Campus Green Builder

By Vanessa Santos, on behalf of Second Nature team

The Curio House at the Solar Decathlon
Photo Credit: Allison Fisk

 Last October, Tufts University 2010 graduate Matt Thoms and his team of six other students gathered with 19 student teams from around the world at the National Mall in Washington D.C. All student team members stood in front of the projects they built – 20 completely solar-powered homes, one for each team of seven students.

Every two years, the Department of Energy hosts a Solar Decathlon, an event that consists of 20 selected teams from around the world, each of which must build a solar-powered home that can succeed in the 10 different competitions within the event. The 10 different competitions are meant to test a house’s ability to generate the energy needed for daily activities. Therefore, the competitions test features like the hot water in a home, the functioning of appliances, the lighting, the comfort and the entertainment features, to name a few.

During his sophomore year at Tufts University, Matt joined a team of seven students from Tufts and from the Boston Architectural College to compete in the 2009 Solar Decathlon as “Team Boston.” It wasn’t until his senior year at the university that he and his team finished what they called the Curio House – a two-year project whose total costs added up to about $400,000, according to Matt.

When it came time for the Solar Decathlon, Team Boston had to dissemble the Curio House, and transport it to Washington D.C., where they had just a small amount of time to reassemble the house and get it functioning properly. Because of this short time period and a bit of a lack of preparation, Matt said the team had a more difficult time in the first few competitions as they started to test the functioning of many of their features through a process of trial and error.

Even though the Curio House didn’t win the competition (the winning home had costs totaling about $800,000 and was built by Team Germany), Matt said he and his team are most proud of the fact that they were able to build a solar-powered home with relatively simple materials and technology. In fact, he said the team made sure to buy most of their products from stores like Home Depot to show people that green buildings don’t necessarily have to incorporate new cutting-edge, expensive and inaccessible technologies.

The Curio House was also one of the few homes in the competition that was actually sold. The Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod, MA bought the house for $150,000, and is using it in its new project – a development of sustainable and affordable community housing.

The Solar Decathlon may be a competition, but it is clearly having an impact on our movement to a more sustainable society. The competition and teams like Team Boston are showing that a future of sustainability can and is starting right now.

To see the slideshow of pictures of the Curio House, click here.