No Place Like (Solar) Home

Framed by a spectacular view of the Washington Monument in one direction and the Capitol Building in the other, the Washington Mall became an unlikely blend of classic and innovative, high technology architecture.  Amid the specatacle, one factor easily overlooked in the Solar Decathlon is the practical, almost humble nature of many of these homes.  Indeed, while current green technology is oriented toward a small number of affluent houses and showcase buildings, the decathlon points toward a future when environmental friendliness is available to all.

Crowds line up to tour the McGill University solar home.  Scroll down for a photographic mini-tour of the 2007 Solar Decathlon

Even affordable housing will be going green.  A recent talk at the National Building Museum highlighted why this is so.  Architect John Quale has long led University of Virginia students in building green housing, participating in the original Solar Decathlon in 2002.  More recently, he has led the EcoMOD program, which works to provide surprisingly inexpensive green materials and concepts to a variety of communities.

Many practices considered cutting-edge and green are in fact ancient, and would have been considered “common sense” before the era of cheap energy, heating, and air conditioning.  Green architecture is reviving the basic philosophy of working with the environment, rather than considering buildings as isolated units with their own separate internal environment.  Quale points out that understanding and using such natural patterns as the movement of the sun and air, shading, heat gain, and prevailing breezes improves efficiency without adding cost.  He adds that that good architecture should be available to everyone, that environmentally friendly affordable housing need not be expensive, that sustainability doesn’t necessarily cost more.

Modular housing is basic to EcoMOD, the newest version of prefabricated housing.  Modules are preconfigured so that they can be quickly shipped and assembled, with new modules added as need or desired.  Green designers often prefer that buildings be factory-made, a more environmentally friendly practice than on-site building.  And affordable housing is also often prefabricated to save money.  So this is a classic case of two needs coming together into an obvious solution (or one that seems obvious once somebody’s thought of it).

Quale’s students have brought their expertise to historic housing in downtown Charlottesville, as well as to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  These students are just part of an oncoming wave, that will likely wash aside our current ways of doing business.  At the Solar Decathlon, the students glowed with vibrant enthusiasm as they displayed the varied features of their houses.

Environmentally friendly architecture is spreading and deepening, and some day features such as recycled glass countertops, solar collectors, and windows that maximize natural light while minimizing heat, will come to seem natural.  People will wonder why anyone would ever have done differently.  As the Solar Decathlon demonstrated, students from across the nation are learning different practices, learning how to serve larger populations, to show that environmentally friendly and energy efficient can be for everyone, even the poorest.  Be they ever so humble, all homes can be green.

The lawn growth over! Green roofs, and in this case a wall, can help regulate temperature, reduce harmful runoff, and provide habit for insects and birds

Up close and personal with a photovoltaic array.  A silicon shortage makes these expensive, though the situation should improve in the future

Solar collectors for heating water are currently more cost effective than are photovoltaic arrays that generate electricity

A colorful entry from the University of Cincinnati

Windmills mounted directly on a house can cause structural problems, but this this Texas A&M entry offers a possible solution

A functional solar home—this one might do well in a bad science fiction movie

An experimental wall of the MIT house.  The plastic cubes are filled with water, which regulates heat as it enters the house

One of many stylish electric vehicles featured at the exhibit

It’s not the Monolith from 2001, but this PV array has one onlooker gazing upward in awe

 The exit of a solar home . . . and of this photo mini-tour
 

Ethan Goffman, Politics and Environment Correspondent

Ethan’s column, Environmental Connections, published twice each month to Gather Essentials: Politics, is a discussion of environmental matters from local to global, covering transportation, smart growth, environmental justice, green buildings, climate change, energy independence and other topics.

Ethan is a writer and editor based near Washington, DC
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