Comfort & Environmental Quality

Principles utilized to maximize user comfort and building performance COMFORT & ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

While people are often away from home during daylight hours at work, our target market often work from home making daylighting a priority for this home.

Southern facing outdoor space for cooler seasons

ERV with MERV 12 to combat Pittsburgh’s low air quality Conditioned forced air alleviates humidity in warmer months Radiant heating provides sensory comfort Views to outdoors Perpendicular windows for cross breeze

Outdoor living space Photovolatic panels to offset off-site energy

Collars calibrated to shade in summer

Double height allows for more daylight

Clerestory provides more daylight

Porch provides shade and connections to outdoors

Terracing manages water runoff, addresses vehicular and human access to basement

WINDOWS

Deconstructing windows of Solar Decathlon House

SOLAR THERMAL SYSTEM

In the Fall of 2018, the UDBS executed a pilot deconstruction project, DE_CON 01, of a 2005 Solar Decathlon building on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus, where the materials harvested are projected for future re-use in the RE_CON 01 & 02 market rate homes. In neighborhoods struck by concentrated poverty, the existing building stock of Pittsburgh is often left to deteriorate due to the falling value of homes, leading to blighted properties and to the degradation of neighborhoods across the city. Although these factors have lead to a current landscape struck by steep economic and racial divides, they also provide an opportunity to improve the lives of disenfranchised and marginalized individuals through the re-use of existing building stock to provide a living wage to individuals in the communities and reinvest the material in the neighborhoods. With the articulated mission of producing appropriate, replicable solutions, the UDBS will aspire to produce work that is inclusive, durable, and culturally relevant to future generations of the community. This pilot project sets the stage for future deconstruction projects of blighted homes in Pittsburgh in an effort to re-build communities and lives through job skills training.

Deconstructing the solar thermal system on the roof of Solar Decathlon House Interior of Solar Decathlon House Re_con elements proposed to be built with re-used material