It's been nearly a year since Superstorm Sandy ravaged parts of the northeast, and some families are still struggling to pick up the pieces.
In New York's Rockaway neighborhood, rebuilding efforts were ongoing as of this summer, but a new project, organized by actor Brad Pitt's charity and three other organizations, is aiming to make at least one family's broken home complete.
According to the New York Daily News, the actor's "Make it Right" charity will build a $50,000 storm-resistant home in the Queens neighborhood to showcase several designs created in a competition by the American Institute of Architects and Architecture for Humanity. The project is sponsored by Dow Building Solutions.
Pitt's organization tapped Toronto firm Sustainable.TO to design the house, while New Orleans-based St. Bernard Project oversees the process of selecting the family who will call it home.
The design, a recreation of the bungalows traditionally found in the area, features a split roof that creates a row of windows to keep the house bright and warm year-round and requires little heating or cooling, in classic "passive house" style.
Sustainable.TO's environmentally friendly bungalow is one of four styles available to the public for purchase, including Rockaway residents eager for any signs of new construction in their hard-hit beach town.
In 2007, when Brad Pitt launched the Make It Right foundation, the organization committed to a similar recovery effort -- building 150 environmentally-friendly homes in a New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. By June of last year, the project was halfway complete.
Take a look at the Rockaways design in the slideshow below.
Brad Pitt's Charity 'Make It Right' Homes
CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that Brad Pitt is not associated with the competition or development of this project. It is being jointly organized by the four partners mentioned above and sponsored by Dow Building Solutions.
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