Envisioning the House of the Future
April 4, 2008
To many, Tufts University is an institution known for its dedication to service learning, community involvement, and innovation. To this end, Tufts, in consortium with the Boston Architectural College (BAC), has been selected to compete in the 2009 Solar Decathlon. This international competition, organized and sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), pits 20 universities from around the world against one another to build and display houses powered by solar energy. Tufts will be competing in this event for the first time; its partner BAC first competed in the 2007 with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 2007 Solar Decathlon competition watched the German Team Technische Universität Darmstadt take home the gold after dazzling the judges with innovative integrated solar panel design. However, the German school spent over $1.2 million on their 800-square-foot home alone. In contrast, the Tufts/BAC team has chosen to create an affordable “green” house. The team aims to build the reasonably priced house with sustainable materials in a low impact manner.
A system that facilitates the easy creation of affordable and practical homes on a large scale would have a drastic affect on a number of different areas. With new, easily-built housing options, New Orleans would likely look drastically different today. Additionally, if such a house could be made available not only in the United States but all over the world, the affects could be astounding. In an era in which oil, water, and other natural resources are becoming scarce, it is important that we start to build in the most efficient manner possible. Furthermore, with the economy declining largely due to problems caused by housing, cheap homes have the potential to transform the realestate market.
Synergy between the BAC and Tufts has already begun. The BAC has created a design and construction studio where architectural students are working with engineers to create schematic designs for the house. Simultaneously, Tufts has created concurrent engineering and policy groups that will feed the project with research topics and design components. As more students get involved, additional interdisciplinary opportunities will be made available for Tufts undergraduates. In the coming semester, for example, students will be encouraged to write papers that connect what they are studying in classes to goals of the Solar Decathlon Project.
While solar energy is the primary issue of the competition, Tufts/BAC intends to stretch the boundaries. Solar panels, for example, may not even be needed to provide electricity for the proposed house. To achieve such a lofty goal, the team is looking to other paradigm-shifting ideas such as biomimicry, Cradle to Cradle, and passive solar design.
Biomimicry:
Biomimicry is a way to solve problems using nature as model and teacher. As it turns out, Mother Nature has been doing some serious trial and error research through evolution to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The test has been running for some 3.5 billion years, yielding solutions that are intuitively adapted to life here on earth. For instance, mollusk shells are made of countless nano-layers; an astonishingly strong, light, and organic material that casts an appraising eye on even our hardest ceramic. A species of beetle can harvest moisture from the arid atmosphere of deserts using specially designed wings. What if buildings could do the same? The natural world that surrounds us is a library of blueprints that have been tried and tested, none of which use anything chemically treated, toxic, or non-biodegradable. Perhaps it is time we took a leaf or two from nature’s book instead of fighting her in the belief that we know better than she.Cradle to Cradle
While humans consolidate “waste” into dumps and incinerate trash, waste in the natural world is widely dispersed and reused. William McDonough, an architect, and Michael Braungart, a renowned chemist, have teamed up to explore how humans can design materials and objects that can be effectively reused in much the same way nature has done so. Instead of throwing away objects, they hope to find new ways to reuse materials to build usable structures. Such efforts are already underway in other fields. For example, in the publishing industry, efforts are underway to make books out of light water-proof plastic material rather than paper from trees. When the book reaches the end of its life, the words can be erased from the page, and a new book printed over the original material.Passive Solar Techniques
Although using solar panels is one way capture the sun’s energy, it is certainly not the only one. The team is particularly interested in using passive solar technologies to help manipulate the enormous energy from the sun. Knowing exactly where the sun is located at which part of the day and how much energy the house can collect from the sun can radically improve existing energy gathering techniques. Orienting windows and walls in the correct places and using the right materials to harness or repel the sun’s energy can aid energy efficiency. Even simply adding more windows and allowing the house to ventilate itself using outside air saves an incredible amount of energy.The Tufts/BAC team feels that the visibility of the Decathlon is a perfect opportunity for the dissemination of ideas such as these, and other more-than-solar ideas to a world that is starting to listen.
On the Mall
Come fall of 2009, the Washington Mall will be transformed with cranes rearing their heads over the skyline and the banging of nails continuing long into the night, as teams of students and contractors erect their buildings furiously in less than a week. Then the expo will be filled with more than 200,000 visitors and judges, to tour and evaluate the participants’ entries. The houses will be judged on a list of criteria that include water functionality, energy efficiency, aesthetic appeal, and, most importantly, practicality.With luck, by the end of the competition, the Tufts/BAC collaboration will have built not only a sustainable, affordable house powered by solar energy, but a full-scale website, documentary, education events and materials, and policy projects. Most importantly, Tufts and BAC will have created a community of students and professionals who together helped raise awareness for millions of people about the possibilities of how hard work and ingenuity can help to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. For more information, or to get involved with the Tufts/BAC Solar Decathlon project, contact Heather Angstrom or Ben Steinberg at the Tufts Institute for the Environment. While the BAC brings architects and designers to the table, Tufts project leaders are encouraging students from all backgrounds to roll up their sleeves and take the once-in-a-life-time opportunity to make a hands-on difference in the world.
The author of this article, Will Ramsdell, is loosely affiliated with the Tufts/BAC organization.