Unprecedented shifts in demographics and lifestyles have redefined American households, but housing options have not kept pace. Smart technology, environmental sustainability, and demands for healthy living all require 21st-century solutions.

Making Room: Housing for a Changing America, an exhibition currently on view at the National Building Museum through September 2018, focuses on the mismatch between the diversity of our households and the homogeneity of our housing. The exhibition explores new housing options—offered at all levels of the market—from micro-units, tiny houses, and accessory apartments, to cohousing, co-living, and beyond.

The exhibition’s centerpiece, The Open House, features a hyper-efficient layout, movable walls, and multifunctional furniture. The flexible space addresses the needs of three prototypical households: roommates, a multi-generational family, and retirees looking to downsize. While The Open House is beautiful and impressive, it is not inexpensive.

THE SCHOLARSHIP

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation, HomeAdvisor, and the National Building Museum challenge students to create an affordable design solution for a retired couple, or a retired couple and caretaker, looking to remain in their 1,000 square-foot home and age-in-place. The design should embrace the same goals of flexibility and seamless universal design—which inherently makes things easier, more usable, or accessible for the greatest number of people, including older and younger individuals and people with, and without, disabilities—incorporated in The Open House.

Scholarships of $2,500, $1,500, and $1,000 will be awarded to the first, second and third place winners, and the finalists’ designs will be featured on a flat screen monitor within The Open House from June 1, 2018 until the exhibition closes in September 2018.

Please download the full competition detail to begin your design and chance to win.

2018 TIMELINE