 A few weeks ago, I checked out the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall. It’s a competition sponsored every two years by the Department of Energy in which 20 college teams — mostly from the US, but with a few contenders from other countries — build a small house that runs entirely on solar energy. It’s a small but interesting example of what Schindler called priming the pump. The teams don’t compete just on how efficiently you solar power. Aesthetics and affordability also matter a lot — and it showed. I was really impressed at the quality of a lot of the architectural and design work. In fact, there were so many great houses that the lines to get into a lot of them were quite long, so I only managed to see a handful of them. |
 What was striking about the houses was how many nice little touches the teams incorporated. For example, the Penn State “Natural Fusion” house did a delightful job of placing green plants throughout the house — the kitchen even included one for growing spices on a wall (unfortunately, my snapshot of it didn’t come out).
|
Team Ontario/BC, which created a gorgeous, open-space Scandinavian style loft, had my favorite feature — a bed that, with the flick of a switch, could be retracted into the ceiling to open up more space. |
 Teams weren’t just responsible for the inside of the house. They also had to develop an attractive patio and landscape. Team California had by far my favorite landscaping. |
 Penn State created fun, funky, lightweight, modular outdoor furniture that can be easily moved around.
|
|
 Some teams also put real thought into parts of the house where you wouldn’t expect it. My favorite was Penn State’s utility access door. It was so nicely designed it actually improve the aesthetics of the house.
|
I’m not sure how practical that is — I could see you having lots of fun getting a building inspector to sign off. But it was very cool and showed a lot of creativity.
And Team Ontario/BC created a great space for barbecues and parties, including a gorgeous long outdoor counter for setting up and serving that featured a nice little outdoor sink. Overall, it was an incredibly impressive display of engineering talent and architectural creativity — an interesting window into what going Green could mean if it’s done with a little style.
