Architecture Students Exhibit Designs For Low-Cost Homes

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — How do you design a three-bedroom home that costs under $40,000 to build? University of Arkansas architecture students Amy Garrett and Andrijana Pavolovic did it through the innovative use of inexpensive materials such as polycarbonate panels and concrete blocks, creating a design that separates public and private areas in a compact space.

The students' designs, developed for a studio on low-cost housing taught by Associate Professor Greg Herman last spring, are currently on display at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, through April 3.

Their work was selected from more than 440 projects submitted for SECCA's HOME House project, which challenged architects to create new, eco-friendly designs for low- and moderate-income families using Habitat for Humanity's basic three- and four-bedroom house as a "point of departure."

"Affordable housing is an age-old problem, but these students' projects show that there's still new ground to be broken, and new ideas to be explored," Herman said.

The daughter of Terry and Connie Garrett, Amy graduated from Tahlequah Senior High School in 1998. She will complete her Bachelor of Architecture degree in May.