www.opticosdesign.com

National Issue – Local Reform

Our nation’s housing issues persist despite ongoing efforts to curb the shortage of affordable homes and high rental costs. Research estimates there is an insufficient supply anywhere from 5-8 million units. Half of renters pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, which is considered cost-burdened. Locally, Knoxville TN leads our country in highest percentage increase in home value since 2019 at roughly 86% equating to an almost $190,000 increase per home and average rents have increased 60%. Conversely, wages have increased less than 27% percent in that same time.^{1, 2} 

Fortunately, Knoxville’s progressive municipality has focused on a multifaceted approach to address these ongoing housing issues. Through progressive zoning reform and updated code adoption, the City has unlocked by right accessory dwelling units, legalized single stair building code, and reinstated middle housing typologies as viable options towards affordable housing density and progress.

¹www.etnrealtors.com ²www.knoxvilletn.gov

www.searshouses.com

AIA East Tennessee’s Mission

With the mission to lead East Tennessee in developing our cities, communities, and built environment, AIA East Tennessee has aligned with the City’s momentum by hosting an annual housing design competition. Since 2024, HOUSING ETN has served as a platform for architects, students, and the broader design community to be a part of proposing inventive solutions to address the extant housing issues of our time. See the links below for submissions from both the 2024 Accessory Dwelling Unit competition and the 2025 Single Stair Housing competition with entries from over 10 states.

This year, AIA East Tennessee is continuing this collective progress by hosting the 2026 Middle Housing Catalog | Summer Charrette. Middle Housing refers to residential structures that are comparable to single-family houses in size and scale but contain more than one unit. Middle housing has the potential to unlock “gentle density” among our existing single family building stock context; a converse to the typical large scale multifamily housing projects prevalent today.  

www.theurbanist.org

Historic Framework for the Future

Referencing historic examples like the Sears Roebuck Catalog homes and the Knoxville Small House Bureau collection³, the required submission format will be limited in an effort to encourage designers to generate and submit as many unique middle housing ideas as possible for each offered typology. The culmination of the competition being a published collection of the submitted middle housing designs.

Though there is no one single solution in addressing our ongoing housing issues. Each member of the design community has agency in contributing to its progress and we have the chance to be thought leaders of housing progress through our unique abilities. By curating what is possible with Middle Housing, we hope to share a vision of neighborhoods that can be more sustainable, contextual, and beautiful for all.

³https://cmdc.knoxlib.org/digital/collection

Competition Guidelines & Templates

Anyone and everyone is invited to submit designs that meet the competition criteria. After the competition, all submissions are to be compiled and included in the forthcoming AIA ETN Middle Housing Catalog publication that will serve as a broad collection of ideas for public/private reference supporting best approaches to sustainable, inventive yet contextual, and affordable middle housing design.

Additionally, a Jury consisting of local and national leaders in housing design, advocacy, and policy will review the submissions and select finalists, which will be recognized at the 2026 AIA ETN Design Awards Gala on October 1. All finalists will have their submissions printed and displayed at the Gala for public voting on a “People’s Choice” design award. 

1. Should participants register as firm teams/groups or as individuals? 
   • You can register as a team or an individual. Registration is largely for communication with entrants, with each entrant able to submit multiple entries. This will be explicit when the submission portal goes live to receive project designs.
     
2. What is the submission template format? 
   • The submission template is (2) 8.5×11 sheets, landscape orientation, not a single 8.5×11. This is provided for download on the competition website
     
3. Is a (3-4) unit townhouse permissible? 
   • As long as the front entry/short façade of the individual townhouses themselves face the right of way, 3-4 units are permissible for this project. The ability to include 3 or 4 townhomes in your design will depends on the site selection/dimensions you choose to incorporate. 
     
4. Do designs have to use a specific site/lot?
   • Where do we place the site drawing on the template? Entrants don’t have to use the lot list provided in the competition guide. They can use the standard 50’x150’ lot dimensions if no specific site is selected. If you use one of the listed lots, you are not required to give a site plan or address. The ‘spare drawing’ does not have to be a site plan and can be any drawing that serves the project and supports your design goals.
     
5. Can we give our submission a title? 
   • Yes, this title can be included as a header in the project narrative text required in the submission template.
     
6. Duplexes are allowed per special use zoning in the Knoxville Municipal Code. Should we refer to rules and requirements included in the special use zoning?
   • Middle housing zoning is the standard for zoning/design requirements, not special use zoning.
     
7. Are the exterior façade transparency requirements applicable to this design competition? I have had issues with meeting the minimum transparency requirements in the past on real world projects.
   • Yes, the minimum transparency requirements apply to this design competition. If you want to make a compelling case for NOT meeting the minimum in your design, please note this as such in some way in your project narrative or otherwise in your submission.
     
8. Is this competition going to continue all year long or will it start up again in a year to solicit more submissions/ designs to be included in the Middle Housing Catalog?
   • We will evaluate the next steps of the competition and catalog generation after we have seen the response and number of submissions to this current competition format.
     
9. Do the plans have to be 1/8” scale?
   • No, legibility and clear design schemes are more important in the plan drawings than staying perfectly at scale. Fit your drawings to the template as required that is the most understandable graphically.