Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech's Lumenhaus is one of 20 Solar Decathlon houses lining the National Mall.

WASHINGTON - Chaos replaced the serenity of the National Mall this past week.

Twenty college and university teams feverishly assembled their entries for the 2009 Solar Decathlon, a multi-category competition to create innovative and energy-efficient houses. And host Department of Energy probably didn't expect the range of safety issues.

Mind you, everyone actually working on the sun-powered houses wore necessary protective gear including hard hats and gloves. Rather, it was the intrigued passersby who could have used armor of their own. Bikers, joggers and casual walkers veered from linear paths as their heads swiveled to absorb the scene; their risk for collisions seemed greater than those on the construction sites.

The atmosphere was definitely engaging. Semi-trucks delivered palettes of various cargo while forklifts hoisted solar panels to rooftops. All this to a soundtrack of growling generators that powered countless tools and spotlights.

Beyond those processes, though, the emerging products themselves caused the most curiosity. Virginia Tech's entry, titled "Lumenhaus," drew a number of people to the caution tape that lined its perimeter.

Lumenhaus' primary faculty adviser Robert Dunay said the design has plenty of appeal.

"We are really interested in this technical, responsive architecture," Dunay said, "so our house responds to both the conditions outside and client demands inside."

Possibly the largest component of that logic is the Lumenhaus facade, which eases the occupant's dependency on mechanical heating and cooling. It automatically reacts to weather conditions, moving laterally to best expose or shelter the interior space.

The two-layered system that makes up the mobile perimeter is called "Eclipsis." The first layer is composed of translucent panels filled with a material called Aerogel, which in less than three inches provides the same amount of insulation as an apartment wall, thus saving space and materials. The second layer, a metal screen, lies atop the panels. The intricate pattern of angled circles acts like blinds to help control the temperature of the house.

The moving walls allow Lumenhaus to also serve as an open-air pavilion. Eclipsis slides along tracks imbedded in beams that extend beyond the frame of the house. By essentially removing its exterior, the house becomes more versatile and doubles the 700-square-foot floor plan with wooden deck space.

And adjusting Eclipsis requires no physical labor. The team worked alongside different control systems companies to make nearly all house elements mechanically controlled. The occupant can use the Lumenhaus remote control, an iPhone, to activate everything from Eclipsis to a kitchen light.

However, Dunay said while Lumenhaus is manually adaptable, the dwelling is programmed to automatically set the most energy-efficient defaults.

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