House

Overview

Our entry takes the emerging practice of sustainable architecture to another level as the house will not only power itself, but will actually produce an excess of energy (used to power RISD's new electric car) with zero toxic emissions. We will not burn a single drop of fossil fuel to heat and cool the space. The project involves technical research, design prototyping, community outreach, project promotion, the construction of the house and delivery to its exhibition site in front of the Nation's Capitol. We also plan to bring the house back to Providence to integrate it within the community. Our success will help lead to new era of smart living.

Our research team is in the process of building a house that convinces visitors of the viability of solar and sustainable design and demonstrates that the aesthetics and utility of the solar house are as important as the operational technology. The house itself becomes an important educational tool, and a visible and accessible installation that can be viewed by the general public during the building phase this summer. Paramount to the project has been balancing the need for energy efficiency with the principles of thoughtful architectural design, including strategies to heighten an awareness of the environment around us:

• The circulation path within the house will move the large number of expected visitors around the day-lit living spaces. The circuit ends with a private roof garden with an extraordinary prospect (the U.S. Capitol), thus extending the realm of usable living space and at the same time insulating and protecting the roof.
• The house's mechanical core differs from traditional houses in two ways: it is both more compact and expansive. The stacked organization of high performance equipment minimizes duct and pipe runs and therefore provides increased efficiency. In addition, components that extend to the envelope of the house are made up of new energy exchanging and phase change materials that react to the movement of the sun. The floor and roof do the work of old mechanical machinery to mitigate the temperature differentials.
• A performative, louvered skin tracks the circuit of the sun and, according to the season, reflects or absorbs heat and provides ventilation. As the earth spins the exterior skin produces a changing visual effect through a graphic use of hidden color.
• The building layout affords site adaptability. It can be used as a freestanding house or an urban townhouse. The orientation of the building favors the north/south axis while an offset of the parts allows for adequate light throughout even if the units are aggregated.

Each of these design elements is integrated to create a singular design. Our goal is to utilize the potential of design in every aspect of the home to provide the inhabitant with a quality of living that is enhanced through the interaction with the space. We have well-organized teams of students from Architecture, Industrial Design, Interiors, Textiles, Furniture and Graphics and from Brown Engineering ready to execute the construction of the building components to the light fixtures and furnishings.

Within the pedagogy of RISD's Architecture program, a decisive part of the exploratory aspects of various studios is the investigation of the ways in which materials interact and interconnect. We ask students to examine a material's potential and properties, to 'translate' the concept from one material to another in order to observe what is brought forward and what remains behind. The goal is to develop a logic, which can be applied to a structure to be used to solve various design problems at different scales. During the last two years, over 60 students and 7 departments at RISD and Brown University have developed and tested the logic of ten separate proposals and synthesized the best ideas into the final design of our 2005 Solar Decathlon entry. The project has also come a long way through the generous sponsorship from individuals and local companies. The next leap forward is the actual construction of the building, which has been exhaustively planned and eagerly anticipated.