Designs of the Year

Marlon Blackwell Architect - Porchdog House Prototype, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA

Nominated for the Brit Insurance Architecture Award 2010

Designed by Marlon Blackwell Architect. Sponsored by Architecture for Humanity. Image credit Timothy Hursley.

Biloxi Model Homes are affordable prototype houses designed for the Architecture for Humanity Model Home Program and targeted at East Biloxi families who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. The proposition of raising a home up to 12 feet off the ground to provide the requisite protection from a potential Category Four storm surge event disrupts the traditional notion of the Gulf Coast streetscape and
affiliated porch culture.

Image credit Timothy Hursley

The Porchdog House is compact with an efficient stacked living program, elevated above the ground but still incorporating a street-side porch. Other ground-level elements are an entry stair, enclosed storage space and parking area. Louvred metal shutters provide light control and storm security for aluminium framed window walls at the east and west elevations. The Porchdog House is a refuge that opens itself to the social structure of the city while minimising its impact on the ground.

Architecture for Humanity

Marlon Blackwell