Students and construction crew lower ecoMOD3 into place

When Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine attended the ribboncutting ceremony for the University of Virginia’s ecoMOD3 project in December 2007, he applauded the project goals of historic preservation, affordability and ecological sustainability in both construction practices and use, and the incorporation of universal design to address issues of aging-in-place.

“I feel very excited about any project like this where we are merging the talents of our universities and the energies of our students with true community need,” Kaine said.

Kaine attended the event as part of his “Charlottesville Cabinet Community Day” activities, which included visits to five other Charlottesville-area locations. After the formal speech and ribboncutting, Kaine and his cabinet members had an opportunity to tour and discuss the project with the students who worked to make the initiative a reality.

ecoMOD, a multi-year collaborative project between the Engineering School and the School of Architecture, empowers students to research, design, build and evaluate a series of prototypes of ecological, modular and affordable houses. Interdisciplinary teams of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, historic preservation, business, environmental science, planning and economics students worked together under the leadership of John Quale, assistant professor, School of Architecture, and Paxton Marshall, professor and associate dean of undergraduate programs, Engineering School.

The scope of the ecoMOD project includes three prototypes for the Piedmont Housing Alliance, a central Virginia affordable-housing organization that offers fair-housing education, lowinterest loans and affordable-housing project development. Two prototypes have been completed. Another was developed for Habitat for Humanity. The designs, licensed to Modern Modular of New York City, will be made available in the coming year to affordable housing organizations, modular builders and individuals.

The construction of ecoMOD1, a two-unit condominium, was completed in Charlottesville’s Fifeville neighborhood in 2006. In summer 2007, ecoMOD2 — designed and built for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast — was completed. The design has been included in national exhibits of post-Katrina rebuilding efforts.

The third iteration of the initiative, ecoMOD3 — known as “the SEAM house” — addresses both the need for housing for an aging population and the renovation of a mid-19thcentury historic property. The project provides the community with two affordable housing units — a renovated two-bedroom historic house with a contemporary, modular addition, soon to be put up for sale; and a detached studio apartment rental unit behind it. The modular units, addition and restoration of the historic house incorporate ecologically sustainable materials and construction practices.

The American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment recognized ecoMOD as one of a handful of exemplary sustainable design curriculum initiatives in the country. The project is also the only such effort to sweep all three major architectural education awards: the 2007 National Council of Architectural Registration Boards’ Grand Prize, the 2007 American Institute of Architects’ Education Honor Award and the 2006-2007 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s Collaborative Practice Award. In 2006, ecoMOD1 was named Best Residential Project by the Virginia Sustainable Building Network, and the design of ecoMOD3 received the Honor Award in 2007 in the Go Green Competition from the James River Green Building Council.