IBI 1st place ‘Re-defining Home’
Re-defining Home: Home Today, Home Tomorrow Challenges Teams to Create Innovative Designs for Age-Friendly Housing
NEW YORK, NY (JULY 14, 2016) – AARP announced today that Gabriel Espinoza, Carmen Velez and Timothy Gargiulo of our New York office took first place in the ‘Re-defining Home: Home Today, Home Tomorrow’ design challenge, presented by AARP, AARP Foundation, Home Matters and Wells Fargo. Overseen by Lead Architect Mar Granados, AIA, their innovative ‘Inter-Active Living’ re-design for an age-friendly home won over the judges as an attractive, adaptable, affordable home of the future.
Re-defining Home challenges teams to create new standards to enable people to ‘age in place,’ stay in their home through every stage of life; from working to raising a family to enjoying retirement. Espinoza, Velez and Gargiulo focused on social interaction, flexibility and public vs. private space. Their marketable design can accommodate a family of various sizes and compositions.
“We entered this competition because as young professionals we need to be interested in addressing social issues in our work,” said Gabriel Espinoza, upon receiving the first place award. “The spirit of this competition has given us the space to express our ideas and design for an aging society, and we believe the future of housing must capture the needs of families transitioning through various life cycles.”
The competition is more than a remodel: Espinoza, Velez and Gargiulo’s re-design will be implemented in an actual house in Memphis, Tennessee, with the help of Home Matters’ partner United Housing and The Home Depot Foundation’s Team Depot volunteers. This fall, the home will be donated to a veteran family that includes at least one member over 50 years of age.
“Timothy, Carmen and I are motivated to test-out our winning design with the hopes that it will change the standards,” Espinoza continued. “Our firm has inspired and supported us 100% during the entire process.”
To learn more about their first-place design, please visit their project profile at Home Matters America or contact Mar Granados, AIA, mar.granados@ibigroup.com
