Rice students offer sneak peek of zero-energy house
Entry in international competition built to help Houston neighborhood

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

This weekend Rice University students will show Houston how to go green while saving green as they give tours of a home they designed and built for Project Row Houses, a neighborhood-based art and cultural organization that seeks to develop housing for low-to-moderate-income residents of Houston’s Third Ward.

	JEFF FITLOW Allison Elliott and Rebecca Silbey stand in Ze-Row house’s side entrance, which is designed to add natural light and circulate air.

The house is an entry in the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, a zero-energy housing competition in which teams of college and university students vie to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The team of Rice students was the only one from Texas among the 20 teams chosen from around the world to participate. This year’s competition will be held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in October.

“Our Rice students have worked at the highest level to create this house, which is on par with professional work,” said Danny Samuels, the Harry K. Smith Visiting Professor of Architecture at Rice. “Through working with Project Row Houses, we have taken the next step in providing affordable, appropriate technologies for people who need it.”

Houstonians don’t have to wait until the fall to see Rice’s entry, Ze-Row house. The team will be giving tours of the 800-square-foot building from noon to 3:30 p.m. May 8 at its current construction site on the Rice campus near the corner of College Way and Alumni Drive. In addition to showing visitors around the house, tour guides will explain the latest energy-efficient materials and technologies that can be implemented in the visitors’ own homes.

“Solar panels and solar water heaters can be added to any home,” said Allison Elliott, one of the student leaders. “A house can be both environmentally friendly and affordable.”

Come one, come all

Having worked on the house for about a year-and-a-half, the team is anxious to show it off and invite guests in. The tours will also give the team the chance to practice: Part of their points in the competition will come from their ability to explain their house and its technologies, which include a high reflectivity roof membrane that will reduce the solar heat load during the day.

JEFF FITLOW Rebecca Silbey explains the heating and cooling functions of Ze-Row house.

“I can’t really pick one aspect that I’m most excited about,” said Roque Sanchez, the engineering student who entered Rice in the competition. “I am still shocked at how everything has come together. We’ve had so much support, and you can see that in the house itself.”

Sanchez said various sponsors from the Houston community pitched in and offered services and supplies, though the costs were figured into the home’s final price tag.

Like other Solar Decathlon houses, the Ze-Row house will be able to produce all the energy needed for its operation on-site using photovoltaic solar panels and other green technologies. But unlike the others, it was designed with affordability and a specific site in mind.

While other entries operate on half-a-million-dollar budgets, the Ze-Row house was created with a building and material budget of about $150,000 so that its design and concepts could be replicated in six energy-efficient, one- and two-bedroom homes on two 50-by-80-foot lots in Houston’s Third Ward.

After the Solar Decathlon, the Ze-Row house will be transported back to its permanent location in Houston, where two local residents will call it home.

Design challenges

Aside from the international competitors, the Rice team has the farthest to travel for the competition. The traveling aspects provided another — perhaps the biggest — challenge for the Ze-Row house. While the team will have five days to re-assemble the house in the National Mall, they still had to find a way to transport it and make it roadworthy. They had to take into account laws from each state they’d be traveling through on their journey to D.C.

	JEFF FITLOW The front entrance to Ze-Row house, which was designed to mimic the “shotgun” houses in Houston’s Third Ward.

“The main challenge was designing with these limits,” Sanchez said. “We had great ideas but we had these boundaries to consider and factor in. It inspired us to do more and push our own limitations, and the product, well, you have to see it for yourself.”

Engineering a house for Houston had its own challenges. The team specially tailored the house to withstand the rigors of Houston’s Gulf Coast climate by including a limited number of windows to reduce heat gain from the sun in the summer. In that same vein, they thickened some of the walls to reduce the amount of heat that will seep into the house during the hot months. The team also used a foundation and materials that could stand up to hurricane-force winds.

“The Solar Decathlon offers the challenge of providing innovation and quality of design within a limited space,” said Nonya Grenader, professor in practice in the Rice School of Architecture. “By skillfully placing elements that provide all services — a wet core — and natural light and ventilation — a light core — the students began to define and transform the small building envelope into much more.”

More than 100 members of the Rice University community from disciplines across campus have worked on the Ze-Row house.

“This was a great project to give our engineering students more hands-on experience,” said Brent Houchens, assistant professor in mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering faculty lead for Ze-Row. “They had to learn how to optimize the systems such as the solar array and solar water heater, to make the house functional but as cost effective as possible. The collaboration between them and the architecture students and faculty has given them very rewarding real-world experience.”

	JEFF FITLOW Students take a break from construction and show off the solar panels that will go on the roof.

A collaboration continues

Ze-Row house is the latest project in an affordable housing initiative and long-term collaboration between the Rice Building Workshop and Project Row Houses.

“The Rice Building Workshop allows students to experience architecture at full scale, working in a spirit of collaboration,” Grenader said. “The Solar Decathlon brought a talented mix of students together and benefited greatly from the larger Houston community. Many individuals and companies gave their support and expertise in realizing the project.”

Previously, Rice students designed and constructed new housing on property owned by Row House Community Development Corporation, including the Six-Square House and a row of eight recently completed duplexes. The direct inspiration for Ze-Row was the 500-square-foot XS (extra small) House constructed in 2003 at a cost of $25,000.

The Solar Decathlon gets its name from the 10 specific areas of competition: architecture, engineering, market viability, communications, comfort, appliances, hot water, lighting, energy balance and transportation. Each house should produce enough electricity and hot water to perform all the functions of a home, from powering lights and electronics to cooking and washing clothes and dishes. The team that finishes the week of competition with the most points wins.