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Savannah College of Art and Design Wins World Architecture News Award for SCADpad Micro-Housing Community

  • 12/12/14

SAVANNAH, GA — Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) recently announced that its SCADpad micro-housing community won the WAN Urban Design Award 2014 in the Completed Projects sub-category. The WAN Awards, presented by World Architecture News, celebrate the best in architectural design and attract entries from all over the world.

Addressing the world's growing urban housing challenges, the adaptive reuse project transformed the parking structure of SCAD's midtown Atlanta location into a sustainable community featuring three 135-square-foot micro-residences. Each SCADpad includes a private outdoor living space, and the residences share three common areas: an organic garden, a rapid-prototyping area and a park. The parking deck prototype models an immediate strategy for sustainably advancing urban dwelling with a focus on adaptively reusing structures that are already built in the center of the city.

“This is the first international award for SCADpad. We’re thrilled that the judging panel recognized the project as not only a thought starter in the global dialogue about rapid urban growth, but as a viable solution to address the increasing obsolescence of parking structures,” says Christian Sottile, dean, school of building arts at SCAD. “SCADpad and the interdisciplinary group of students, faculty and alumni who worked together to bring the experiment to life, truly testing the boundaries of how design can change the world.”

Designed and developed by a SCAD team of 75 students, 37 alumni and 12 professors from 12 academic degree programs, each of the three fully functional and furnished SCADpad micro-dwellings fit within a standard parking space. The SCADpads showcase custom art installations from SCAD alumni on the interior and exterior of the micro-homes to create three design themes inspired by SCAD locations around the world: Asia, Europe and North America.

As the world's largest award of its kind, attracting entries from more than 120 countries, the WAN Awards celebrate the best in architectural design. Now in its sixth year, the awards are judged by an unprecedented list of high-quality architecture and internationally acclaimed judges, drawn from both top architectural practices and experts from each sector.

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers
The Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution conferring bachelor’s and master’s degrees at distinctive locations to prepare talented students for professional careers. SCAD offers degrees in more than 40 majors, as well as minors in more than 60 disciplines. With over 29,000 alumni worldwide, SCAD demonstrates an exceptional education and unparalleled career preparation.

At locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia; in Hong Kong; in Lacoste, France; and online through SCAD eLearning, the diverse student body consists of nearly 12,000 students from across the U.S. and more than 100 countries. SCAD’s innovative curriculum is enhanced by advanced, professional-level technology, equipment and learning resources. The university, students, faculty and alumni have garnered acclaim from respected organizations and publications worldwide including Time, Vogue magazine and U.S. News & World Report. For more information, visit the official SCAD blog.

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