The Gable Home, built by a team from the University of Illinois, doesn't just echo historic icons of the team's home state--it's actually constructed of them. Century-old boards pulled from a student's grandparents' barn make up the siding. Wood salvaged from the wall of an old grain elevator has become the decking. Even the landscaping for the Gable Home reflects three themes found throughout Illinois: native prairie, edible crops and biofuel grasses, such as miscanthus--all of which can be found in raised beds alongside the house.
But there are lots of new materials in the home, too, including bamboo. The bathroom, for example, has a bamboo floor and counter. Fifth-year students designed and built custom bamboo cabinetry for the bedroom. And there's even 3/4-inch laminate bamboo supporting the walls: The students worked with Lamboo, a bamboo research, development and manufacturing company, to develop and certify the product for structural-grade uses.
Because the house is built to passive home standards, which stress "passive" efficiency, rather than active systems to lower energy use, the building envelope is extremely tight. More than 9 inches of polyurethane insulation has been blown into the walls, which are R-50, and the ceiling, which is R-70. (The more resistance heat meets along the way, the better the insulating value of the medium it's passing through. This resistance is expressed as an R-value.) The Optiwin windows are triple-paned and argon-filled, with frames made from layered woods that create an airtight seal.
"Since it's such a tight envelope, we need to push fresh air inside so the carbon dioxide doesn't build up," says Alan Mellovitz, a mechanical engineering student, as he points to the energy recovery ventilator. An air-source heat pump moves heat from the ambient air into a plastic tank for domestic water heating--two systems that aren't meant to work together, but do here to extremely efficient effect.
The day before the competition officially began, other teams scrambled, cordless drills in hand, to finish their homes before that night's construction deadline. By around noon, Illinois already had its dining room table set. "We have the simplest architectural design," Mellovitz says. "As an engineer that's a huge advantage. People are still building their homes and we're ready to move."
The Gable Home has already been purchased by one of the hotels on campus, so after the competition ends on Oct. 18th guests working in a local research park will be able to stay there--and perhaps become as inspired by the product as the students were by the process. "Some professors don't understand, but I think this is way more valuable than anything I can learn in class," Mellovitz says. Then he adds, "Funny, I feel like I'm in school--I've spent so much time in this house."
University of Illinois Solar Decathlon Photo Gallery
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