The winner of the Green and Affordable Homes for Kimberley Design Competition, part of last month's Building Sustainability Conference. will be announced at an event Friday, March 5, at 6:30 p.m. at the Kimberley Curling Club.

Kevin Brown, one of the conference's organizers and a member of the competition award committee, says it was a hard decision to make.

"There were nine different submissions, and the short list was five," Brown said. "We narrowed it down a bit further, then we had some very difficult discussions, and then we went 'darn it, we have to choose someone, why can't everybody win,' and on and on. So it was a lot of fun."

The submissions were of very high quality, Brown said, with a lot of the entrants from the region - from Rossland to Fernie, and quite a few from Kimberley.

""It really bodes well for green design in the town. It's been a great learning experience for the people who entered."

There was a wide variety among the designs, Brown said, with different entrants focusing on different things.

"We had one fellow hand us a funding strategy for how to go ahead with affordable housing and making it green, another focused on accessibility. Other people looked at different types of housing and different options for energy - there was just a nice wide range."

The conference and the design competition was a signal moment for the local green building community, which is already quite strong and becoming quite renowned.

"Our conference really worked as we hoped it would," Brown said. "It brought the public and builders together. It led to some very cool community work on that and just a greater level of communication."

Brown said that the City of Kimberley had experienced a sharp increase in the number of inquiries about green building techniques and options.

"I think there's a bit of a teachable moment going on here. Younger people who are interested in some change and saving some money, and older people on fixed incomes - it's just making better and better sense the more time goes on."

The Design Competition has been sponsored by Wildsight, the City of Kimberley, and the Kimberley Affordable Housing Committee.

Brown added that a follow-up event is in the works for June. One of the exhibitors in the trade show is sponsoring an all-day workshop with Tang Lee, a renowned expert on solar heating, to discuss practical solutions on that subject.