Winners Revealed
Announced during ICON's official SXSW showcase event, winners of the global architecture competition to reimagine affordable housing received their prizes and their designs are now a featured collection in ICON's CODEX. More than 60 countries from all over the world were represented in the submissions with six winners and ten honorable mentions being awarded prize money from the $1M prize purse during the event and presented by Wells Fargo, lead supporter of the competition.
Initiative 99 Supporters
Initiative 99 Supporters
About the Competition
ICON invited students, designers and architects from around the world to help us tackle the world housing crisis by designing homes that could be built for $99,000 or less with ICON's 3D-printed construction technology. More than 60 countries from all over the world were represented in the submissions. Ultimately, six winners and ten honorable mentions being awarded prize money from the $1M prize purse during the event and presented by Wells Fargo, lead supporter of the competition. The first, second, and third place designs in each category will each have their home designs featured in a collection in ICON’s CODEX, a new digital catalog of ready-to-print home architecture.
Winners were unveiled at ICON's 2024 SXSW Showcase, DOMUS EX MACHINA. Joining ICON’s Melodie Yashar, VP of Building Design and Performance on stage to present the winners was Darlene Goins, president of the Wells Fargo Foundation who was the lead sponsor of the competition. As part of the announcement, Goins announced that the Wells Fargo Foundation is committing $500,000 in grant funding to Austin-based nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes to help bring to life Initiative 99-designed homes and see multiple homes built at Community First! Village to serve the under-housed community. We are thrilled to award the following teams in the Phase 1 competition.
Phase 1 Winners + Honorable Mentions
Winners in the Student Category
1st prize: Casa Fami by IAAC (Spain)
2nd prize: Juan Felipe Molano (Colombia)
3rd prize: Victoria Roznowski (Germany)
Honorable Mentions in the Student Category
Fusco-Ayala (USA)
Canavati+Carneiro+Kazmaz (USA)
Henry Aldridge (UK)
LGK (USA)
Nex-Living by IAAC (Spain)
Winners in the Open Category
1st prize: MTspace Studio (New Zealand)
2nd prize: For Everyday Life (United Kingdom)
3rd prize: Beta Realities (Germany)
- Honorable Mentions in the Open Category
Willowprint (Germany)
Sameep Padora and Associates (India)
Guerin Glass Architects (USA)
JK3D (USA)
ConCave (various locations)
Phase 1 Digital Repository
ICON has provided an open source digital repository of Phase 1 Initiative 99 designs at the following link.
Total Cash Prize
The competition offers a total prize fund of $1 million (USD). ICON is committed to building a selection of the winning designs at multiple locations to be announced in the future.
Phase I and II Judges
Initiative 99 Jurors
The jury consists of an expert panel of architectural practitioners, academic leaders, policy makers and non-profit organizations committed to realizing affordable housing solutions.
Michelle Addington
Former Dean of Architecture @ University of Texas
Lucia Athens
Austin's First Chief Sustainability Officer and author of The Sustainability Revolutionists @ City of Austin
Michael Bell
Professor & Founding Chair, Columbia Conference on Architecture, Engineering and Materials @ Columbia University
Shajay Bhooshan
Associate Director @ Zaha Hadid Architects
Alejandra Guerrero
Deputy Director @ CityLab, Department of Architecture @ UCLA
Brett Hagler
CEO, Co-Founder @ New Story
Mariana Ibañez
Chair and Associate Professor @ UCLA Architecture and Urban Design
Bjarke Ingels
Founder & Creative Director @ BIG
Liz Lambert
Hotelier, partner, founder, & creator @ Lambert McGuire Design; MML Hospitality; Bunkhouse Group; El Cosmico
Michael McDaniel
Director of Design & Strategy @ ICON
Marc Norman
Associate Dean of the Schack Institute of Real Estate @ New York University
Sarah Satterlee
Director of Architecture & Site Development @ Director of ArchiteMobile Loaves & Fishes at Community First! Village
Melodie Yashar
VP, Building Design & Performance @ ICON
In the News
Articles & News
Wells Fargo Joins Forces with ICON to Support Initiative 99 Global Architecture Competition to Build Homes for Under $99,000
Wells Fargo is joining forces with construction technology pioneer, ICON, to support its global architecture competition for affordable housing.
ICON unveils new 3D printer, Initiative 99 competition winners
Local 3D-printed construction company, ICON unveiled new technology designed to build affordable housing during a South by Southwest event on Tuesday at The Long Center.
Beta Realities Designs 3D-printed Social Housing for Initiative 99
Addressing the global housing crisis, beta realities is one of the winners of the ICON initiative 99 with a scalable 3D printed social housing platform, called collective parts.
A 3D-printing company is preparing to build on the lunar surface. But first, a moonshot at home
A thread running through ICON’s work is building homes for disadvantaged people, including accommodation for the long-term homeless, often in collaboration with non-profits. Creating affordable housing is also an objective, which led the company to launch design competition Initiative 99 last month.
ICON announces 'initiative 99' competition to design 3D printable affordable housing
ICON has announced a global architecture competition ‘Initiative 99,’ calling on designers to create homes that are at once beautiful and affordable — meaning they can be built for no more than $99,000 USD. Initiative 99 is offering a total prize of $1 million USD to the winning design teams at the end of the year-long competition.
ICON announces a global competitionto reimagine affordable housing
Texan construction technology company ICON has announced a global competition calling on the architecture community to submit home designs that can be built for under $99,000 (USD).
$99,000 to build a house? 3D-printing company Icon announces affordable housing contest at SXSW
Designing a house that could be built for under $99,000 might seem difficult or even impossible, but it's the idea behind a contest by Austin-based Icon, a 3D-printing construction company, this year at South by Southwest.
$1 million prize announced at SXSW for new designs that reimagine affordable housing
Architects from around the world are being called on to help solve the affordable housing crisis. South by Southwest is the launch pad for a $1 million competition to get the best and brightest to create affordable designs that make homeownership more attainable for more people.