Landscape Architecture Students Contribute to 4th Place in Solar Decathlon Competition Win

Twelve Penn State Landscape Architecture students designed and implemented an energy and resource-saving sustainable landscape for Penn State’s historic first entry into the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon Competition.  The Solar Decathlon, held this year from October 12-20, is an international biennial contest in which 20 University teams compete in the design, construction, and operation of a 100% solar-powered home on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Penn State’s Site Design Team, comprised of Landscape Architecture undergraduates Kristen Apgar, Ryan Emerson, Reid Fellenbaum, David Hull, Mary Nunn, Kelly Ream, Maia Zampini, Alexandros Zervos, Landscape Architecture graduate students Jessica Cook, Mike Shamalla, and Jeff Fitzpatrick, and Architecture undergraduate Jessica Brown, engaged in nearly two years of unprecedented collaboration with students from Penn State’s Architecture, Engineering, Landscape Contracting, Horticulture, and Nutrition departments to bring this project to the Mall.  

Because site design is not directly judged in the Competition, the Site Team’s goal was to stretch the scope of the Decathlon by demonstrating that tremendous opportunities for energy and resource conservation exist in sustainable site design.  To this end, the Team designed and demonstrated five alternatives to the ubiquitous energy, labor, chemical and time intensive residential landscape: the turf lawn.  Using a palette of primarily native perennial vegetation, the Team implemented an energy-saving wildflower and grass meadow, a rain garden with a 450-gallon cistern roof-collection capacity, a biohabitat garden developed in conjunction with Audubon Pennsylvania, a biointensive vegetable garden, and a green roof.  

Penn State’s Solar Decathlon Team won fourth place overall in this international competition.  This year’s event drew 200,000+ visitors and professionals to witness the cutting edge in applied solar power, architecture, and sustainable energy technologies.  For more information on the Solar Decathlon competition and Penn State’s entry, visit these websites:

solar.psu.edu
solardecathlon.org
http://live.psu.edu/story/26762?nw=4

South Facade with Meadow

Seth Wilberding, an Instructor in the Landscape Architecture Department, explains the plans.