MRU students shine in history-making solar home collaboration

It takes a village to build a home — a solar-powered home at that.

Just ask Mount Royal University students Whitney Nordstrom and Alexandra Warren who along with more than a hundred dedicated students, faculty and staff from Mount Royal, SAIT, University of Calgary and Alberta College of Art + Design are blazing a trail as the first-ever Western Canadian team to be accepted into the prestigious Solar Decathlon competition.

In less than a month Team Alberta members will journey to Washington, D.C. to present their solar home — the ENMAX SolAbode at the biennial U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon.

“In our design we have reflected the distinctive Alberta landscape through the creative use of wood, water, stone and light,” says Nordstrom, Mount Royal Interior Design student and Alberta Solar Decathlon team Core member and Interior Design Lead.

“We felt it was important to truly design a sustainable and liveable house that not only responds to our western Canadian climate but actually looks like a residential home and not a commercial facility,” says Nordstrom, who also blogs about the SolAbode project. 

The 800-square-foot home includes:

• a vaulted-ceiling open living room and kitchen area
• a rundle stone-clad core area for the bathroom and mechanical systems
• a bedroom and home office space
• a rooftop deck
• a yoga space

The house features local stone and wood and many of the products in the solar home are from local suppliers.

The home was built using environmentally conscious materials and relies solely on solar energy for both heat and power. Along with the energy-saving systems, the home’s angular ceiling and asymmetrical rooms give the solar home a unique look and feel.

Solar reflections

When asked to reflect on their involvement with the Alberta Solar Decathlon project Nordstrom and Warren say the experience has been challenging, but mostly rewarding.

“I’ve really enjoyed the collaboration on this project. In school you often don’t get the chance to work with architects, engineers or electricians in order to design a house,” says Nordstrom.

“It’s a valuable experience to learn the process of taking a concept off the paper and transforming it into reality. The idea that I actually get to see a house be built that I helped to design is exciting.”

Though she admits that working with other disciplines was also quite frustrating at times, Nordstrom learned when to compromise and rely on the expertise of others and when to hold her ground on certain design elements.

“Working on this project has really helped me to find my inner voice and it has improved my confidence.”

Warren joined the Alberta Solar Decathlon project as the Public Relations Lead and will graduate from Mount Royal with a Bachelor of Applied Communications — Public Relations this fall. She initially got involved with the project through her mother, Helen Evans Warren, associate professor, Department of Interior Design and Art History. The elder Warren is also an Alberta Solar Decathlon team Core member and Design advisor on the project.

“I joined after seeing my mom’s passion for the project and it sort of rubbed off,” says Warren. “I have gained new insights into sustainable living and hands-on communication skills that I can apply in the workplace.”

The younger Warren adds working with students from different post-secondary institutions in Calgary was definitely an amazing opportunity, but it can also be quite challenging “especially being in the field of public relations and constantly having to show the value that you bring to the project.”

Warren was involved with the strategic communications assessment for Team Alberta and is instrumental in producing the Alberta Solar Decathlon team’s monthly newsletter among other communications activities.

Competition heating up

After two years of fundraising, planning, designing and building, Team Alberta’s “decathletes” will compete on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from Oct. 8 to 15 against 19 other university and college teams from around the world.

Teams will participate in 10 competitions, including hosting a dinner party and a movie night in the house to show how it performs. The Solar Decathlon challenges the teams to design, build and operate the most liveable, energy-efficient and completely solar-powered house.

The winner is the team that best blends esthetics and modern conveniences with maximum energy production and optimal efficiency.

“I think our team will do really well in the competition,” says Warren. “We have a unique design and one that is true to the landscape of Alberta.”

Nordstrom lights up when she talks about the upcoming Solar Decathlon competition.

“I’m really looking forward to going to Washington,” says Nordstrom. “I think it’s going to be one of the most memorable experiences of my 20s because I’m going to be meeting so many different people from around the world that have the same passion that I do.”

“What’s exciting about this project is the fact that everyone is thinking outside the box. We’re coming up with new ideas and we’re making builders and suppliers more aware of the importance of this type of green design.”

The ENMAX SolAbode is so appealing that Nordstrom could picture herself living there.

“One day I would like to build my own environmentally-friendly house and perhaps I could have my own interior design office there.”

—Jondrea De Ruyter
Sept. 17, 2009