Check out the student work submitted for real-world industry feedback! Learn more about submitting student work to receive real-world feedback here!

Grade: High School

PLTW Course: CEA (Civil Engineering and Architecture)

Submission type: Project: Affordable House Design

Project overview: In the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Civil Engineering & Architecture class, high school students learn important aspects of building and site design and development. They apply math, science, and standard engineering practices to design both residential and commercial projects and document their work using 3-D architectural design software. For the Affordable Housing Design project, students are tasked with creating a standard home using Autodesk Revit while being mindful that they have all the required rooms (living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens) and that they’re designing to the wishes of their particular client.

Student submission: 

Click here to view full submission.

Select judge feedback: 

“Hi! I work for Tighe & Bond, where I design wastewater treatment facility upgrades and manage construction activity on our projects. One thing your project team did really was developing the door and window schedule. It is crucial on building projects to have a detailed schedule that is correct because whoever is building this housing project must have this information up front to order the materials. If the information is incorrect, and the wrong sized material shows up, it creates delays on the project. It is great that you provided such great detail. You also did a great job showing a site plan with zoning information and surrounding areas. It is great to have all this information in one area to be referenced while out on the construction site. One thing that your project team can improve upon is providing additional details on the wall sections. While the one shown is great for a typical wall section, information on how to incorporate doors or windows is very important for construction. This is an outstanding project and I can tell you thought about may aspects to design. I appreciate the effort on the floor plan and despite taking so long, I believe it really paid off. It seems like you learned a considerable amount from the approach, and you can put it to use in your next project!”
– Staff Engineer, Tighe & Bond

“Hello! I am an Executive Project Leader at Cummings Properties. I took a look at your presentation and wanted to commend you on a well prepared package of work. Your concept plan is well presented in clear drawing format. I do not have any critique of your work which is of high quality; other than questions/suggestions. One question was the development of only one house on the lot. In order to maximize land utility, the lot could well have accepted two single houses. In order to make housing affordable, land cost needs to be well divided. It may be for your project, to keep it clear the task was just to focus on the design of one unit. The other comment is that energy efficiency is becoming more and more important, and required in new building codes. An example energy efficiency approach is passive house design. With electricity power air coolers and heaters, to reduce on site fossil fuel consumption. Taking your work to the next level would involve considering your concept in relation to regulations/higher goals of making the building as energy efficient as possible. On other thought is the footing. For such a lightweight structure, it is possible a ground slab foundation would have sufficed. These are just thoughts on how to contribute to your already high quality piece of work. Good job.”
– Executive Project Leader, Cummings Properties

Award: Design Thinking Award (2020-21)

School: Blackstone

Teacher: Tim Oliveira