We’ve made all of our documentation available on our website (the only team that has chosen to do so) and you are more than welcome to review our designs.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions at all.

Regards,
Chad Corbin
Solar Decathlon Project Manager
Graduate Student, Building Systems Program
Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
University of Colorado at Boulder
charles.corbin@colorado.edu

To hear of the crowds, it must’ve been frustrating. Makes me glad I couldn’t go. There is nothing like standing in a house ALONE, to appreciate its feel and beauty. When I’ve looked at houses to buy, I send the realtor out of the house or in another room. Just having one other person there is distracting.

Colorado’s smartest move was making this from the start as a module for a larger project, so it may have legs, so to speak. However, I happen to love small houses, and its not like there’s no market for houses for single people or childless couples, and as stated in much of the literature for the contest, the houses are small for transportability only and also to keep construction costs down. All their designs are supposed to be expandable.

I think one of the problems in the marketability of any state-of-the-art zero energy home, is that people are afraid that it will devalue as the technology or design advances. However, I think it would help their penetration into the market if they looked a little cleaner, and simpler in design, than that of the fun, wacky and wild Colorado assemblage. I was very impressed that in 2005 Cornell’s effort was a house that they claimed could be mass produced for around $120,000. I don’t think that could be said of the 1.5M German house.

I dream of a Model T of the housing industry, sort of like Fuller’s vision for Dymaxion house, but instead of a house full of flaws or ultra unorthodox in design, this one would be very energy efficient, tested for a year or two, improved and then mass produced on a huge scale to keep the cost low. I guess the problem in that fantasy, is that houses need to be designed according to the specific locations where they are built.

There are no interior photos (except for the shot of the cooling system/screen & lamp) because the house was always SO PACKED with people that it was not possible to take any decent interior shots. Believe me, I tried – and I also tried to find interior shots from the designers. The houses were only open each day for 5 hours, and during the time they were open, they had hour-long lines snaking around the houses to get inside, and once inside people were packed like sardines.

Considering I went to D.C and spent three days at the Decathlon on my own dime – and have been reporting live from the show – within hours that things have been announced — it is frustrating to hear you say that my coverage was disappointing. If you have been following the site at all over the past few days, you will see that we have published over 60 photos of the event and of the houses — and we have done extensive articles on FIVE houses already, with several more to come. We have photos of almost every house in the competition. I’m not sure how much more I can do than that. I only left the Solar Decathlon yesterday and it takes time to download photos and write articles. Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,
Jill