Solar Decathlon

One of the holy grails for a green building is achieving a net-zero existence. A couple of weeks ago I visited the bi-annual exhibit featuring the future of net-zero residences as sponsored by the Department of Energy on the national mall-The Solar Decathlon. The department describes the event as a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.









This is the fourth event since 2002. The 10 finalists set up on the national mall in the form of a village on a main street (of sorts)and education centers at the center of the solar village. The contest lasts a little over a week and the contestants are judged on the following categories:

Architecture
Market Viability
Engineering
Lighting Design
Communications
Comfort Zone
Hot Water
Appliances
Home Entertainment
Net Metering



During 9 days of the contest, visitors can line up and meander through each house. The design team of students and professors are on hand to answer any questions. Select team members spend the night at their temporary home on the national mall, so someone is living in the building for the entirety of the contest.



These houses are machines for living. It would require more that your standard afternoon to really understand the complex workings of the systems involved in regulating energy usage. In order to compete, these houses had to be theoretically net-zero. I was most interested in the day-to-day living one could expect to have in a net zero house. How livable was it?.



Bugheart and I had time to tour most of the houses. This event was very well attended and the average wait just to get into a house was 45 minutes!



The most successful houses created an efficient floor plan that tied into the greater landscape. These houses integrated the solar technology into the building form. The floor plans were open with non-specialized rooms. Gone are the days of grand foyers and seasonal dining rooms in the new green home. The future of energy efficient design requires a new approach to the floorplan in which rooms serve many purposes. The multi-use room echoes the floorplans of vernacular houses of early America. Due to energy constraints of the time (fireplaces , coal, & wood), the same rooms were often used for dining, dancing, sleeping. In both the homes designed by Germany and Ontario, the beds were retractable. This reinforced the idea that a bed is not used all day long, so that space should be used as a general living space during the day. Kitchens were small for the most part, so chefs of the future will have to be efficient as well.



Our favorite buildings had integrated the solar gathering technology into the siding so it became part of the building rather than an accessory. The everyday interaction with the system was also integrated into the interiors. Many of the systems were automated and could be controlled by a mere app on your iphone.



My job is to design dream houses. Our clients’ dreams involve a lifestyle they never had- space for all the luxuries of life. They always want one more room- a room for crafts, storage, etc. My visit to the Solar Village made me realize that with current technology we must strive to use less. Less space. Less stuff. The village on the mall represents a change in the way we live and view living- the complete opposite of what I or my clients want.



Space is one of those guilty pleasures. An extra room gets filled with massive amounts of embodied energy- the energy it takes to build and maintain it. It is a professional conundrum. Do I give the client what they want or do I use my skills guide the client to getting what they want in a more responsible way? I envision the next time a client asks for a craft room or a large master bathroom that I should take a serious look at the design plan and ask, Do you really need that? Let’s find a way to work with what you have…



Germany, one of our favorites, was declared the winner.

Urban Foraging

I often fantasize about giving up the city life with all its conveniences and moving to the country to live off the land. I will have a thriving organic garden and happy goats.

When I yearn for this idealized future, I watch a BBC show called River Cottage. The show chronicles Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's journey from a full-time city dweller to a countryside farmer. Through a series of episodes he demonstrates how interdependent the farmer (played by him) is to his neighbors, the community, the land, and the countryside. He paints an idyllic life in the picturesque English countryside- you know the one…think All Creatures Great and Small.



My city life enables me to practice the profession I love, draw inspiration from the cultures around me, and allows unparalleled convenience to whatever strikes my fancy. What was missing from my life was that the cityscape seemed like a vessel for things I want to consume. I felt disconnected from the land around me. Although I have a tiny garden of tomatoes, peppers and various herbs on our small patio above the street, it was learning about urban foraging that scratched that itch.



It all happened one night when I was watching the episode The Wild Larder. In this episode Hugh and his cronies scour the countryside, hills and rivers foraging for wild food. They hunt for mushrooms, wild greens (ramps, watercress, and such), fish and game. The bounty of a healthy environment spills beyond the confines you set for it. Hugh made me realize that I had been myopic. Bounty lays beyond your small holdings in your great surroundings - my perception just had to change. It was in that moment that I realized the similarities my current city life shared with my dream of a country farmer life. My patio garden could be my small holding and the urban fabric beyond could be my Wild Larder.



Urban food foraging involves identifying foods within your city- most often fruits and berries, which are edible and free for the picking. The resurgence of urban foraging is relatively new and goes hand-in-hand with the resurgence of urban farming.

There are numerous websites on the practice foraging, including foraging.com, but the one of the best is the Urban Edibles out of Portand. Urban Edibles helps foragers navigate the unfamiliar physical and ethical landscape.

Here are some guidelines they list:

• Don't take more than you need. A tree full of ripe black cherries can be really exciting but how many will you use before they go bad?
• Ask permission before you pick. We do not condone unsanctioned harvesting practices or trespassing.
• Pick in a balanced and selective manner. The last thing we want is to damage the sources from which we harvest!
• Watch out for pesticides and other contaminants. Paint chips, pesticides, motor oil spills and even car wash runoff can affect the quality of the sources you pick from.

Re-using design

Photo by Michael Moran

Green and the application of the term to the architecture and design is an often abused. I have known of professionals who label their designs “green” just because it had “natural ventilation" (i.e. the windows open). When I was in architectural school in the early nineties, Green had the stigma associated with hippy designs. These relied on centuries old rules-of-thumb. Buildings faced south, incorporated massive walls for heat retention (trom walls), and were usually in the form of geodesic dome. There was a movement towards legitimizing green architecture in the late 1990’s and the US Green Building Council sought to avoid casual and abusive application of the term by qualifying “green” through a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification system. The system codified everything from achieving healthier built environments (from air quality to daylighting) to encouraging the use of sustainable building materials and building practices.

Upon becoming familiar with the system for the book, The Good Office, that I coauthored with Kristen Becker, I was drawn to the emphasis the system put on the value of reducing waste through the reuse of items that would be slated for demolition. The LEED system declared there was a value to this architecture beyond just aesthetics.

When researching projects for my books on restaurant and office design, I found myself drawn to projects that incorporated the reuse of materials. From restaurants that reuse the instruments for eating in their design to an office that created an iconic design piece from items that would have been thrown away, the most green and inspiring designs demonstrated the synergy of a common material.

In my first book, Restaurants by Design, I reviewed a small restaurant in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Confronted with a small space the designers took inspiration from the restaurants theme (seafood) and common serving utensil (the skewer). These applied en masse transformed the space and made you feel like you were on a sea bed amongst grass. The skewers had been collected over time and were reused (after washing) prior to installation. The design is representative of how how a green approach to design can not only transform a space, but take waste material and incorporate it into design.

Photo by Michael Moran

Only blocks from the Hudson river in Manhattan’s NOLITA, Smith and Mills integrates countless artifacts from a defunct machine factory in Brooklyn into the design for their small restaurant and bar. The former stable was changed into a cozy and hip bar with their collection of old machine jigs, engineering drawings, drafting equipment, and furniture. An old elevator makes the enclosure for the bathroom, all of the tables and stools are direct from the engineering drafting room. The items were selected to maintain an alluring aesthetic that carefully walks the line between a modern cocktail bar and an attic rich with history and long forgotten purpose.

Photo by Noah Kalina

Years before it was trendy to have a Green workplace, the marketing firm of Sedgwick Rd, hired Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects to adapt an old machine shop into a new office space. After seeing the raw undemolished space, the design team saw the beauty in what most would want to throw away. The design team convinced the client to save some pieces for the old space by tapping into the marketing team's philosophy- to share ideas through an open office space . These reused items where integrated throughout the design, but most noticeably in the “Frankenstein” piece-a series of original elements that were mobilized with reclaimed castors mounted on old steel beams that allow for flexible definition of meeting space.

Photo by Tim Bies

I find inspiration in the spirit and execution of such environmentally and aesthetically responsible designs. Our society has made it easier to throw-away, rather than to save. These designs constantly change my perception of what is possible with everyday materials. It is easy to get comfortable with traditional materials and methods of construction. I have preferences that I defer to because I know them to be beautiful. When a design outside of those constructs catches my eye, it causes me to take a second look and ask critical questions. It redefines for me what is possible in a greener architecture.