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All Offcite Posts Tagged: Solar Date Posted Categories

Can Lake Flato Architects Deliver on the Prefabricated House?

Lake Flato’s Porch House. Photographs courtesy Lake Flato, lakeflatoporchhouse.com The fact that architects have been fascinated with prefabrication is no secret. Over the past 90 years, such luminaries as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Yona Friedman, Team X, and Jean Prouvé engaged in the dialogue. Modernists found it to work in their system of the [...]

11.08.11 Architecture
Environment

Nonya Grenader and Danny Samuels on Architecture and Community

Rice Solar Decathlon House on National Mall. Photo by Eric Hester The third session of “Spotlight on the Rice School of Architecture” featured Nonya Grenader and Danny Samuels who co-teach introductory courses at the Rice School of Architecture and lead the Rice Building Workshop. (See all posts in the series here.) The workshop is an [...]

10.21.11 Architecture
Environment

Solar Decathlon Update and Diary

Rice University ZEROHOUSE integrates line drying laundry in the sun [Photo Stefano Paltera, U.S. Department of Energy; all other photos Christof Spieler] At the end of day five, the Rice Solar Decathlon team is in third place behind Team Germany and Team California. The Rice entry tied for first in the hot water category, and [...]

10.12.09 Architecture
Environment

Going Solar on the National Mall

Rice Solar Decathlon House on National Mall [Photo Eric Hester, darnart.com] Students from Rice University are putting the final touches on their entry for the 2009 Solar Decathlon. I spoke with one of the lead student designers, David Dewane, to get an update. RM: What’s it like putting a house together on the National Mall [...]

10.05.09 Environment

Headlines June 4 to 8

Graffiti [Photo by abradyb] When the Texas legislature ended its session, a bill that would have created a $500 million subsidy program for the installation of solar panels died. The Chronicle reported that despite broad bipartisan support for the bill Sylvester Turner killed the solar subsidy using a procedural tactic on the grounds that the [...]

06.09.09 Architecture

Solar for the Masses: Headlines May 2 to 8

The above add is from the Burghli Homes website. Solar-powered housing for the masses is happening in Houston. At least, it’s on Houston TV. Besides the above commercial for subsidized affordable housing built by Burghli Homes, there was a Fox News report on the Rice Solar Decathlon House that David Dewane wrote about on this [...]

05.11.09 Architecture

Solar Power in Houston: Headlines April 18 to 24

Aerial view of Virginia Point [Courtesy of Adams Architects] Solar power dominated the Earth Day coverage. There was a review of the Virginia Point house designed by Adams Architects, which feeds into the grid during the day; a complaint from Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy that CenterPoint does not support the sale of energy from homes [...]

04.25.09 Architecture
Environment

$olar $avings: Are Affordable Solar Powered Houses Possible?

Erin Morrison and Professor Brent Houchens assemble the frame and header for an Apricus evacuated tube collector for a solar water heater. [Photo from Ze-Row Blog] The Fall issue of Cite included a short piece (pdf) on the Rice University Solar Decathlon Team. David Dewane, the lead architecture student, provides an update and analysis. Rice [...]

02.19.09 Architecture
Environment

Paul Villinski’s Emergency Response Studio

Emergency Response Artist Studio [Photo courtesy of Jonathan Ferrara Gallery] The Rice Gallery features site-specific, commissioned installations and every one that I have visited there has been extraordinary. Last Fall, an installation by Aurora Robson used cut plastic bottles and rivets to create winding translucent tunnels and domes. When I took my two-year-old daughter to [...]

01.08.09 Art & Culture
Environment