LEVERAGING THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SOLAR DECATHLON DESIGN CHALLENGE AS A FRAMEWORK FOR STUDENT-LED ADAPTIVE REUSE PROJECTS TO ADDRESS CONTEXT-SPECIFIC SUSTAINABLE DESIGN, HOUSING AFFORDABILITY, AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the context, pedagogical approach, and design outcomes of two net-zero energy residential design projects completed by graduate architecture students as part of a comprehensive design studio course and submitted to the 2018 and 2020 USDOE Race to Zero/Solar Decathlon Design Challenge competition. The competition aims to give students real-word experience designing high-performance buildings by encouraging collaboration, involving community partners, and requiring a high degree of technical design development. Working within the competition parameters, two teams at Ball State University worked with outside partners to identify vacant/abandoned homes as a significant problem for rust-belt Indiana communities, and then focused their design efforts on high-performance retrofits of two blighted homes in Muncie and Indianapolis. Each project will be described in detail and the implications of the 2018 project on the 2020 project will be addressed. This paper will demonstrate that adaptive reuse projects can be used to engage students in context-specific challenges and to meet stringent high-performance design targets and thresholds. (162)