Hack- A-House People's Choice & Overall Winner Announced
Following Hack-A-House’s conclusion Saturday September 23rd, voting was opened for Overall Competition winner and People’s Choice winner. Industry experts and the general public voted for their favorites and two teams were selected.
Overall Winner: Team Alcoved (Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Rhode Island School of Design)
People’s Choice Winner: Team Two Studio (US) (University of Southern California)
In total, there was $12,000 awarded in this year’s competition. This was made possible by this year’s competition sponsor: Groundbreak Ventures. Their involvement in funding this competition and providing expertise from their work in prop tech was a strong addition to this year’s events.
The following 4 teams received this years awards, but there were many more excellent submissions this year which are linked below.
Finance (Overall Winner) – Team Alcoved (Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Rhode Island School of Design) – Alcoved proposes a new financing model for buyers purchasing a new home who could benefit from Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) rental income to qualify for a conventional mortgage. In this model, homebuyers would take out both a primary mortgage loan and an ADU construction loan, then refinance their loans once ADU rental income has stabilized.
Policy & Regulatory Reform – Team Affordable HouseCats (University of Arizona) – The Affordable HouseCats propose the Arizona Land Value Reform, a strategy to incentivize development by discouraging the holding of underutilized land through split rate tax reform.
Construction & Design – Team HC&W (Brigham Young University and University of Utah) – HC&W proposes a new housing design where buyers build an above-garage Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as their first primary residence, then have the ability to build a set of extensions to create an additional primary residence while maintaining the ADU for rental income.
People’s Choice — Team Two Studio (US) (University of Southern California) - Two Studio (US) proposes a unique design solution utilizing waste material from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to build a floating city.
All of the student’s submissions can be viewed on our website:
Congratulations to all of the 2023 Hack-A-House winners!