PrefabNZ launches Design Competition for Open-Source Bathroo

PrefabNZ launches Design Competition for Open-Source Bathroom Pod

The continued growth of retirement villages and the high need for cost-effective social housing will see a projected shortfall of 30,000 housing units by 2030, according to PrefabNZ SaRH Pipeline.

Pamela Bell, chief executive of PrefabNZ, says ‘this means more innovative pre-packaged design and construction solutions are needed.’ Speaking at the PrefabNZ and Retirement Villages Association (RVA) Forum today, Pamela launched the Unipod – a Design Competition for an open-source Universal Bathroom Pod.

The competition responds to the accessible needs of retirement and social housing dwellers, as well as for use in multi-unit residential developments. Competitor teams are encouraged to bring together individuals from across the design and construction disciplines to collaborate on the UniPod design, with an overall prize of $5,000 plus the winning entry is planned to be built and showcased at the PrefabNZ CoLab in Auckland next April.

The competition brings together partner organisations and associations and forms part of the PrefabNZ Levers for Prefab Action Plan Research Programme, which is supported by BRANZ Research Levy Funding.

‘This is an opportunity to be truly innovative and create something ‘bite-sized’ that can be built by anywhere and meets the needs of New Zealand’s changing population’, according to Pamela Bell.

Entries close on Monday 7 December and the judging panel will include experts in architecture, construction, prefabrication, sustainability, universal design and social and retirement housing. The competition winners will be announced on the week of 14-18 December.

Full details for the UniPod Design Competition can be found on the PrefabNZ website. http://www.prefabnz.com/Events/Upcoming-Events/UniPod-Comp2015/

ENDS

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