Author: Nancy Dragun

Rob Corser and Julie Kriegh received a 2026 ACSA Housing Design Education Prize for MOVING House, a collaborative design-build studio exploring culturally responsive, climate-resilient housing.

Seven floor plans have been selected as winners in the Washington Starter Home Plan’s Townhouse Design Competition. The goal of the competition is to create compact and liveable townhouses for Washington households.

Winning designs were chosen from 30 submittals from 19 individuals and firms across the state. Each winning plan now moves into the next phase: refining the design for manufacturability and shepherding it through review so that plans can be permit-ready for use across the state, reducing overall time and cost.

One of the winners was designed by Architecture lecturer (and M.Arch alum) Chad Robertson through his firm, Seahaus.  The Seahaus competition entry explores a modular prefabricated housing system based on one compact, repeatable 948 sf two-bedroom townhouse design. The same module can rotate, pair, or repeat across a variety of site configurations — from smaller infill groupings and rowhouses to garden courts and shared-commons layouts — while supporting zero-step entries, visitable ground floors, and a more accessible path to homeownership.

The design is grounded in the idea that homes can be manufactured with the precision of furniture: volumetric, factory-built in the Pacific Northwest using detailed digital models, a hybrid system of carbon-storing CLT panels and light framing, and a stacked service strategy for efficient plumbing, mechanical, and utility coordination. By focusing on the fine-grained assembly of building components, the design explores how prefabrication can improve quality, reduce costs, reduce embodied carbon, and rethink how starter housing is delivered.

“In my teaching in furniture design and digital fabrication in the Department of Architecture at UW, I work with students to understand human-scaled design, material properties, fabrication techniques, and how digital modeling and CNC production shape the possibilities of both furniture and architecture. Through Seahaus, Emily Robertson and I bring that same maker-centered approach to housing, applying digital design, advanced manufacturing, and prefabrication to make housing more efficient, adaptable, and attainable,” Chad explained.  “We’re grateful for Civic Commons’ support as the selected designs move into the next phase of developing pre-approved plan sets, and excited to continue exploring how craft, making, digital fabrication, and architecture can shape more efficient, adaptable, and attainable starter-home design.”
 
Congratulations, Chad and Emily, on this important recognition!

 

The UW Department of Architecture is pleased to announce that Master of Architecture student, Daquan Proctor, was awarded the WRNS Studio Foundation Scholarship in January 2022.

The WRNS Studio Foundation scholarship and advisory program seeks to cultivate a thriving higher education scholarship program that will encourage more Black students to pursue careers in Architecture, by providing multi-year educational financial support and enhanced access to enduring professional relationships. Recipients will be assigned an advisor from WRNS Studio for the duration of the awarded scholarship term to help establish contacts and build relationships within the field.

Congratulations, Daquan!

Architecture Chair and Professor Kate Simonen was asked by Governor Inslee to host a substantive discussion as he continues to develop policies and charge working groups to achieve better carbon futures. In Gould Hall on December 6, Governor Jay Inslee met with approximately twenty building professionals, think tank leaders, and researchers. Professor Simonen framed the discussion on how we can achieve lower carbon in construction, including with building materials from lower emissions manufacturing.  The Governor also toured the campus with President Cauce. Following the meeting, he expressed that he is “thankful for this group of collaborative and intelligent minds to continue the fight against climate change.”

Prof. Simonen is the director of the Carbon Leadership Forum, whose goal is to eliminate embodied carbon in buildings and infrastructure by inspiring innovation and spurring change through collective action.

“There’s a tremendous economic opportunity for Washington to be a leader in supplying low–carbon materials,” noted one of the stakeholders in attendance. “It’d be great to bring in workers and manufacturers that can put a face on and speak to that opportunity.”

“It was great to be sitting next to the Governor and in the room with [Rep.] Davina Duerr discussing embodied carbon policy options for Washington State,” said Simonen. “We had a productive discussion about both demand and supply side strategies.”  Following the meeting, Inslee expressed that he is “thankful for this group of collaborative and intelligent minds to continue the fight against climate change.”

Photos: Mark Stone / University of Washington

We are saddened to share the news that Wang Chiu-hwa, one of Taiwan’s most prominent female architects, passed away on June 14 at the age of 96. Wang came to the University of Washington from China in 1946 and graduated with her BA in 1947.

At that time, the UW did not yet offer a postgraduate degree in Architecture, so after graduating, Wang went on to earn her M.Arch at Columbia University.  She then practiced in the US until 1979, with projects completed in New York, Cleveland, and Detroit.  She came to Taiwan in 1979 and continued a successful career in practice and teaching at Tamkang University. She was often called the “Mother of Libraries” in Taiwan, for her work in modernizing the library design in Taiwan since that time.  Stemming from her love of learning and education, Wang earned this nickname not only for the many libraries she has designed but also for pioneering the earliest modern, open-stack university library in Taiwan.

Wang has described architecture as “an indispensable part of a complex built environment, full of human emotions and social significance, transcending form and function, beauty and practicality.” She has also said that “as a designer, you must concern yourself first and foremost with the well-being of the majority, not just the interests of a few wealthy people.” (See Culture Minister mourns the passing of ‘Mother of Taiwanese Libraries’ architect Wang Chiu-hwa.)

In 2020, President Tsai Ing-Wen presented her with the Taiwan National Award for the Arts, which is the highest honor for the profession in that country.

Much of Wang’s archive now resides with M+, a new museum of contemporary visual culture based in Hong Kong.  This acquisition marked the beginning of M+’s efforts to uncover the histories of women architects, whose work often lacks documentation and research. Wang was a key honorary founder of Women in Architecture Taiwan. It was one of her wishes to encourage women architects to do great work in the field.

You can learn more about Wang’s remarkable career and contributions to architecture here:

We are honored to count her among the many distinguished alumni of the UW Department of Architecture.