The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Housing and Community Development (HCD) Knowledge Community, and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) have announced the winners of the 2026 Housing Education Prize.
The Housing Education Prize recognizes the importance of good education in housing design to produce architects ready for practice in a wide range of areas and able to be capable leaders and contributors to their communities. The winning course proposals will prepare students for a wide range of professional contexts, including design practice, development, policy, advocacy, research, and public service. Each course will be taught at ACSA member schools across the U.S. in the coming years.
The jury for the Housing Education Prize included: Andrea J. Johnson (Savannah College of Art and Design), Gregory Marinic (University of Cincinnati), and Jessica April Ward (Founder, IDEA Studio × Workshop LLC). The esteemed jury selected three winners who will receive a cash prize in addition to publication on the ACSA website.
The winners are:
Moving House: Culturally Resonant/Technically Innovative Housing Research, Design and Prototyping
Rob Corser & Julie Kriegh, University of Washington
Moving House is a collaborative research, design, and design-build initiative that develops culturally grounded, climate-resilient housing for Indigenous communities facing relocation due to sea level rise. Structured as a two-course sequence, the program combines a research and design studio with a prototype build. Students, Tribal members, construction professionals, and researchers will collaborate to design, build, and test a modest housing prototype using panelized prefabrication, Passive House principles, and design-for-disassembly strategies.
A New Paradigm for Missing Middle Housing in the Shenandoah Valley
Traci Wile & Nicholas Wickersham, James Madison University
The studio will generate a new housing paradigm appropriate and specific to the needs of contemporary life today, specifically for individuals and families experiencing housing insecurity; essential workers; and immigrant families. In this two-way exchange, students move outward through a deliberate design sequence—from lived experience, through spatial development, to the building envelope. The community presses inward: housing leaders, advocacy organizations, city planners, and local lawmakers all bring their knowledge, constraints, and needs directly into the studio.
The Architecture of a Decent Home: Resident Owned Communities as a Response to Social and Environmental Precarity
Ryan Ludwig, Roger Williams University
Over the past several decades, stigma, spatial marginalization, and capitalist exploitation have collided with climate– and cost–driven threats to housing security for millions of people living in manufactured housing parks. In the graduate design studio “The Architecture of a Decent Home,” students are challenged to preserve affordability while implementing climate-resilient measures in these frontline and vulnerable communities.