Winning project developed by interdisciplinary team of more than 100 students, alumni and professors

ATLANTA, Aug. 22, 2014 — (PRNewswire) — Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) announced today that it has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Georgia as a winner of the 2014 AIA Georgia Design Awards for SCADpad, a unique micro-housing and adaptive reuse community that transformed the parking structure of SCAD's midtown Atlanta location into a sustainable community.

"This interdisciplinary project called upon the expertise and critical thinking of current students, alumni and SCAD professors from 12 academic degree programs for innovative and, best of all, tangible solutions," said Paula Wallace, president and co-founder of SCAD. "So many SCAD students who participated and contributed to the project underscored our mission and heralded its success by creating a substantive sense of community within an urban core."

Addressing the world's growing urban housing challenges, SCADpad is a community of three 135-square-foot, micro-residences that each feature a private outdoor living space and share three common areas: an organic garden, a rapid-prototyping area and a park. The parking deck prototype models an immediate strategy for sustainably advancing urban dwelling with a focus on adaptively reusing structures that are already built in the center of the city.

Designed and developed by an interdisciplinary SCAD team of 75 students, 37 alumni and 12 professors from 12 academic degree programs, each of the three fully functional and furnished SCADpad micro-dwellings fit within a standard parking space. The SCADpads showcase custom art installations from SCAD alumni on the interior and exterior of the micro-homes to create three design themes inspired by SCAD locations around the world: Asia, Europe and North America.

The AIA Georgia Design Awards encourage excellence in architectural design, while making the public more aware of the potential of the man-made environment and to honor the architect, designer and owner of significant projects. Submissions were reviewed by a common jury of distinguished guests connected to all facets of the design profession and were evaluated based on creativity, design excellence and for innovation beyond current trends of form and image making.

SCAD was recognized at the 2014 AIA Georgia Design Awards Presentation, which was held on August 21, 2014, in Atlanta.

SCAD was also awarded three national honors at the AIA Convention in June, including the SCAD Museum of Art (MOA) as the recipient of the 2014 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture; SCAD School of Building Arts Dean Christian Sottile as the recipient of the AIA Young Architects Award; and SCAD Master of Architecture student, Adam Drummond, as one of five recipients of the 2014 AIA Fellowship for Emerging Leaders.

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers

The Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution conferring bachelor's and master's degrees at distinctive locations and online to prepare talented students for professional careers. SCAD offers degrees in more than 40 majors. Visit our official blog or scad.edu.

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SOURCE Savannah College of Art and Design