Seven Winners Announced in Townhouse Design Competition
Seven floor plans have been selected as winners in the Washington Starter Home Plan’s Townhouse Design Competition. Winning designs were chosen from 30 submittals from 19 individuals and firms across the state.
Each winning plan now moves into the next phase: refining the design for manufacturability and shepherding it through review so that plans can be permit-ready for use across the state, reducing overall time and cost.
The winning designs reflect the competition’s focus on innovation that leverages offsite construction methods - a key element of the WA Starter Home Plan’s approach to producing thousands more affordable starter homes in Washington state.
Marty Kooistra, WA Starter Home Plan project director, says, “We’re excited by the design community’s response to this competition, and impressed by the caliber of submissions. Their quality and creativity, and their adaptability to all of Washington’s communities and geographies, demonstrate deep commitment to the potential of offsite construction to produce affordable for-sale homes at the scale our state urgently needs.”
Winning townhouse plans were selected in three categories: 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom, and 4-bedroom and judged on the following criteria: livability, efficiency/cost consciousness, design variation, modular-friendly design, and design innovation. Submissions were judged by a five-person, blind jury representing architecture, construction, engineering and a government planning department.
Selected Winning Plans
*All competition‑winning designs and associated materials published by the winning design’s architecture firm are proprietary works protected under U.S. copyright law. ©2006 the winning design’s architecture firm. All rights reserved. These architectural concepts, drawings, and visual materials may not be reproduced, stored, transmitted, reverse‑engineered, or used for construction, bidding, or design development without explicit written consent from the winning design’s architecture firm.
The WA Starter Home Plan makes no guarantees, representations, or warranty with respect to design or construction plans, including their quality, safety, compliance with building codes or state or federal laws, or suitability for a homeowner's property.
2-Bedroom Winning Plans
3-Bedroom Winning Plans
4-Bedroom Winning Plans
Honorable Mentions
We are grateful to all the firms and individuals who participated by submitting designs: Aff Homes, CAST Architecture, Cushing Terrell, Dubroca Studio, E Terzic Design, Ilse Roesch, Matt Poucher, Michele Marquardi, Plutus Development LLC, and Tsuga Studio.
“Every Washington family deserves a real path to homeownership, and that starts with making it faster and easier to build quality homes people can actually afford,” said Sen. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia, chair of the Senate Housing Committee. “The Starter Home Plan’s Townhouse Design Competition turns that vision into something tangible — seven outstanding designs that, once permit-ready, can be built across our state. I’m proud to see Washington leading the way, and I congratulate the winning teams whose work will help open the door to homeownership for so many working families.”
The need to create more affordable for-sale homes in Washington is evident. The Washington State Legislature has been progressively working to foster the enabling environment for more housing to be created.
The next step is making it happen—and that’s what the Starter Home Plan is building: the system to turn policy into homes.