All inventive programmatic ideas will be considered. The designs are to address the following criteria:
- Design of a public space to respond to the needs of a religious congregation (the submitter may designate the size of the congregation or congregations for whom the building is envisioned, as long as that size is between 500 and 3000 in attendance at worship, to allow for rough comparability);
- Designer may choose from any of the three following sites, or propose their own. Assume a Midwestern climate region for these sites (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa):
- Urban: envision a standard urban lot size for a small commercial structure - 6 standard city lots 25 feet wide and 95 feet deep, with alley, corner site, buildable up to sidewalk line, on mixed-use street zoned to permit commercial and multi-family residential up to four stories with four exits required - invent your site (and invent your zoning within reason), but describe the process of selecting it to help congregations make good site selections.
- Suburban: envision a standard suburban congregation site, probably a block large with parking, integrated into a mixed-use residential and commercial area - invent your site, but describe the process of selecting it.
- Rural: envision a truly rural location on a rural road, at an intersection with another rural road and surrounded by rural homes and agricultural uses - again, invent your site, but describe the process.
- Other: you may describe another real possibility, but use the opportunity of description to educate the congregational audience about good site selection criteria.
- Site design should consider innovative methods to reduce parking, propose solutions that promote visibility of natural setting, and suggest innovative ways of managing run-off. Landscaping should reflect the needs of nature as well as those of humans in nature;
- Design should elucidate the peace and serenity of the worship space, and at the same time demonstrate how the building embodies the notions of stewardship and care for creation;
- Design should establish a connection between the interior and exterior of the building;
- Designer should consider the relationship of the congregation to an imagined larger community, and create a design that not only integrates with that community but is of service to it. The building should be welcoming and accessible to people of all ages and all physical abilities, and include gathering places for people in the community, such as meeting rooms, food pantry, daycare, classrooms, gymnasiums, and other such public-use spaces. Flex-use and multi-use spaces are encouraged;
- Real buildability is encouraged! Designs must be within the realm of physics, and have life cycle costs that will actually encourage congregations to consider them as prototypes when they begin their building projects - additional cost for sustainable features is encouraged to pay back within 10 years of building operation, compared to some stated conventional operations standard;
- We are not prescribing a per square foot budget, because the parameters are too open here, but would suggest that an approximate figure should be kept in the range of what a congregation might actually pay. This means that if you can find multiple uses that generate revenue, or combine two congregations in a single building, the square foot price can be higher, and incorporate more technology that reduces operating cost and environmental impact.
- Some sustainability benchmark must be incorporated. LEED ratings are a reasonable choice, and we are looking for designs that reach LEED gold or platinum level. Other standards may be substituted with a clear explanation of how they might relate to the LEED system. Environmental sustainability should be a clear priority in a manner that would speak to those surrounding the building;
- Local materials and materials actually available should be part of the design. Local may refer to the central Midwest - Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan;