For the Dream House Architecture Competition, I sought to design a house that would ease my rushed school mornings by optimizing time and efficiency. My goal was to create a house that would quite literally let me sleep twenty-five more minutes. I first sketched the ideal room arrangement to expedite my process of getting ready for school, and then organized the layout using Rhino3D. Inspired by my previous bridge projects, I placed the house across a river separating my house and school to further emphasize its ability to reduce time.

While the house challenged what a conventional house should look like, it was a highly personalized environment that improved my daily life—exactly what a house should be. Through this piece, I realized architecture’s capacity to influence and curate the lifestyle of its users.

After the design won first place, I created a physical model of the dream house as a kind of personal trophy. Using Bristol paper and foam boards, I differentiated my personal spaces from familial spaces by assigning warm and cool tones, respectively. Seeing this model come to life introduced a new way of expressing my connection to the house, and ultimately taught me the importance of designing spaces that are deeply personalized for their specific users.