News and Media

Article By: E. Christina Spitz
Published: Jul 22, 2009

In keeping with SCAD's commitment to community outreach, 16 students in architecture professor Alexis Gregory's Architecture Design Studio V and VI worked together over the winter and spring quarters to create neighborhood developments and house prototypes for a new Habitat for Humanity neighborhood in the Tatumsville neighborhood of Savannah, Ga.

Working in the offices of a local architecture and planning firm, Lott + Barber, as well as working with the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, Thomas & Hutton Engineering Co. and Yawn Land Surveys LLC, the students designed the neighborhood layout first, with streets, sidewalks, trees and the location of each new house. From there the students designed the prototype houses for the neighborhood that the Habitat for Humanity homeowners could choose from.

"This project was a way for SCAD to reach out to the greater community of Savannah," said Gregory. "It shows how important it is for the college and the students to become more involved in bettering the lives of the citizens of this city, whether they are part of the SCAD family or not."

One prototype of note was by graduate student Sabrina Castle. Designed on a 4' x8 ' grid so as to produce minimal construction site waste, her prototype maximized daylight as an important factor in its design. The use of clearstory windows allowed the daylight to bounce around inside of the living spaces and also enabled cross ventilation within the home, giving homeowners an option of opening windows for natural breezes to cool the home, freeing them from a dependence on air conditioning and lowering utility bills.

Undergraduate and graduate architecture students who also designed for the project were Ryan Behneman, Chris Campbell, Nicholas Curtis, Kate Emshoff , Brett Grobarz, Purviben Harris, Michelle Kohlberg, Zachary Kohler, Joe Magnello, Kyle Merrill, Chemise Rogers, Daniel Russell, Michael Rutter, Cat Vanderlaan and Jesse Walker.

"There's a consistency among all of the prototypes presented in the use of natural light, and in taking into consideration the individuals who will be living in the homes," said Virginia Brown, executive director of the Coastal Empire Habitat for Humanity. "What a nice thing to come home to a house that's light and clean and beautiful."