A team of three young architects from Greece - Efstratios Skopelitis, Maria Christoulia, and Alexandros Valsamidis (riza3architects) - won the 2015 Tiny Home Community Ideas International Competition in North Carolina, USA, aiming to create a cutting-edge community of 12 tiny homes for those who have none. 

The competition is collaboration between the AIANC’s (American Institute of Architects North Carolina) Activate14 committee and the Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness. Activate14 is an outreach initiative of AIANC and the Center for Architecture and Design (CfAD) to strengthen the civic role of architecture and design in our community. 

"One of the questions was how to create a community where people drive by and don’t say: 'That’s where the poor people live'," says Erin Sterling Lewis, spokesperson for the organizers. "It had to have a cool component – and be different, but not in a loud way (…) The Greek entry won because it was, first and foremost, the best site plan – there was a relationship to the neighborhood," she notes, adding that the Greek architects project was one that could make a difference, having "the best combination of site organization, appropriate construction methods, and thoughtfully organized residential dwellings".

The design was deemed to be "sensitive to the scale and context of its community” with prospects of enhancing the neighborhood, with “urban sensitivity to the needs of the individual and the community.."

See also: Greek Architects Net