2013

SD Build – Collaboration with University of Louisville

Market Strategy: The Phoenix house is designed for middle-class families affected by tornados or other natural disasters. Although designed to be built quickly, it is also designed to be durable, safe, and sustainable—reflecting a spirit of permanence and resilience. For its owners, the ultra-efficient house is designed for long-term comfort and cost savings.

2017

Race to Zero | ARCH 501 – Small Multi-family Typology

Project Summary
This project is a small multifamily residence located in Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA. Providing a contemporary approach to a historic building typology, its six units are marketed towards young professionals and small families who are seeking a healthier urban lifestyle with direct access to recreation and amenities.

Design Strategy and Key Points
The design team focused on the sensitivity to context in massing, size, and layout replicating a historic triple decker. Borrowing the logic and idea of the triple decker as a contextual influence, and layering a new climate responsive, high performance agenda to it. The building will enhance the quality of living for the residents and the neighborhood through a modern, innovative, market comparable approach.

2017

Race to Zero | ARCH 501 – Urban Single-family Typology

Project Summary
The site for this urban home is in the Phoenix Hill neighborhood in Louisville, Ky. The immediate context consists of small traditional houses built at the turn of the century. As the city grows towards a more arts-based culture, the appetite for progressive design is apparent. The Race to Zero Competition provides a basis for net zero home construction to parallel the cities need for socially and environmentally designed housing.

Project Data

• 1000 E Jefferson St. Louisville, KY 40202
• Climate Zone 4
• 1,900 Square Feet
• 3 Bed, 2.5 Bath, 2 Levels
• Preliminary HERS Rating: 38 (without PV), -16 (with PV)
• Estimated Monthly Energy Cost: $71.00 (without PV)

2017

Race to Zero | ARCH 501 – Suburban Single-famiy Typology
FIRST PLACE WINNER

Project Summary
Nestled into the suburban fine east of Bloomington, IN, this ultra-efficient home is a comfortable refuge for its owners, offering spaces for relaxing, entertaining, and working from home. Intended for a professional couple without children or a retired couple, the home takes advantage of a sloping site with beautiful southern views through the forest. The prime location offers easy access to groceries, shopping, IU campus, and the soon to be built IU medical center.

Technical Specifications

• Wall Insulation = R-23.1 cavity, R-12.6 continuous
• Foundation Insulation =R-22
• Roof Insulation = R-60
• Window Performance + U=0.123
• HVAC specs = mini-split, HSPF 9.5, SEER 15 ERV, sensible recovery 65%, total recovery 43%

 

2017

Race to Zero | ARCH 501 – Attached Housing Typology

Project Summary
Modular in form, these adaptable duplexes, consisting of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, allow for a multitude of arrangements that respond directly to their given site location, context, and user. Various permutations and configurations create living spaces and that enrich and advance the community. Simple framework allows for ease of construction and cost efficiency. The homes also emphasize the importance of environmentally responsive design-encouraging an advancement in residential building approaches.

 

2018

Race to Zero | ARCH 501 – Urban Single-Family Typology
SECOND PLACE WINNER

Project Summary
Muncie, Indiana is a city with a long prosperous history in large scale industry. In the middle of the 20th century, the factories left leaving many families without financial stability. Several homes in the city soon fell into disrepair and were abandoned. Our chosen site was vacant for five years before the Muncie Mission decided to use this property as an extension of their existing transitional housing program. This home will give program graduates a place to live independently with a support network nearby. Since this is for a non-profit organization, the budget is strict compared to most high-performance home projects. This renovation will prove that even with a tight budget, a net zero energy ready home is possible. This previously abandoned home will be transformed into a functional, efficient home that will serve as a flagship for other Muncie Mission transitional homes and other vacant housing in Muncie.

 

2018

Race to Zero | ARCH 501 – Suburban Single-Family Typology

 

2019

Solar Decathlon Design Challenge | ARCH 501 – Urban Single-Family Typology

Project Summary
The Rust Belt city of Muncie has suffered for many years from disinvestment of the urban core. Due to the lack of investment into the city, blight and vacant lots started to appear throughout Muncie, causing historic homes to not receive the care they need and to deteriorate over time. Recently, there has been a large redevelopment in the downtown center of Muncie. Due to the success of the downtown revitalization, adjacent neighborhoods, such as the Emily Kimbrough Historic District, are in line for the next step of revitalization in Muncie. With this in mind, the goal of this project is to design a new affordable housing typology for the community that that is net-zero ready, accommodating to Habitat’s construction methods, and fits into the context of the historic location. Ideally, this project will help Habitat to raise their overall building standards of new homes and other community projects. Our team feels that a typology that meets these criteria will inspire other new development in an area that is economically stagnant. This location and energy performance criteria is a new challenge for our community partner, Habitat, who typically does not select a site that is so close to downtown and in a historic neighborhood with existing design constraints.

 

2019

Solar Decathlon Design Challenge | ARCH 501 – Mixed-Use Multi-Family Typology

Project Summary
The Wilmore Apartment Building is a historic structure near downtown Muncie, IN, and was originally built as a mixed use apartment building in 1923 (Fig. 02,03,04). The structure is part of the Old West End neighborhood, a National Register Historic District. The Wilmore sits in a prominent position within the district and has been identified as a building essential to the fabric of the neighborhood.

The downtown has been revitalized, and efforts are underway to strengthen and stabilize surrounding neighborhoods like the Old West End. A high-performance renovation of the Wilmore acts as a pilot project and a catalyst for rebuilding the historic community. A new building added on the site serves as urban infill and compensates for the performance of the existing structure, like a small campus.

Improving the performance of a historic structure and adding historically sensitive infill to better serve the neighborhood not only improves the community, but sets a precedent for high performance historic preservation for all old structures nationwide.

 

2020

Solar Decathlon Design Challenge | ARCH 602 – Urban Single-Family Typology
HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
More Information

Project Summary
The central goal of this team has become the pursuit of a solution that could be applied at the neighborhood-wide, city-wide, and even region-wide scale. By saving both embodied an operational carbon in every step of the design process, this house has become a compelling example of what is possible through intentional design.

Using the existing foundations, wood framing, and wood floors, the embodied carbon added to the site has been cut to approximately 10% of the carbon that would have been used to demolish the house and build a new one on the site.

Additionally, the energy used to heat, cool, light, and perform daily activities in the house is decreased to just 24% of the exisiting operational energy.

 

2020

Solar Decathlon Design Challenge | ARCH 602 – Attached Housing Typology

Project Summary
Great Places 2020 is an initiative that looks at transforming various Indianapolis neighborhoods into centers of culture, commerce and community. Our site (209-225 N. Temple Ave), identified in this target area, builds on its existing neighborhood’s momentum to foster sustainable economic development and revitalization that will draw in more residents and visitors, bringing life back to the neighborhood. Temple Commons began with our main guiding principles of – community, context and connection. Essentially building up its surrounding environment by being a place of socialization, respecting the surrounding site by using similar vernacular and fostering connections within the neighborhood. Temple Commons is designed to promote a flourishing future for the neighborhood by ensuring accessibility, affordability, security and health and wellbeing for the residents. Our partnership with the Englewood Community Development Corporation (ECDC), an organization working to improve the Englewood Village Neighborhood, means that we have an opportunity to design a project that will impact the lives of those in the neighborhood.

 

2020

Solar Decathlon Design Challenge | ARCH 602 – Mixed-Use Multi-Family Typology

Project Strategy
By respecting and building upon the past pedestrian pathways, site uses, and analyzing information about the cities projected transit routes and development, the opportunity to build upon the history while serving the present and future needs is the focus of the design. By researching the needs of the community and responding to existing housing options for the residents of Englewood, the strategy developed into designing units that would appeal to a more diverse group. The project uses sustainable heating, cooling and ventilation methodes including implementation of photovoltaics (PV), solar hot water, and passive stack ventilation.

Additionally, the materials and design method include using mass timber as the primary structure, building orientation for optimal solar gain, and incorporating a netzero food production greenhouse.

 

2021

Solar Decathlon Design Challenge | ARCH 400 – Urban Single-Family Housing
THIRD PLACE WINNER

Read more about the projects.

Project Indy: Infill Reimagined Nest – Near East Side
225 North Oxford St. was chosen as the Urban Single Family home site because of its array of possibilities. The site currently sits empty between 2 existing homes. Oxford Street has immediate access to E Washington Street, providing access to bus routes and immediate necessities. The parcel sits only 1 block from the local library branch and multiple community churches. Oxford Street is a residential street with large, matured trees and a community garden. Our site is an infill lot which will help repair the fabric of an intact residential street. With multiple vacant lots on Washington Street, there is great potential for future neighborhood development.

 

2021

Solar Decathlon Design Challenge | ARCH 400 – Elementary School Division
THIRD PLACE WINNER
More Information

Mallory Park Elementary School Project Summary
Spaces for learning must inspire users to open their minds and enrich their spirits. Mallory Park Elementary School’s mission is to make hands on learning accessible to everyone, from small children to the community’s seniors. Mallory Park is designed to enhance and continue to develop the strong themes of sustainable design, green living, and agricultural education that are already highlighted as important by the surrounding Englewood Village neighborhood. We view sustainable as including easily maintained, long-lasting materials, high- performance building systems and inspiring details that encourage learning. Our location enables the creation of a community campus and is central to ongoing community integration. The combination of visible sustainable practices, flexible learning spaces, community support areas and dynamic architecture inspires and stimulates both building occupants and the surrounding community.

 

2022

Read more about the projects here.