Gov. Tim Kaine will join the University community Monday to cut the ribbon on the ecoMOD/SEAM house, an energy efficient affordable housing module and historical preservation project spearheaded by University students and faculty.
"It's an event that highlights the work that U.Va. students are doing: students building affordable housing that's environmentally friendly," Kaine spokesman Jeff Tiller said. "In September we [Kaine's administration] launched a Virginia energy plan -- one of the goals was education and certainly having a home that is environmentally friendly is important ... [in] reducing carbon emissions, consumer education on home projects is something we would like to highlight."
This project is the third iteration of the program, but still follows the basic principles of affordable green housing, according to John Quale, ecoMOD project director and assistant professor of architecture.
The goal is "to bring sustainability to affordable housing," Quale said. "To date ... energy-efficient design has been reserved for the wealthy, but those with lower incomes benefit the most because if you reduce their utility bill that's that much more money in their pocket."
According to Quale, an interdisciplinary team of graduate and undergraduate architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, historical preservation and planning students have been working on the project and now anticipate the governor's visit.
"It's a really exciting thing for our students to get this kind of acknowledgement from the governor -- they've been working really hard for over a year on this," Quale said.
This year's design focused on adding a modular addition to an existing house and making it handicap accessible.
Quale also noted that the project has a historical aspect, tracking the history of aspects of affordable housing in the Charlottesville community.
"The problem is a serious one in terms of affordablehousing in Charlottesville," Quale said. "Incomes are stagnant ... and housing is much higher than it was five years ago."
Tiller said Kaine's administration has realized both the importance of affordable housing and its environmental impacts.
"Affordable housing is a big issue in Charlottesville," Tiller said. "In this project ... what they've done in their design will be able to be reproduced at an affordable price."
The house will accommodate a local family as a part of the ecoMOD's evaluation and continual study. The ecoMOD program will start another project next fall, Quale said, with the hope of gaining funding for more projects in the future.
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