Architecture professor selected to display concept home on National Mall in Washington, DC
Marianne Cusato’s concept home being assembled in front of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.Marianne Cusato, director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative and a professor of the practice in the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, has been selected to display her latest concept home in the 2023 Innovative Housing Showcase in Washington, D.C., from June 9-11.
The three-day showcase, hosted by the Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the National Association of Home Builders, will include several dozen exhibits, featuring new building technologies and housing solutions designed to make housing more innovative, resilient and affordable for American families. More than 2,500 policymakers, housing industry representatives, members of the media and the general public are expected to attend.
Cusato and her company, Cypress Community Development Corp., will display a 540-square-foot accessory dwelling unit she designed, featuring a full kitchen, one bedroom and bath and a large front porch. The house, constructed of steel frame panels, is prefinished off-site and designed for rapid assembly in less than a week.
The goals of the project, Cusato said, are to reform federal disaster housing policy to maximize the reach of funding and to engage in a national discussion on improving housing affordability by streamlining the construction process through new wall assemblies and leveraging prefab construction.
“If you wait until the disaster happens to plan for disaster housing, it’s too late,” Cusato said. “We are advocating for a revision to the Stafford Act to create a strategic stockpile of community-friendly accessory dwelling units ready for immediate deployment and capable of contributing to the long-term recovery efforts.”
Cusato is renowned for her work on innovative housing solutions for disaster recovery and workforce housing — including the design of the Katrina Cottage, created as an alternative to FEMA trailers and offered to those on the Gulf Coast displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. More than 450 Katrina Cottages were distributed in Louisiana and, in 2006, President George W. Bush signed a revision to the Stafford Act, allowing FEMA to build permanent structures modeled on the Katrina Cottage.
Cusato, who received a research grant from the School of Architecture in support of the project, said this work is core to the mission of the University and to the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative.
“We’re challenging policy, and we’re challenging defaults,” she said. “We need creative solutions to address the issues related to disaster recovery and resilience, affordable housing and decarbonization. This project examines how we can incentivize being the best stewards of the resources we have to make housing more attainable and resilient.”
Latest ND NewsWire
- Notre Dame celebrates new pope; Father Dowd offers prayersRev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, offered his prayers for Pope Leo XIV, elected by the College of Cardinals today in Vatican City as the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church.
- Collaboration with National Education Equity Lab to Create Pathways to Notre DameA group of campus units led by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning are building a pathway to the University for students who might not otherwise envision themselves as candidates to attend. It is an initiative made possible through a collaboration with the National Education Equity Lab, which partners with top universities to deliver actual college credit-bearing courses and supports to scholars in low-income high school classrooms across the nation.
- Clare Cullinan named valedictorian, Bennett Schmitt selected as salutatorian for the Class of 2025Clare Cullinan of South Bend, Indiana, has been named valedictorian and Bennett Schmitt from Jasper, Indiana, has been selected as salutatorian of the 2025 University of Notre Dame graduating class. The 180th University Commencement Ceremony will be held May 18 (Sunday) in Notre Dame Stadium for graduates and guests. During the ceremony, Cullinan will present the valedictory address, and as salutatorian, Schmitt will offer the invocation.
- Notre Dame’s Fightin’ Irish Battalion receives Department of Defense award as nation’s top Army ROTC programThe United States Department of Defense honored the University of Notre Dame’s Army ROTC Fightin’ Irish Battalion as the nation’s top Army collegiate program for the 2023-24 academic year. This will be the first time the unit has received the department’s Educational Institution Partnership Excellence Award, which recognizes the program’s achievements in recruiting, educating, training and commissioning leaders of character to be the next generation of military officers.
- In memoriam: Karl Ameriks, the McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy EmeritusKarl Ameriks, the McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, died on April 28 from pancreatic cancer. He was 77. Born in post-World War II Germany, Ameriks’ family emigrated to the United States when he was a child, and he grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He came to the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame in 1973 during a formative time for the department, which had transitioned from a predominantly Thomist focus to the more analytical American philosophy in the 1960s.
- Senior James Reintjes named 2025 Yenching ScholarUniversity of Notre Dame senior James Reintjes has been named a 2025 Yenching Scholar. He is one of 114 Yenching Scholars overall, representing 40 countries and regions around the globe. He is Notre Dame’s 12th Yenching Scholar and its 9th since 2018.
