Porchdog House Featured in Architectural Review as a 2010 AR House

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The Porchdog House, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architect, is one of 14 winning entries in the inaugural 2010 AR House competition. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A house designed by Marlon Blackwell and his firm is one of 14 winning entries in the inaugural 2010 AR House competition. The Porchdog House is among designs featured in the August issue of The Architectural Review, Britain’s leading design magazine.

This is the first year for the AR House competition. This year’s prize fund (10,000 British pounds, or nearly $16,000) was shared among the winner and two runners-up. The design by Marlon Blackwell Architect was one of 11 others noted as “commendations.” Two of the 14 featured homes are located in the United States.

An international jury comprising David Chipperfield of the United Kingdom, Alberto Campo Baeza of Spain and Sou Fujimoto of Japan, and chaired by Catherine Slessor, editor of Architectural Review, assessed about 200 entries from around the world submitted to the competition. In her introduction of the featured projects, Slessor made this note about the projects: “Regardless of programme, budget, site or scale, the house is still a powerful architectural and cultural talisman, acting as an incubator of new ideas.”

Slessor went on to write: “The winning schemes display an impressive geographic diversity and it was especially fascinating to gauge the impact of context on architecture. They are also united by an appetite for formal adventurousness, concern for appropriate use of materials and technology, an awareness of the relationship to landscape or townscape, and the cultivation of a true sense of place and modern domesticity.”

Blackwell is a professor and head of the architecture department at the Fay Jones School of Architecture. Blackwell’s work previously was featured in Architectural Review, when his Moore HoneyHouse won an ar+d award for emerging architecture in 2002.

“Blackwell’s proposal merges abstractions of traditional and modern architecture in search of a more resonant and robust new whole,” the magazine states.

The Porchdog House was designed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a prototype house that was part of the Biloxi Model Homes initiative by San Francisco-based Architecture for Humanity. (The project was also featured in the book Rebuilding After Disaster: The Biloxi Model Home Program.) As Blackwell created a home that was both affordable and flood resistant, he also sought to keep the cultural convention of the porch. He started with the concept of a traditional shotgun house. Instead of making a long, one-story space, he stacked the volume into a compact, two-story form.

Blackwell said he was honored to be included in such an esteemed group of winners and to be recognized by a jury that comprised leading designers.

“My firm and I welcomed the idea of designing an affordable and forward-looking prototype, developing a structure that could successfully operate in that volatile relationship between land and water,” Blackwell said. “While the idea was in response to disaster, the built design points to the future of how housing design could operate. In particular, this is one alternative for housing that enriches the quality of life for people living in hurricane-prone areas.”

The Porchdog House was also named to the short list of projects for the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year, an international exhibition and awards event showcasing about 100 projects from seven design disciplines. The exhibition continues through Oct. 31 at the Design Museum in London.

In addition, Blackwell is one of two Fay Jones School of Architecture faculty to be mentioned in the summer 2010 issue of Dwell magazine, dedicated to “100 Houses We Love.” The TowerHouse, built for James Keenan in Fayetteville, was originally featured in the August 2001 issue of Dwell. Also featured in this special summer issue is the Wisener Renovation in Fayetteville, by Bradley Edwards, an adjunct architecture professor. It was first featured in the magazine’s February 2002 issue.