Easy Living
Ohio State architecture and mechanical engineering students are taking the motto“less is more”and applying it to the design and build of a sustainable home.
The purpose of the house, called the POD for its small size of 125 square feet, is to create a minimalist space for living with a simple, unified design.
Architecture students Beth Evanoo, Greg Delaney and Greg Tran along with mechanical engineering students Kara Shell, Doug Powell and Anna Schwinn originated the idea two years ago as a part of their senior honors and capstone projects. Architecture student Scott Kittle joined Nate Substanley and Mike Factor, who have double majors in architecture and construction systems management, as volunteers this summer to finish the project.
“The idea of the POD emerged as an opportunity for architecture and engineering students to work together in the pursuit of a design-build project in which sustainable technologies would be incorporated into the design process from the very beginning rather than being added at the end,”Delaney says.
The home will have many up-to-date sustainable features such as a shower, sink and toilet using water-conserving fixtures with low flow rates. It will also have a roof with photovoltaic panels to collect solar radiation while transferring the energy to the hot water heater.
Now in the final stages of assembly, the POD originally started as a design rather than a construction project.
“We didn’t think it was going to be a building,”says Gary Kinzel, professor of mechanical engineering.“There were issues such as money, labor and time. Grants allowed us to build, and students who heard about the project became interested and have volunteered in the construction process.”
Kinzel advises the group along with mechanical engineering professor emeritus Seppo Korpela and Lisa Tilder and Stephen Turk, associate professors of architecture. The students learned a great deal about the two disciplines, architecture and mechanical engineering, by collaborating, says Tilder. But they are gaining more than just design and engineering experience.
“It’s also bringing in a cultural and historical aspect,”Turk says.“The students are learning about the current global situation as well as past experiments in sustainable living.”
The students have constructed the POD at Ohio State’s Agricultural Engineering Building and aim to use the project, which initially served as a forerunner for the Solar Decathlon team (see page 6), to show the general public that energy-efficient homes don’t have to be complicated; being green can also mean good design.
The team expects to place the POD on exhibit at the Center of Science and Industry, COSI Columbus, this fall in hopes of raising awareness of sustainable living.
