December/January 2010
In this Issue
New Approach To Serving Vulnerable Families
Foreclosure Risk Lowered With Downpayment Assistance
Stabilizing Communities With NSP Dollars
Models of Sustainable Affordable Housing
In the next issue of ResearchWorks
Models of Sustainable Affordable Housing
In October, HUD co-hosted World Habitat Day 2009 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. This year’s event focused on planning for affordable and sustainable urban communities in the face of rapid urbanization and its challenges, a theme that resonates with a guiding principle of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: promoting sustainable, stable communities. An American finalist in the 2009 World Habitat Awards competition for innovative and sustainable housing solutions, ecoMOD, is doing exactly that with its production of affordable and environmentally sustainable housing for low-income households.
ecoMOD, a University of Virginia partnership between the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, is "investigating the different ways in which prefabricated housing can be socially, environmentally, and economically responsible." The result of this collaboration is a series of replicable models of affordable housing.1
An integral part of the curriculum, ecoMOD is
a multidisciplinary team effort between students,
faculty, outside experts, and nonprofit partners
such as Piedmont Housing Alliance, Habitat for
Humanity International, and local Habitat for
Humanity affiliates. Each home is student-designed
and takes multiple factors (such as budget, site design,
and energy usage) into account. The designs, which
reflect knowledge learned from the development and
evaluation of previous ecoMOD homes, range from
a historically preserved home to condominium units
and single-family houses, and are oriented to location,
land topography, and exposure to sun and wind. To
date, ecoMOD has produced five housing units over
the course of three projects. In yet a fourth project,
a sixth home is currently under evaluation.
The first project is a two-unit condominium with a three-bedroom apartment and a studio unit. Named OUTin because it blends indoor and outdoor spaces, this Charlottesville, Virginia project cost $250,000. Affordable (after subsidies) to households earning $46,000, OUTin features a rainwater collection system, solar hot water panels, low-impact finishes, and sustainable wood floors. The upper unit uses about 55 percent less energy than does a comparable home, saving its residents $28 to $93 a month.
ecoMOD’s second project, located in Gautier, Mississippi, had a tight budget of $85,000. Called preHAB, this home was built from a manufacturer’s excess prefabricated panels that were purchased at a reduced cost and cut to the required specifications. Building costs were further minimized by using reclaimed materials, some of which came from buildings destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Good site design emphasizing solar orientation and cross ventilation allowed the team to include a more costly heat pump/heat recovery system. This home also has a photovoltaic (solar panel) system, which was installed with funding secured by the university team. ecoMOD estimates that this system will produce enough electricity to meet the home’s usage requirements (excluding the air conditioner, which the home is designed to need only minimally).
The third ecoMOD project entailed a $261,000 renovation of a 19th-century home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Thought to be slave quarters at one time, the home received a modular addition and a detached accessory rental unit. Called SEAM, this project blends historic renovation with modular housing. The homes feature universal design, a solar hot water system with on-demand (tankless) water heating, green roofs, steel and foam walls (which are highly energy efficient), and reclaimed materials. This project meets both EarthCraft and Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED) for Homes standards; the accessory unit is expected to achieve a LEED Platinum certification. The team estimates that the historic home will be 55 to 60 percent more efficient — and the accessory unit 60 to 65 percent more efficient — than comparable homes.
ecoMOD’s most recent project, built in the Fifeville neighborhood of Charlottesville, cost $150,000 to construct. This 1,100 square foot, single-family detached home has a superinsulated building envelope, a small greywater system, geothermal heating, and solar panels. Named the THRU house, the home’s windows and doors are aligned so that the occupants can see through the house, linking it to the surrounding landscape and making it feel more spacious. Currently under evaluation, ecoMOD estimates that the THRU house will consume about 60 percent less energy than a similar home and that the renewable energy features will probably meet the remaining demand. This home, which is expected to earn a LEED Gold- or Platinum-level certification, has become a prototype for a developer that may construct multifamily homes using a variation on the design.
Because of its dual focus on education and practice (and in light of the results achieved), ecoMOD has received many honors. In 2007, ecoMOD received the $25,000 grand prize from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the Education Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects, and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Award.
More information on ecoMOD and its projects can be found at www.ecomod.virginia.edu or by contacting ecoMOD’s Project Director, John Quale, at quale@virginia.edu.
1 University of Virginia, ecoMOD, www.ecomod.virginia.edu/intro/ design.php and www.ecomod.virginia.edu/intro/descript.php.
