It Takes a (Solar) Village

Come October 12, the Mall will become a Village. College teams from around the world will meet on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the 2007 Solar Decathlon, a contest where they will design, construct, and operate entirely solar-powered homes in a “Solar Village.” The U.S. Department of Energy launched the competition in 2002 with 14 teams from around the country. Now in its third cycle, the decathlon’s field has expanded to 20, including entries from top schools in Germany and Spain.

The contest, which provides $100,000 over two years to each of the 20 finalists to pursue their proposal, has a clear social mission: Along with challenging the next generation of built-environment professionals to think in new ways about renewable energy, the Department of Energy hopes that the solar village will educate the public and help bring affordable, energy-efficient solar technologies to the marketplace. 

The contest attracts some of the leading thinkers in sustainable design, including Pliny Fisk III, codirector and founder of the 32-year-old Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS) in Austin, Texas—a nonprofit dedicated to “using life cycle design to foster ecological balance” with a vision of “healthful environments, economic prosperity, and social equity.” Fisk, who pioneered a concept called the “groHome” during his time at CMPBS, serves as principal in charge for the Texas A&M team, one of this year’s decathlon finalists.

Thomas Gerhardt, a 2007 graduate in environmental design, serves as one of the student leaders for the Texas A&M project. At the advice of a studio instructor, he joined the team last year when members were working to adapt the groHome concept for use in the decathlon. The team has since expanded upon Fisk’s work by designing a version of the groHome that reflects the team’s own point of view and also meets the parameters of the competition. (Judges will rate the homes on ten criteria, including architecture, comfort, market viability, and lighting.)

The idea behind the groHome system is adaptability. The base is built on the chassis of a trailer—the same type used by FEMA in disaster relief efforts. Light metal bantam beams that make up the core of the unit can be reconfigured quickly and easily to allow for a customized home that can be assembled with little or no construction knowledge. Many of these trailers currently sit unused in Mississippi and Louisiana from recent hurricane relief efforts. Fisk hopes to put these abandoned trailers to use, as comfortable, energy-efficient homes.

Texas A&M’s entry into the Solar Decathlon is but one part of a larger groHome concept. Hoping to provide solutions to issues such as affordable housing, disaster recovery, and unhealthy communities, these groHomes, while all constructed from the same base, will come as a kit that allows for different uses. The U.S./Border groHome, for example, is ideal for fast and economical implementation in a hot, dry climate. The Katrina groHome is configured specifically to fit into the traditional vernacular of New Orleans: A high-pitched roof and shotgun layout blend in with the traditional neighborhoods, while still providing a dynamic and economical dwelling. The Texas A&M groHome is a more contemporary design.

While broader social missions such as border housing and disaster relief have been interwoven into the groHome concept since its inception, the implementation chosen by the Aggies for the Solar Decathlon is decidedly upscale. “We have amenities such as a Sub-Zero refrigerator and a Wolf range. We wanted to show that a building kit and high design can go hand-in-hand based on the way that you manipulate the building system,” notes Jason Bond, a 2007 environmental design graduate and student leader on the project.

Context was another important consideration, according to Bond. He says that the groHome’s adaptability made attention to design an important consideration for the student team. “Texas has a very tangible identity and vernacular,” Bond says. “There’s an honesty in how things are put together. We were able to use that in our design, along with the agriculture and manufacturing aesthetic traditional to Texas A&M.”

Constructing an entire home in four days in unfamiliar territory and detached from resource suppliers is raising interesting logistical concerns for the team. “We’re treating the competition as though it were a disaster relief situation and we were working under the constraints that such an event would pose,” Fisk states. He notes that the more luxurious models are as easy to assemble as the modest groHomes. “We’re building a system that is plug-andplay and can be manipulated by the end-user,” Fisk says.

During the competition, the base of the home will be wheeled onto the Mall. Once the core unit is in place, team members can quickly add other modules, such as the energy system and kitchen. These interchangeable modules are part of a larger plan for bringing a consumer-friendly product to market. “Our heaviest part is sixty pounds,” says Gerhardt. “Two guys with a ladder can construct one.”

Fisk hopes that one day the groHome may drive the building industry in new directions. “Our project anticipates trends in the construction industry that have already taken place in places such as the computer industry—namely, the use of standard, interchangeable parts to construct customized products,” he states, eliciting comparisons to another successful idea that was born in Austin—Dell Computers.

If the concept takes off, Gerhardt believes interchangeable groHome parts might be purchased on eBay, traded among neighbors, or donated in disaster relief efforts. “From a community economic development perspective, it allows those with fewer resources to take out smaller loans and grow their homes incrementally, granting access to homeownership for more people,” he adds. Fisk hopes the homes will become part of larger, sustainable groCommunities.

The competition, Gerhardt concludes, has been a perfect capstone for his education. “In architecture school, we do a lot of paper design. We build a model on a computer, it works out, and we’re all happy. For the Solar Decathlon, we’ve had to go out there and talk to a variety of people to solve a problem. We’ve had to get donations, talk to manufacturers, and learn construction techniques. The competition has allowed me to take a project from theory to reality, which is something you don’t often get in school.”

While the concept may not be ready for the mass market quite yet, it seems to be ready for the competition—the team recently received first prize in the student building category of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Lifecycle Building Challenge, a contest that saw 16 entries. Although that contest did not require the team to construct the idea, the recognition has certainly energized the team members as they prepare to build a groHome in October.