Make It Right charity’s winning design, the Resilient House, will be built in the Rockaways for $50,000.
A group of architects — teaming with Brad Pitt — has thrown a cutting-edge life preserver to the Sandy-ravaged Rockaways in Queens.
The actor’s “Make it Right” charity will build a $50,000 storm-resistant home in the neighborhood to showcase several designs created in a competition by the American Institute of Architects and Architecture for Humanity.
The winning design, called Resilient House, is a modern riff on the Rockaways’ renowned bungalows.
The Resilient House is meant to be a modern interpretation of bungalows that are typical in the Queens peninsula.
It features a split roof that creates a row of windows to keep the house bright and warm year-round, plus other “passive house” features.
The house, designed by Toronto architects Sunstainable.TO, needs almost no heating or cooling — in fact, it doesn’t have a furnace and the air conditioning unit is minimal.
“Even if the power goes out, the house remains livable,” designer Craig Rice said
JASON MERRITT/GETTY IMAGES
Brad Pitt is the founder of 'Make It Right.'
That’s a feature many locals would have appreciated during the cold snap that followed the Oct. 29 storm.
New Orleans-based St. Bernard Project, which built hundreds of homes down south after disasters and dozens more in New York following Sandy, will partner with Friends of the Rockaways to select a family to get the home, and will raise money for additional homes.
But the designs aren’t only for a chosen few; schematics for all four environmentally friendly and affordable homes are available to the public.
he Good Neighbor House, a runner-up, is the most traditional of the competition's top four home designs.
“Even if you can’t afford your own architect, you should be able to live in a sustainable, resilient home,” said Zack Rosenburg, executive director of the St. Bernard Project.
Of course, this is New York, so not everyone is so keen on the storm-fighting superhouse.
“It reminds me of my grandma’s place in North Carolina,” said Denean Ferguson, a resident of Beach 29th St., which flooded. “All that aluminum siding.”
Storm-damaged homes in the Rockaways about a month after Hurricane Sandy.
She and a number of other locals said their preferred design was a runner-up called the Good Neighbor House, which looks like a traditional Cape Cod.
“The winner might work for young folks, but I prefer a Victorian,” she said.
Not to worry, Rice said.
“There’s no reason it couldn’t be toned down with more traditional materials,” he said. The aluminum siding, for example, could also be wooden slats.
All that matters is that the houses will be going up.
“People will be accepting of whatever gets built,” said Dolores Orr, co-chairwoman of Community Board 14. “People cheer whenever they see construction fences going up. Who could complain about a few free houses for people in need?”
