In any debate about which groups of students at the University spend the most time holed up in their class buildings, the students in the Architecture and Engineering Schools tend to come out on top. It’s difficult to imagine, therefore, the scale of productivity that might emerge if these two groups merged. In 2004, Asst. Architecture Prof. John Quale wondered the same thing, and ecoMOD was born.
EcoMOD, according to its Web site, “is a research and design/build/evaluate project at the University of Virginia School of Architecture [in conjunction with the Engineering School] that aims to create a series of ecological, modular and affordable house prototypes.” The project occurs in a two-year cycle — one year is devoted to the design and construction of a building, and the next year is an evaluation of the finished product.
Unlike most work done in the Architecture and Engineering Schools, the ecoMOD design-build project requires direct cooperation between both graduates and undergraduates of the two schools, as well as contact with clients, community members and other University students.
“It’s kind of close together and more of a real-life scenario than we’re used to in school,” said second-year graduate Architecture student Alison Singer, one of the project managers.
Although the project is always to some degree charitable and directed toward a low-income housing bracket, sponsors and clients vary. This year, the design-build team of ecoMOD4 is working with Habitat For Humanity of Charlottesville, and Habitat will choose a Charlottesville couple to receive the house. The site is on the corner of Ridge Street and Elliot Avenue, not far from the Corner, and is a subdivision of a city-condemned lot, though it was once the location of a well-kept three-story house.
Although there are hopes that the city will recover the abandoned house and turn it into a duplex, the ecoMOD4 design-build team still faces the challenge of working with what they have — in terms of site, budget constraints and rules specific to working with Habitat — to create the most pleasant and ecologically efficient environment possible. This multifaceted nature of the project is what makes it a learning experience.
“We try to do our own kind of economics, which is [using] the cheapest, highest quality we can afford,” said Singer, who was drawn to the graduate Architecture School primarily because of her enthusiasm for the ecoMOD program. “We have a whole process for dealing with those kinds of things, called DecisionWeb, that looks at the aesthetics, the financial implications, the environmental, the social and psychological kind of highs and lows, benefits ... of choosing a specific material and working with a specific kind of manufacturer.”
Because the complex construction of the home cannot be offset by any sort of profit, budget constraints and financial implications of project details must guide every decision. The projected total cost for ecoMOD4 is about $120,000; of this, Habitat For Humanity has pledged $60,000, leaving University Architecture and Engineering students to raise the other $60,000.
“We’ve been doing little things like Qdoba night on the Corner, and we’re selling snacks here in the [Architecture] School to try to raise some money. We made steel mugs that have the ecoMOD logo on [them] and we’re selling those at the [Architecture] School,” fourth-year Architecture student Steven Johnson said. “Really, every little bit helps at this point.”
Donations and fundraisers — which also included an ecoMOD 5K that took place Feb. 7 — though, are not the only ways in which the team sticks to its budget.
“Throughout the design of this project, we’re looking to do ... the most cost-efficient thing without sacrificing the design, so that’s always in the back of our heads,” Johnson said.
In addition to designing the house, a total of about 25 to 30 Architecture, Engineering and other students also will be putting the building together, helping save money that would otherwise be spent paying for a construction crew. The building process also contributes to the hands-on learning experience that makes the project unique.
Although construction for the current ecoMOD project will begin the week after Spring Break, the site itself will remain relatively empty until the end of the summer. Construction, which will occur at a University-owned abandoned airport hangar at Milton Field, will result in several separate modules, all of which will then be brought by truck and assembled in late August to early September. From there, Architecture students with Prof. Quale and Engineering students with electrical engineering Prof. Paxton Marshall will spend the next year evaluating and learning from their own work.
Though the project is usually associated with the fourth-year Architecture studio students who spend many hours designing the house, Engineering students, who begin their involvement during their second years, also are an irreplaceable part of the ecoMOD project.
“The [Architecture] School does most of the design and a lot of the aesthetic part of it,” second-year Engineering student Logan Whitehouse said. “Our job is to make the house more energy-friendly and to work their design into the overall goal of the project.”
Between design, engineering, computer simulations, research, client relations, financial restraints and publicity, there never seems to be a shortage of things to worry about in the ecoMOD design-build project. But from students’ accounts, the experience is more than worth it.
“There are different aspects that you don’t really think about when you just want to build a cool, energy-sustainable house,” Whitehouse said.
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