Introduction

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14 october 2006

9AM, Green Building Institute

On a Saturday morning, 30 students from the LEAFHouse team gathered at the Green Building Institute in Jessup, Maryland. The weekend work session was an opportunity for engineering and architecture students to collaborate outside of the classroom. Lasting over four hours, the workshop provided the team with undisturbed time - longer than a typical class period - to continue development of the house design.

At 9AM, faculty, mentors, and students arrived. The still sleepy team assembled in the Enviro Center main conference room over coffee and muffins. Others slowly unpacked trace and architect scales, pinning up drawings with thumbtacks on the wall.

An eager group of students had arrived an hour earlier to a take tour of the building. These students learned about the Enviro Center’s abundance of “green” features including solar panels, daylighting, natural ventilation, environmentally friendly materials and solar thermal heating.

The LEAFHouse work session began as a whole group meeting. Composite teams, consisting of both architecture and engineering students tasked with specific objectives, reported back to the entire team. Students asked questions to the presenters and gave feedback to the composite teams.

The composite team responsible for the house “skin” discussed trade offs with traditional wood framing and structurally insulated panels (SIPs) and the composite team working on the house structure discussed the most recent framing plan.

Around 11AM, the team split into smaller groups to work with mentors.

Several professionals were on hand at the workshop to assist the team. Mentors and guests included Chris Cobb of Robert Silman Associates, Tom Serra of EMO Energy, Dan Vlacich of Booz Allen Hamilton, Dale Leidich of MFTA Architecture and Ralph Smith of Ralph Smith Design/Construction.

At 1PM, the group adjourned.

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Architecture Students John Bryant, Jake Zager, and David Whitehill discuss in a small group passive solar techniques for south facing glass.

LEAFHouse students work on the structural design with Mentors.

Faculty, Mentors, and Students share ideas for wall panels and rainwater catchment systems.

Architecture Team Leader Kim Singleton and Jake Zager talk about the south house elevation.

Mentor Tom Serra provides assistance to a team member working on the house energy model.

Engineering students look over wood connection details during a discussion of the roof truss.

Michael Furbish, a volunteer of the Green Building Institute provides feedback to the team.

Faculty Advisor Julie Gabrielli explains the dew point location in structurally insulated panel roofs.

The Green Building Institute recently moved into the Enviro Center office that showcases an abundance of

A hand points to drawing elevation of the LEAFHouse.

Ideas for truss connections are quickly sketched on trace paper.

The LEAFHouse team met in the Green Building Institute main conference room.

Structural team students Danielle Lockman and Evan Merkel participate in the small group discussion.

Student Leader Brittany Williams works with Adam MacDonald on roof details.

Architecture student John Morris compares the R-value of structurally insulated wall panels to conventional framing.

Mentor Ralph Smith gives constructability feedback to the Structural Team.

Mentor Tom Serra gives design suggestions based on energy modeling to the team.

Kim Singleton and John Morris work on LEAFHouse elevations.

Student Team Leader Kim Singleton talks about wall construction options.

Mentor and general contractor Ralph Smith listens to the LEAFHouse design discussion.

The LEAFHouse Structural Team meets with several mentors to talk about connection detailing.

Mentor Chris Cobb describes a sketch of a truss as Mentor Dale Leidich and students look on.

Architecture student Brian Essig works on sections and details in a small group.

Student Team Leader Nermal Mehta and Ho Tsui talk about home automation options.

Small student groups work with mentors later in the workshop session.

Close to 30 LEAFHouse students attended the weekend workshop.

Architecture Student Jake Zager poses a question about the solar array.