KNOXVILLE — New affordable homes are being designed and built in Clarksville, thanks in part to the University of Tennessee.
The College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has partnered with the City of Clarksville Office of Housing and Community Development, along with the Clarksville Department of Electricity, Clarksville Police Department and other public and private entities on the home-building project in New Providence, an area in Clarksville in need of revitalization.
Under the guidance of Associate Professor David Fox and Clarksville architecture firm Clark & Associates Architects Inc., a group of architecture students has been designing affordable “smart” housing units for the New Providence area during the fall semester.
Students will present their designs to the City of Clarksville Office of Housing and Community Development from 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 14, at the Clarksville Department of Electricity, 202 Wilma Rudolph Blvd.
The affordable homes were designed for middle-income residents purchasing their first home. The designs of the “First Home” development focus on optimizing energy efficiency, integrating environmental site strategies and utilizing the students’ design skills.
The units will boast many environmentally friendly qualities, including ecologically sustainable building materials and systems; energy-efficient materials, appliances and landscape design; minimal use of materials that create hazardous byproducts; and a design that incorporates passive heating and cooling strategies, daylighting, ecologically sound landscaping and efficient storm water management.
“This partnership with the city of Clarksville has given students the opportunity to respond to the challenges of affordable housing by bringing together architecture, landscape architecture, urban and environmental planning and architectural history in a collaborative effort,” Fox said. “The program can have a very definite effect, not only in providing the housing but in how it affects the neighborhood.”
Construction on the “First Home” project is expected to begin in early summer 2008. This development is the first of its kind in Clarksville. Architecture students from UT have completed similar projects in both Knoxville and Chattanooga.
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Contacts:
David Fox, (865) 300-3861, dfox@utk.edu
Kristi Hintz, (865) 712-6450, khintz@utk.edu
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