By TOM CHERRY
Team enCORE developed a unique, interlocking design of an eight hundred square foot house for the Solar Decathlon, a competition showcasing both design and solar technology in the home environment. Representing The Ohio State University’s College of Engineering and the Knowlton School of Architecture, Team enCORE will construct its design on the National Mall in September 2011, joining nineteen other teams from around the world. The design and energy efficiency of single family, solar powered houses are evaluated in ten categories via performance metrics and juried contests in the biennial Solar Decathlon competition.
The enCORE design is an open, interconnected interior space that spirals out from a central service core, ending in a perforated screen skin that modulates internal lighting. Replacing Frank Lloyd Wright’s hearth with the service core encapsulates the shift from ur-fire to technology as the heart of sustainable design. Comfort comes from the cool wind of self-sufficiency and energy management. The centralized core concept, vaulted ceilings and expanses of triple pane glass help to disguise the small footprint of the house.
While the interior unwinds, the exterior works in the opposite direction, winding around the interior spaces and the core. The house rises off of the ground plane via ramps that access a plinth. The ramps wrap the corners of the house and the ninety degree turns amplify the winding/unwinding tension between the interior and exterior spaces. The perforated, movable exterior screens create the illusion of a colonnade via the skin panels. The screens stand away from the mass of the house, so the house fades into existence in layers, like pulling aside curtains: through the screens, across the plinth, through the glass to the interior. The canted roof segments also focus attention inward while supporting solar cells and a rainwater collection system. However, the technology in the house remains at one remove, just out of sight, behind the curtain.
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| Kitchen |
Eight hundred square feet, the size of a one bedroom apartment, is a small space to accommodate a contemporary family of three. However, the spaces in enCORE flow together, creating tension and interest within the footprint of the house. Tension between the interlocking interior and exterior spaces creates a dynamic spatial experience for the house and energizes the design. Evoking the simplicity of Wright’s Usonian home, Team enCORE avoids creating a sterile technical domain.
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| Living Room |
Concepts like enCORE will ease the way to wider acceptance of solar technology with the general public and help the green design movement overcome image issues related to poor design. A continuing design challenge is the scalability of the solar and energy management technology of enCORE to larger new builds or the applicability of such technology to existing housing stock. The Solar Decathlon competition demonstrates how design and technology can work together. Translating designs like enCORE into common practice is the next step; Team enCORE’s house will help keep design in the sunlight as the implementation of solar technology evolves in domestic architecture.
Author's note: Follow Team enCORE at solardecathlon.osu.edu.
