Back in February, the Buffalo community helped to send University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning students to Irvine, California to compete against 19 other selected teams in an energy-efficient house competition (see here).
Once the funds were raised, the students packed up their Solar Decathlon project – GRoW Buffalo house – and headed across the country. Since setting up the energy efficient home (solar and thermal), the students have been competing for an award known as the People’s Choice Award – the students are currently holding the 2nd Place spot. Now they are asking all of us to take a few seconds to vote for the hometown project, in order to capture 1st Place.
“Our team is holding its own at second place currently, but we’re going to need all of the community support that we can get if we want to have a shot at winning,” said Dylan Burns, a UB student who is working with the Communications Team for UB’s Solar Decathlon project. “It takes less than 30 seconds. Polling ends at 5pm on October 18th. Additionally, we are currently in third for the overall judging of the competition.”
The concept behind GRoW HOME is pretty neat. The house is built around a 338-square-foot year round greenhouse, which opens to the rest of the home. Essentially the concept allows the homeowner to harness the power of the sun in order to provide energy and nutritious sustenance. It’s a powerful concept that couldn’t be any more timely. In a world that is dominated by GMOs, it can be difficult to source organic food. GRoW HOME allows the homeowner to get back to the basics, while living in a simple, state of the art home at the same time.
Now the students are looking for votes, so that they may come hold with at least one award (hopefully two). Click here to help them out. You can also check out the daily updated scoring by clicking here. After the decathlon is over, the house will be making its way back to Buffalo, where it will be reconstructed for all of us to see. And hopefully, the design will help to fuel the imaginations of architects and builders for years to come – this is the type of year round living accommodation that this city should be embracing and building.
Photos at sunset – Alison Kwok. All other photos taken by Carl Burdick.