| Volume 4, No. 8 - July 22, 2010 |
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 Gaithersburg Youth Center, by Maginniss + del Ninno Architects (more info) |
 Interschool Design Competition 2010 |
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The Virginia Tech 'Lumenhaus' Wins Solar Decathlon Europe by Matt Shuba |
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The latest stop on the Lumenhaus international tour may have been the most rewarding. After visits to the National Mall, Times Square and the National Building Museum, Virginia Tech's Solar Decathlon entry was carefully packed and shipped to Madrid, where it took top honors in the Solar Decathlon Europe competition.
Virginia Tech took the top prize from among seventeen schools, with two German teams rounding out the top three. Lead Project Coordinator and Virginia Tech associate professor Joe Wheeler said that the win in "a competition based on design, energy and sustainability is a significant achievement since Europe often has led the way in alternative energy research."
The cutting edge Lumenhaus employs familiar green techniques such as strategic insulation, natural/cross ventilation, passive heating, and integrated geothermal energy sink. But it employs unique innovations as well, such as the house's proprietary Eclipsis System, an assembly of stainless steel panels with an array of laser-cut rotated discs that conceals a secondary layer of insulation and LED lighting. The roof is home to a photovoltaic array
that can adjust seasonally (or in this case geographically) to best respond to the sun's orientation. According to Mr. Wheeler, "the adjustable photovoltaic array, combined with geothermal coupled with a heat pump, makes the system a universal design. Realistically the house can be located anywhere in the world without compromising living comfort or energy efficiency."
The marriage of technology and design was critcal to the success of the project. Architecture jury chair Glenn Murcutt praised the "enjoyable variations in habitation and use, subtle adjustments of light, privacy, and aesthetic expression," and commented that Lumenhaus showed intelligence in development of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, which inspired the pavilion design. "Lumenhaus basically is a transparent box that answers the question, can a glass house be energy efficient?" said Mr. Dunay. "Our holistic and integrated approach in designing Lumenhaus allowed us to develop a house that generates more energy than it uses - a net zero energy house." The Virginia Tech house was awarded first place in the Architecture category after a strong third-place finish (out of twenty) in the same category in the US competition.|
Help Open Doors by Sponsoring Interschool Design Competition 2010 |
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Over the past two decades the Washington area chapters of the AlA, the Washington Architectural Foundation, the National Building Museum and the area's four accredited architecture schools have collaborated to organize the annual Inter-School Design Competition. |
Gaithersburg Olde Towne Youth Center |
 When the City of Gaithersburg planned a new afterschool Youth Center, they devised a program sure to engage teens: a self sustaining environment where students teach other students the complexities of music production. Maginniss + del Ninno Architects leveraged this unique program into a highly efficient and vibrant Youth Center.  "The City originally hoped to attain [LEED®] Silver certification with this building," said Michele Potter, Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. "Through the vision of our elected leadership, the diligent effort of staff and our capable design and construction team, we were able to achieve Platinum certification demonstrating our commitment to our youth and the future of their environment."Designed to serve the next generation of a growing urban neighborhood, the new Youth Center spaces nourish the myriad needs of today's energetic and technically savvy teens. The City's cable network manages and shares the media production facilities, providing adolescents exposure to the professional media. Students migrate freely in the open plan between the mixing & recording studio, the music computer lab, the game and art rooms and quiet lounge. Custom mobile furniture converts areas into open space to support dance concerts. Aluminum and glass overhead doors, recalling garage rock bands, allow both flexibility and privacy. The site, originally an overflow parking lot, is located in an architecturally eclectic neighborhood of industrial storage facilities, multi-family housing and wood-framed single family homes. The geometry of the plan responds to these different edge conditions as well as maximizing favorable orientation for the sustainable design features of the project.  Visible from Diamond Avenue (a main street of Olde Town Gaithersburg), is a low-slope vegetated roof as well as a steeper roof with photovoltaic panels. Other significant features of the sustainable design program include light harvesting, a ground-coupled heat pump system and use of recycled and rapidly renewable materials.AIA Northern Virginia's Women in Architecture Committee is hosting a tour of the center led by Theresa del Ninno, AIA, on July 31, at 10:00a. The Youth Center is located at 301 Teachers Way in downtown Gaithersburg, Maryland. All are welcome to this free tour, but registration is required. If interested please email reservations@aianova.org. This building tour offers 1.5 AIA/CES HSW/SD learning units. |
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Photography by Eric Taylor, Assoc. AIA Sponsored by Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, Inc., the CNA Insurance Companies, The AIA Trust, providers of the AIA Commended Program of Professional Liability Insurance, Draper Aden Associates, Ferguson Enterprises and Gilbane Building Company. |
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July 23 - Small Firm Seminar Series: High Performance Houses - Options for the Building Envelope July 31 - Gaithersburg Youth Center Tour August 3-5 - DesignDC August 18 - Women in Architecture Happy Hour |