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news Title: |
Curio House: Home at Last |
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news ID: |
1074 |
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Description: |
Curio, the beautiful zero-net energy solar house designed and constructed by students from the Boston Architectural College partnering with engineering students from Tufts University has come home to Massachusetts.
Last seen by over 200,000 onlookers on the Washington Mall a year ago, it was then part of the US Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, a competition about the future of architecture among 20 schools of architecture from around the globe.
Curio House, which produces its own electricity, recycles its waste water and even stores heat from the sun in the thick glass of its south-facing patio doors was unveiled November 16, 2010 as the first residence in the “Community Green” near Sandwich, Massachusetts, a project of the Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod. Community Green eventually will include 57 rental apartments, four single-family homes and an Enterprise Center that will host job-training programs for the formerly homeless and other low-income Cape residents.
Dozens of people turned out for the ribbon-cutting event including Becca Wolfson and Billy Traverse, the young couple who will now live in the house and act as caretakers for the Community Green property as more buildings are added to the project. Always imagined as more than a competition entry, Curio House project director and construction manager, Michelle Stadelman, a BAC student when the house was designed, now a BAC Master of Architecture graduate said, "It has been a dream come true to see our vision come to life."
The Curio is an 800-square-foot building with 650 square feet of living space. It includes an entryway, a bathroom, and a combined studio of a kitchen, living space and bedroom. It has 28 photovoltaic solar panels that use micro-inverters to allow the homeowner flexibility in repairing, replacing, modifying and expanding the system. A solar thermal water system provides the home's hot water, even in frigid New England winters. It features heat glass technology that captures low-angle winter sun energy and then disperses it, even at night, to cut down on heating costs. Exterior roller shades and an overhang on south-facing roof blocks summer sun and keeps the house cool. Large windows reduce need for electric lights and make home feel bigger. A monitoring system tracks energy use in real time.
"No one will ever mistake this for an ordinary house. Indeed, with huge floor-to-ceiling windows and 28 photovoltaic solar panels, it's not a classic Cape." said Rick Presbrey, CEO and President of Housing Assistance Corp.
SOURCE: BOSTON ARCHITECTURAL COLLEGE |
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