7PM, Architecture Building
The LEAFHouse team reconvened on Tuesday night at the Architecture Building. With over 60 students and mentors in attendance, the team continued the collaborative, interdisciplinary work begun in the previous semester. Many of the students are enrolled in LEAFHouse Architecture and Engineering courses and are receiving class credit for their involvement in the project.

Faculty advisors Kaye Brubaker and Julie Gabrielli provided a brief introduction for many of the returning faces. Julie framed the competition in a larger context and gave a powerpoint describing our global impact on the planet through linear metabolism and our take, make, waste industrial model.

Julie made the connection of how sustainable design and solar energy reduces our impact on living systems and lowers demand for natural capital – good things for our planet.

Faculty Advisor Amy Gardner followed up with a film to familiarize new team members with the collaborative process that is the very core of the LEAFHouse "charter." Amy highlighted the joint faculty advisor's goal to tap into the diverse talent of the team and commented that the collaborative process "fosters innovation and that’s what we’re about.”

As it typical for the interaction of the courses, the team spent time together and time apart, discussing and then pursuing various disciplinary agendas. Engineering Team mentors Tom Serra and Dan Vlacich, both alumni of the 2005 Maryland Solar Decathlon, reviewed basic energy, power, and heat transfer equations with the engineering teams in order to further test the design of house systems. Architecture counterparts reviewed LEAFHouse summer research projects, in preparation for advancing the design and detailing of LEAFHouse components.