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Your next career could be Staff Architect at Habitat for Humanity in Indianapolis

2024-03-08T11:25:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Japanese-speaking Retail Architect at O’Neil Langan Architects, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Staff Architect at Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity.

Based in Indianapolis, the role calls for an individual “responsible for overseeing the design and modifications of house plans and layouts to provide a cost-effective product that will serve the homebuyers' needs.” Among the requirements for the role are a college degree or commensurate residential construction-related experience with 5-10 years of specifically related experience and education.

Related on Archinect: Mississippi State University studio teaches the value of collaboration between its architecture and building construction science students. Photo: Megan Bean, courtesy of MSU College of Art, Architecture, and Design.

Why the role interests us

The open role at Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity offers u...

Mississippi State University studio teaches the value of collaboration between its architecture and building construction science students

2022-05-20T13:27:00-04:00

Earlier this week, we explored the relationship between architecture and construction science disciplines through the lens of a Building Scientist position at Payette. While the two fields are commonly intertwined within professional practice settings, they are also being implemented in a collaborative design studio taught at Mississippi State University (MSU). Students from the school's architecture and building construction science departments worked together in a unique studio called the PCI Foundation Studio.

After receiving a special grant from the PCI Foundation in 2020 to incorporate "precast concrete into the classroom," MSU Architecture's Associate Professor Alexis Gregory allocated the $100,000 grant to be utilized within architecture courses at the school. This funding was used to develop the Spring 2021 PCI Foundation Studio.

Under Gregory's direction, sixteen teams of students from both departments worked together to develop a collaborative design-build project benefitt...

Alquist 3D begins 3D printing 200 homes in rural Virginia

2022-04-29T12:39:00-04:00

3D printed home specialist Alquist 3D has announced plans to build what it calls the largest 3D printed home building project in the world. The initiative is dubbed Project Virginia and will see the development of 200 homes across the state. Alquist will kick off the project with a demonstration near the site of the first two 3D printed homes in Pulaski, Virginia today, Friday, April 29.

Project Virginia follows Alquist’s recent Habitat for Humanity project in Williamsburg, Virginia, a 1,200-square-foot, three-bed, two-bathroom home, whose exterior shell was printed in just 22 hours. The company claims that this was the first owner-occupied, 3D printed home in the world and Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D printed home in the country (a similar HfH project in Tempe, Arizona lays claim to the same distinction). The initiative hopes that this structure, along with Project Virginia, can serve as blueprints for delivering affordable housing in rural and underserved regions of America.

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Habitat for Humanity receives $436 million donation from MacKenzie Scott

2022-03-24T14:09:00-04:00

MacKenzie Scott has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its U.S. affiliates — the largest publicly disclosed donation from the billionaire philanthropist since she pledged in 2019 to give away the majority of her wealth.

Over the next three to four years, Habitat for Humanity International will use a $25 million portion of the donation to address the global housing crisis at scale, with the remaining $411 set to be distributed among the organization’s local affiliates. Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford says the money will be used to increase the supply of affordable housing, especially in communities of color. Local affiliates will focus on projects in their communities, and the international group will work on broader advocacy and efforts to build homes for working-class families.

“We could not be more excited to get the gift at a time when, in some ways, the state of housing affordability is the worst that it has been in modern times,” Reckford told The Associated Press.

Habitat for Humanity completes its first 3D-printed home in the US

2021-12-28T15:42:00-05:00

One Virginia family received the keys to their new 3D-printed home in time for Christmas. The home is Habitat for Humanity's first 3D-printed home in the nation, according to a Habitat news release. Janet V. Green, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, told CNN it partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing company, earlier this year to begin the process. Alquist's crew printed the house.

The milestone was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 21st. The 1,200-square-foot house has three bedrooms, two full baths, and the concrete portion of the structure was printed in 12 hours. The home was built for April Stringfield, who purchased the home through Habitat for Humanity’s homeownership program. The home also includes a personal 3D printer that will allow her and her 13-year-old son to reprint anything they may need, from electrical outlets to cabinet knobs.

Previously on Archinect: Does 3D-Printed Architecture Have Real Potential? We Talk With an Architect About His Experience Designing and Building a 3D-Printed House

This project joins Habitat for Humanity’s 3D-printed residential project in Tempe, Arizona, as part of their initiative to understand the potential for 3D-printing to deliver affordable housing across the country. You can read Archinect's exclusive interview with the architects and builders of the Tempe house, and their impressions of the proc...

Habitat for Humanity builds its first 3D-printed house in the U.S.

2021-06-15T10:21:00-04:00

Habitat for Humanity is progressing on their first 3D-printed home in the United States. Overseen by Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona, the single-story home is currently under construction in the city of Tempe, Arizona. The global housing non-profit sees the project as an important step in their future for delivering affordable housing across the country.

Image: Habitat for Humanity

The home is being built using a combination of 3D printing and traditional construction. Between 70-80% of the home will be 3D printed, including the internal and external walls, all using a Build on Demand Printer (BOD 2) shipped from Germany-based PERI Group. The printer works in three dimensions, with an XY axis allowing horizontal construction, and a raising and lowering of the printing frame to allow vertical construction. This gantry principle allows the printer to move into any position within the structure to build inner and outer walls layer-by-layer.

Image: Habitat for Humanity

Health and...

Former President Jimmy Carter returns to Habitat for Humanity

2019-08-28T13:30:00-04:00

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, will be returning to their 35-year-long role as volunteer builders for Habitat for Humanity. President Carter had undergone a hip surgery last spring, reports CNN, and had to take a break from his volunteer activities.

This year, the Carters are "set to construct 21 new homes...in Nashville, Tennessee, in October," according to CNN.

Contested Elizabeth Street Garden redevelopment in NYC receives city council approval

2019-06-26T18:37:00-04:00

It’s official: After years of debate, heated public hearings, and lawsuits, the City Council has voted to approve the redevelopment of the Elizabeth Street Garden into low-income housing for seniors. The Council’s vote was unanimous, save for one abstention from councilmember Rafael Espinal, who objected to the loss of a community garden for housing.

The Elizabeth Street Garden redevelopment in Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood has been especially contested since one beloved green space was supposed to make way not for the usual luxury condo towers but for badly needed affordable housing designed for low-income seniors with support from Habitat for Humanity.

Street view. Image: Curtis + Ginsberg Architects

As Curbed New York reports, "the new housing development, known as Haven Green, will have 123 affordable apartments for seniors (37 of which will be reserved for the formerly homeless), along with programming for its residents, ground-floor retail, and—as originally planned—around 8,000 square feet of open space."

NJIT architecture students to design first ever Habitat for Humanity homes in East Orange

2012-12-18T15:21:00-05:00

What does it take to build a livable home for under $100 per square foot? For a group of architecture students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, that question was answered in a semester-long project that ended last week. The project culminated with two students winning top honors among their classmates by having their projects selected for construction by Habitat for Humanity.

In Oregon, plans for Habitat for Humanity neighborhoods

2012-05-11T13:08:00-04:00

“As a housing commissioner we feel like we’re trying to plug a lot of leaks in the dike,” said Nick Fish, a Portland city commissioner in charge of the housing bureau and parks and recreation. And the city’s budget has still not recovered from the downturn. Habitat, especially in east Portland, he said, is filling the gap.

Kirk Johnson examines how a depressed real estate market on Portland along with a recent gift by local businessman John Gray, has enabled Habitat, the nonprofit housing group, to think big. The organization has been buying up property on the city’s struggling east side in the process becoming the 10th-largest home builder in the Portland metropolitan area by housing volume and even more dominant in the lower-income, east side through the $10 million land-bank fund that Mr. Gray helped anchor. The scale and scope of the new Habitat projects, city officials say will allow entire blocks on the city’s struggling east side to be anchored by owner-occupied housing, creating in effect what some are calling "Habitat neighborhoods".