In 2017, Las Vegas was revealed to be the least affordable city in the USA for renters, with the biggest shortage of affordable and available rental homes according to figures from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. It was found that Las Vegas only had 12 affordable rental units available for every 100 households classified as “extremely low income.” This is worse than Los Angeles, Houston, Orlando, and San Diego which were also considered some of the least affordable cities in the US.For the Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge, Buildner is asking architects and designers to create a new concept for affordable housing that could alleviate the pressures on the Las Vegas population.

Participants should consider designs that are flexible enough to adapt to different sizes and accommodate a variety of inhabitants (families, single professionals, couples, etc.) and their different requirements. As there are no specific requirements in terms of site or structures, participants are encouraged to be as creative as possible in the solutions they design. The jury will be looking for designs that challenge typical ideas of housing, design, and the community at large, while at the same time maintaining a practical element that could potentially see these designs realized.