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Teams of staff and students from The University of Western Australia's Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts (ALVA) are competing against each other to design a world's best practice sustainable and sculptural house at Cut Hill, York, Western Australia, and for the $10,000 prize on offer.

As part of the Cut Hill House 2010 Design Competition , sponsored by Charlie and Caroline Morgan, the seven teams, whose identities are being kept strictly anonymous during the competition; have to design a home for the Morgans, including their four grown up children.

It is a condition of entry that each team is lead by an ALVA staff member from the architecture discipline, includes at least one current ALVA architecture student, or recent graduate, and two consultants from related disciplines such as landscape architecture, engineering or agriculture, one of which whom also has to be an UWA staff member.

ALVA Faculty Dean Winthrop Professor Simon Anderson said he hoped the competition was the first in a series of design competitions that allowed Faculty staff to work with experts from other disciplines, within and beyond UWA, on the many design challenges facing contemporary society.

Caroline said while her family was looking for a beautiful, innovative and functional design, they were open to all ideas from the competing teams as inspiration for their future home.

"We're very excited about this competition bringing together professionals from across a range of disciplines, getting them to work together, using their complementary skills and strengths to push the boundaries of what a world's best practice sustainable and sculptural house looks like," she said.

"And the competition brief was quite open, so my husband and I are very much looking forward to seeing the imaginative ideas that the competing teams come up with."

Entries will be judged on their aesthetic and technical design innovation, sustainable achievements, responsiveness to the site and the quality of the accommodation of its users.

The competition jury panel will be comprised of a representative from UWA's Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, a representative from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, a representative from the ALVA Faculty, Charlie and Caroline Morgan and ALVA Winthrop Professor Geoffrey London.

The winning team's entry will be announced at the official opening of the Cut Hill House 2010 Exhibition , a collection of submissions in the competition, on October 11.

The exhibition will be on display at the ALVA Faculty's Cullity Gallery, which is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, until October 22.

For more information phone ALVA Faculty Administration on 08 6488 2582.

Media references

Carey Hemingway (ALVA Faculty, Communications Officer) - 08 6488 1859