge Competition
Atka, Alaska
Filed In: Green Infrastructure, In Design / Unbuilt, Innovative Stormwater Management, Rainwater Harvesting, Residential
Cascadia Green Building Council, in partnership with the Aleutian Housing Authority, invited the world’s most talented and daring architects and engineers to design an affordable, single-family residence in one of the world’s most challenging environments: Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to meet the Living Building ChallengeTM. The winning entry will provide a prototype design for the housing Authority to use throughout the Aluetian Islands.
Collaborating with Brute Force Collaborative, the off-grid 3-bedroom, 1-bath house is powered by a 1.5kW turbine.
The home incorporates compact massing with a high performance envelope to achieve a high level of comfort and efficiency in an extreme environment. The cross laminated timber structure is harvested from pine beetle-infected wood from British Columbia. The house also features a wintergarden, rainwater harvesting system, greywater system, living wall, and a composting toilet. The entire project is flat packed to the site and built by hand out of the container to site meeting ‘The Challage’.