MMA Architects was awarded the inaugural $100,000 Curry Stone Design Prize yesterday in Louisville for their 10 x 10 Design Indaba House or Sand Bag House.
The concept is so cool. Google it if you want to see more photographs. This will certainly have applications in other areas of the world. This year’s prize jurors – journalist John Hockenberry; architect David Adjaye; designer Renny Ramakers; prize founder Clifford Curry; and Michael Speaks, design scholar and dean of University of Kentucky ’s College of Design – praised the design as “absolutely brilliant” and “super-intelligent.” From the Curry Stone website:
The design forgoes traditional brick and mortar foundations in favor of a two-story frame of timber and sandbag infill construction, which is both energy efficient and requires little to no electricity or skilled labor to construct.
The Curry Stone Design Prize and the Curry Stone Chair in Design were founded by architect Clifford Curry and his wife, H. Delight Stone, as a gift from the Curry Stone Foundation to the University of Kentucky College of Design.
Principal architect on the project Luyanda Mpahlwa, Principal and Director, MMA Architects, Cape Town. All images copyright Wieland Gleich, ARCHIGRAPHY.com, 2007.
