In 1991, the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) began working on a design for low to moderate income housing. Since that time many houses using that design have been built in Muncie and Anderson.
"About a year and a half ago the University of Illinois invited architects to submit a design for a house for an affordable housing project," said Tony Costello, Irving Distinguished Professor of Architecture.
Of the over 300 designs that were submitted, only 77 were selected to use a national prototype for affordable housing projects. The design for the Ball State CAP was the only one chosen from a university based studio.
Due to the recognition that the college received, they also received grant money from partners of MUDS. This money went primarily to student wages, salary and supplies for the studio.
"Knowing that the design was selected is very satisfying and gratifying." Darrell remarked.
Mark Darrell, a graduate from the architecture program in 1997, spent many hours laboring over the design to contribute to the project. Currently Darrell is an intern at Gooden & Ellis Architecture here in Muncie. He said that he will get his Architecture license later in the year.
"Working on this project has given me a lot of insight into the practice in general," Darrell said, "it's shown me that community based design is affordable."
The Muncie Urban Design Studio (MUDS), which is a part of Ball State College of Architecture, played a large part in the design of the prototype. MUDS developed an outreach program in 1980 with it's main focus on affordable housing. Through Lilly Endow-ment funds they received in 1993, CAP was able to start building houses on small plots of land. Many have been built in Indianapolis.
In Muncie, over 30 houses have been built in Blaine and Whitely neighborhood, plus 11 in Anderson. Muncie Area Career Center is also in the process of building one of the homes. The Muncie Area Career Center serves the high schools of South Side and Muncie Central as well as many others. The Muncie Area Career Center has been building the houses one at a time for the past eight years.
The design of the house is built to be family friendly. The original layout was to be three bedrooms and one bath. However, it was later decided to add a half bath. The homes are also historically accurate by having both a front porch and a back porch, to accommodate to the social aspect of the house.
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