WashU students shortlisted for MICROHOME architecture competition

“Within the Lakou: Finding Community on Collective Grounds,” a project by WashU Master of Architecture students Abigail Bauman, Cheyenne Granahan, and Bedgid Laguerre, was shortlisted for the tenth annual MICROHOME competition. Assistant Professor Wyly Brown served as faculty advisor for the project.

The team researched current day issues in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to develop a modular housing prototype that responds to pressing needs of displaced Haitian citizens. By engaging two scales of architectural investigation — the Lakou Urban System and the Microhome — they aim to establish a system that fosters social support networks, communal safety supervision, healthy environments, food security, cultural integration, and climatic responses.

Buildner, in partnership with Kingspan, organizes the competition as a platform for rethinking small-scale living through innovation, sustainability, and material intelligence.