Architecture Students Exhibit Designs For Low-Cost Homes

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — How do you design a three-bedroom home that costs only $32,800 to build? University of Arkansas architecture students Andy Kim and Sang Jae Lee did it by centering their design around a 48' insulated cargo container. The two UA architecture students developed a suite of design variations using cargo containers that radically depart from the drab designs associated with pre-fabricated homes.

The students' designs, developed for a course on affordable housing taught by Associate Professor of Architecture Greg Herman last spring, are currently on display at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina through April 3.

Their work was selected from more than 440 projects submitted for SECCA's HOME House project, which challenged architects to create new, eco-friendly designs for low- and moderate-income families using Habitat for Humanity's basic three- and four-bedroom house as a "point of departure."

"Affordable housing is an age-old problem, but these students' projects show that there's still new ground to be broken, and new ideas to be explored," Herman said.

The son of Soung H. & Hannah Kim of Springfield, Missouri, Andy will complete the five-year Bachelor of Architecture degree in December. For more information on Andy, click on this link: http://uark.edu/~archsite/about/visit.html.