John Quale in the News

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

ecoMOD4 is On the Move

The award winning modular, sustainable design and affordable housing research project, ecoMOD, will be installing its fourth building this Thursday on Elliott Ave. in Charlottesville. After a busy summer of construction in the old hangar at the University of Virginia-owned Milton Airfield, the four modules of ecoMOD4 will be hauled by tractor-trailer on Thursday morning, lifted by crane onto the prepared foundation, and assembled on its permanent Elliott Avenue site. The completed building will become a home for a family selected by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. ecoMOD is a research and design / build / evaluate project at the U.Va. that aims to create a series of ecological, modular and affordable house prototypes. A partnership of the U.Va. School of Architecture and School of Engineering and Applied Science, the goal is to demonstrate the environmental and economic potential of prefabrication, and to challenge the modular and manufactured housing industry in the United States to explore this potential. ecoMOD Project Director: John Quale, U.Va. architecture professor ecoMOD Engineering Director: Paxton Marshall, U.Va. electrical and computer engineering professor

Monday, October 5, 2009

John Quale / ecoMOD featured in Green Source

"The New Green U: Design educators are choosing different paths for guiding tomorrow’s architects toward a carbon-free future" [By B.J. Novitski, GreenSource] Some architecture schools in North America and around the world have been teaching sustainable practices for decades, while others have neglected the field altogether. By now, most green practitioners are familiar with the “2030 Challenge,” developed and promoted by architect/activist Edward Mazria. This challenge, adopted by the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council, and many other groups, is to reach carbon neutrality—using no fossil-fuel greenhouse gas-emitting energy to operate buildings—by the year 2030. Possibly less familiar is the companion “2010 Imperative,” to achieve “complete ecological literacy in design education” by next year. Authors of the imperative believe such a crash course is needed to produce the next generation of architects capable of rising to the challenge. While most educators are struggling to incorporate sustainable design into the curriculum, some schools are way ahead of the game. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

Thursday, September 3, 2009

ecoMOD4 Nearing Completion

[UVa News, by Zak Richards] After a busy summer of construction in the old hangar at the University of Virginia-owned Milton Airfield, the four modules of ecoMOD4 – a first floor with kitchen and living area, a second floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom, and first- and second-floor stairwell-storage-powder room modules that tie the two stories together – will be hauled by tractor-trailer later this month, lifted by crane onto the prepared foundation, and assembled on its permanent Elliott Avenue site. It's an exacting construction process. "The stair module needs to line up to within a 16th of an inch of the front," said Edric Barnes, a mechanical engineering student in U.Va.'s School of Engineering and Applied Science, who served as an engineering manager on ecoMOD4 this summer. [for complete article, follow link in headline]

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

UVa to Partner with Charlottesville and Albemarle County in Energy Efficient Design Projects

The University of Virginia will partner in some projects through LEAP, the Local Energy Alliance Program, which is funded by a $500,000 award made to Charlottesville and Albemarle County by the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance. The Charlotteville-Albemarle proposal trumped that of sixteen other localities to win the cash award, which was announced by the City of Charlottesville yesterday. Assistant Professor of Architecture John Quale, Professor of Engineering Paxton Marshall, and other U.Va. faculty members assisted with proposal preparation. According to the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, the proposal was selected because it is "designed to achieve unprecedented energy and water savings by retrofitting buildings and installing renewable technologies." Private local businesses will also take part in LEAP projects, including VMDO, an architecture alumni design firm. While planning for specific projects is just beginning, according to ecoMOD director John Quale, three U.Va. students are working this summer with Quale to design and engineer "eco reMOD," a highly sustainable renovation project of a 1920s bungalow located next to the future site of the fourth ecoMOD house, also in the works, at the corner of Elliott and Ridge Avenues in Charlottesville. The City of Charlottesville will perform the construction work on eco reMOD from the student and faculty design, and there will be a ceremonial kick-off for the project this fall at the ribbon-cutting for ecoMOD4. eco reMOD will remain open to the public as a demonstration project for two years, and will include office space for a future project that will be funded by the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance award.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Faculty Receive University Academic Community Engagement Grants

{News from the Office of University and Community Partnerships}The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost announced today the School of Architecture faculty who are recipients of the 2009 Academic Community Engagement (ACE) grants. These grants are awarded to U.Va. faculty members who create a new course or revise an existing course to incorporate a community service or community-based research project. Tanya Denckla Cobb, Senior Associate at the Institute for Environmental Negotiation, and Timothy Beatley, the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, designed the course “Community Food System Planning: PART II.” Students in their class will continue to explore the challenges of acquiring local food in Charlottesville and its surrounding communities, while working with the Jefferson Board for Aging and Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission to develop a comprehensive plan to improve access. Betsy Roettger, lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Advising in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, designed the course "Designing Higher-Density Affordable Housing.” Students in this class will choose different affordable housing projects in Charlottesville each year and work with Virginia Supportive Housing (VSH) to assure that the building plans and processes are environmentally responsible. John Quale, an assistant professor and the director of the ecoMOD project, designed the course "Evaluating ecoMOD, ecoMOD Design Studio and ecoMOD engineering class.” This class is a continuation of the previously established ecoMOD project, which focuses on working with community partners to create affordable housing that is also environmentally friendly.

Friday, June 12, 2009

ecoMOD Wins Spotlight Award from Charlottesville Business Innovation Council

[UVa Research News] PluroGen Therapeutics Inc., a University of Virginia start-up; ecoMOD, a unique design/build partnership of U.Va.'s schools of Architecture and Engineering; and David Chen, a U.Va. faculty member, were honored in May by the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council. The Charlottesville Innovation Awards, given at a gala event at Farmington Country Club, commend individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions over the last year to the local community and economy by advancing technology and innovation.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

John Quale's Lecture "Ten Years From Now" in the "Last Lectures" Series (4.22.09) (Video)

In his talk, "Ten Years From Now," Assistant Professor of Architecture JohnQuale explored issues of legacy; specifically, how we spend our time in relation to the broader cultural context of social and environmental issues. He also discussed the emergence of "design activism" as a way of framing an important role for today’s generation of designers. The Last Lecture Series is an annual tradition at the University of Virginia, providing a forum for distinguished faculty members to lecture to students as if it were their last time to do so, on a topic of their choosing. This year’s lecturers were Claudrena Harold, assistant professor of history, and John Quale.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Dwell Magazine Interviews John Quale

Despite a couple of detours—majoring in Asian studies during college, then working as a photo editor for the Washingtonian magazine—Quale ended up with an architecture degree from the University of Virginia, where he’s currently an assistant professor. He also directs a unique design/build/evaluate project: ecoMOD. Though the term may conjure up images of a retro ’60s fashionista, it’s actually 44-year-old Quale’s attempt to bridge the economic divide between high design and the down-at-heel while integrating both good design and sustainability. [for complete article, follow link to Dwell]

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

John Quale Garners Two International Fellowships for Research in 2010

[from UVa News Services] John Quale, assistant professor of architecture, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in Japan in the summer of 2010. In addition, he will be the Thomas Jefferson Fellow at Downing College, University of Cambridge during the 2010 spring semester. Quale will research sustainable, affordable and prefabricated housing in the U.K. and northern Europe and then in Japan, where he will be associated with the University of Tokyo. Quale teaches architectural design studios, design/build studios and building technology courses in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. He initiated and serves as project director for the ecoMOD project. In the U.Va.-Downing arrangement, fellows are not required to teach. Instead, they take time off from their normal routines to write and pursue research. The professor exchange program between Downing and U.Va. began in 1976, and Thomas Jefferson Fellows have gone to Downing every year with the exception of 1987 and 2003. The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and operates in more than 155 countries worldwide. Since the U.S. legislature established it in 1946, the program has provided approximately 286,500 people — including 108,160 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad, and 178,340 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States — with the opportunity to observe each others' political, economic, educational and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world's inhabitants.

Monday, April 6, 2009

ecoMOD, Faculty, and Alumni Win Awards in 2009 VSAIA Design Competition

The ecoMOD3 team has won an Award of Merit for the Interior Design for the SEAM house in the annual Inform Design Competition organized by the Virginia Society of the AIA. ecoMOD is directed by John Quale, Assistant Professor of Architecture. [www.ecomod.virginia.edu] Jeff Ponitz, alumnus and adjunct faculty member in Architecture, has won as Award of Merit in the Object Design category for the Compression Screen at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. Several other alumni have received awards including those at the following firms: Gensler; VMDO Architects, PC; Siteworks; EDAW; Studio27 Architecture; and Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Co. Please follow the link to review the complete list of award winners.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

"John Quale Marries Green and Affordable in a Housing Revolution"

[C-ville Weekly, by Kathryn Faulkner] How do you solve two big problems at once? For Quale, going green and saving dough go hand in hand. He doesn?t think sustainable housing should trickle down in the marketplace, beginning with those who can pay a premium for it; he wants to see green thinking integrated into low-cost housing, actually making it more affordable. [for complete article, follow link to C-ville Weekly]

Monday, February 2, 2009

Data Collected on First ecoMOD House

[Daily Progress, 2/2/09) Researchers at the University of Virginia are working on a home monitoring system that could one day allow people to live in their homes longer. The system, created as part of a collaboration between UVa?s architecture and engineering schools to design and build eco-friendly modular homes, is gathering data in the first ecoMOD home in Charlottesville that was finished two years ago. The prototype system reports data to researchers once a day, but Paxton Marshall, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, said the aim is to design a marketable system, and software, that reports information in real time. [for complete article, follow link to the Daily Progress website]

Thursday, October 23, 2008

"The Promise of Prefab" - Metropolis Magazine

[from Metropolis Magazine, Oct. 2008] By John Quale, Asst. Professor of Architecture ?I?m very excited about the way the current generation has recognized that design can have a positive impact on people?s lives, whether it?s through reduced environmental impact or improved housing. That?s important. What we need now is to get more sophisticated about how we go about that, not just pretend that we?re doing something great. We need to analyze the work and evaluate it to determine what impact the built results actually have. This happens in every other design industry, but the starchitect system is based upon the idea that you do the amazing project, you might even talk about some of the social and environmental attributes, and you get it published in a good magazine?but that?s it. You don?t go back to see what happens afterwards...." [to read full article, follow link in headline]

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

ecoMOD Project Selected as Finalist in World Habitat Awards Program

Each year the Building and Social Housing Foundation selects twelve finalist projects for their World Habitat Awards. UVa's ecoMOD Project has been selected as a finalist this year. Two awards are given annually to projects from the global North as well as the South that provide practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems. An award of £10,000 is presented to each of the two winners at the annual United Nations global celebration of World Habitat Day, usually held in October. ecoMOD is a design/research/evaluate project directed by Assistant Professor of architecture John Quale and Professor of engineering P. Paxton Marshall is the engineering director. "The recognition of ecoMOD as a finalist in the World Habitat Awards Program is terrific news and demonstrates the value of design in addressing some of the urgent matters of our time. I am proud of the work of the John Quale, Paxton Marshall and their students in creating such a successful and well conceived program," said architecture dean Karen Van Lengen. The primary goal of ecoMOD is to "create a series of ecological, modular and affordable house prototypes." To date, ecoMOD has built three modular homes with plans for a fourth underway. "This recognition is meaningful for the ecoMOD project because the emphasis of the World Habitat Award program is on visionary yet realistic affordable housing strategies that have an emphasis on sustainability," Quale said. "Its nice to be included in a small select group of initiatives from around the world. Its a real testament of the efforts of the students, faculty, outside professionals and community members that have had a hand in our applied research project." Engineering director Paxton Marshall was also pleased by the international accolade, "We are delighted that our students are getting recognition for their commitment to developing sustainable and affordable housing options. Their efforts have demonstrated the capability of cutting home energy use in half without sacrificing livability or affordability.? Only four US projects have been winners of the prestigious international competition since the awards began in 1986. The announcement of this year's winners is expected in early 2009.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

ecoMOD Studio Creates Temporary Shelters in Preparation to Design Next ecoMOD House

The ecoMOD Project, directed by Assoc. Professor of Architecture John Quale with Engineering Director Paxton Marshall, divided their students in teams to build shelters with no more than $10 worth of materials, and spend the night in them. The next ecoMOD house will be built in the spring 2009 semester in partnership with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. ecoMOD is a design/build/evaluate project.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A-School Receives Funding for Collaborative Research Project in Energy Conservation

Assistant Professor of Architecture John Quale is a member of an interdisciplinary faculty research team that received a grant to develop their proposal, "Energy Conservation for Comfortable Buildings: University Energy Demand Reduction." The program is funded by the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the VP's Office of Research. Working with Quale will be Ron Williams (SEAS), Paxton Marshall (SEAS) and Cheryl Gomez (UVA Facilities Management). The team is one of four to be selected from a pool of twelve that were submitted for consideration this year, and the average seed funding request was $30,000.

Monday, May 19, 2008

ecoMOD Project Wins "Green" Award

[adapted from an article by Anne Bromely, UVa News Services] The ecoMOD project, a partnership of the University of Virginia's School of Architecture and School of Engineering and Applied Science, has won one of the inaugural U.S. Green Building Council Excellence in Green Building Curriculum Awards. Asst. Professor John Quale is the ecoMOD Project Director and Paxton Marshall, Assoc. Professor in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is the ecoMOD Engineering Director. The nationwide awards and grants program is a central component of council's commitment to locate and disseminate innovative green building curricula to educators across the country. The awards and grants recognize pre-K through college-level curricula that advance the green building ideals of transforming how buildings and communities are designed, built and operated. The ecoMOD project, using research and a design/build/evaluate process, is creating a series of ecological, modular and affordable housing units. The program works with affordable housing organizations to ensure sustainable housing is no longer a luxury reserved for the wealthy. Since 2004, ecoMOD has built five units for the Piedmont Housing Alliance and Habitat for Humanity. The housing units are designed and built by interdisciplinary teams of students, working closely with faculty and outside experts. After the homes are occupied, student evaluation teams monitor and evaluate them, with the results guiding subsequent designs. ecoMOD is imbedded in the curriculum and is structured to maximize educational opportunities.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Two SARC Faculty Win University Teaching Awards

The 2008 University of Virginia Outstanding Teaching Awards were given last night at a celebratory dinner in the Rotonda's Dome Room. Among this year's honorees are two architecture faculty members. Associate Professor Kirk Martini received one of nine All-University Outstanding Teaching Awards, and Assistant Professor John Quale received the Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award. To read reflections on the teaching practices of both faculty members, follow the given link to the UVa News article.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Asst. Professor John Quale Participates on Jury at World Future Energy Summit in UAE

John Quale, Assistant Professor of Architecture and ecoMOD Project Director, recently served on an international architectural jury for a carbon-neutral, ?positive energy? building to be constructed in the United Arab Emirates. The jury, which was held in the UAE, included architects from France and the U.S., and academics from Harvard and Carnegie Mellon ? all with noted experience with sustainable design or in the Middle East. The winners were announced and the city master plan revealed at the first ever World Future Energy Summit, an international meeting of renewable energy experts working towards sustainable energy solutions. The conference participants included Prince Charles, Prince of Wales; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; the presidents of Iceland and the Maldives, architects Norman Foster and William McDonough (former dean of the School), and the CEOs of several energy companies, including BP and Shell. President Bush was briefed on the Masdar Initiative during a state visit to the UAE the week prior to the jury and the summit. The jury selected the Chicago-based firm of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architects to design the headquarters for the Masdar Initiative, financed by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company. The building will be located in the new car-free and fossil-fuel free city of Masdar, near the airport in Abu Dhabi, one of the emirates of the UAE. Smith and Gill are former partners at the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), where they designed the Burj Dubai (nearing completion), the world?s tallest building in the neighboring emirate of Dubai. In contrast with that building, the Masdar headquarters will be no more than eight stories high, and embedded in a new, dense urban context. It will make extensive use of passive design principles, and be powered by one of the world's largest building-integrated photovoltaic arrays. It will also have what is believed to be the largest solar thermal driven cooling and dehumidification systems. The original 159 design teams were narrowed to 15 and then four finalists. The four finalist teams produced large-scale models and videos for the final jury review in Abu Dhabi. The building is being integrated into a master plan by the London based firm Norman Foster & Partners, architects of many notable sustainable buildings around the world. Quale and other members of the jury have been asked to consult with the project over the next few years while the developer aims to complete the project by 2010.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Virginia Governor Kaine Praises ecoMOD3 at Ribbon Cutting

[From UVa News Services] Dec. 10, 2007 ? Gov. Timothy M. Kaine attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University of Virginia's ecoMOD3 project held Monday, Dec. 10. Kaine applauded the project goals of historic preservation, affordability, 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. ?? The idea is to do it as a little bit of an experiment, a laboratory. We do this, we learn some tings, we then share the lessons with those who are doing modular homes, with other civic organizations, like the P.H.A. and others can pick up the lessons and replicate them in communities all across the country." To the crowd that included U.Va. students and faculty, deans of the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Delegate David Toscano, Charlottesville City Manager Gary O'Connell, representatives from the Piedmont Housing Alliance, other dignitaries and guests, U.Va. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Leonard W. Sandridge welcomed the Governor and praised his initiatives and commitment to the environment, which includes the state's first energy plan, developed in 2006 with stakeholder input and incorporates energy conservation recommendations for state government, businesses and individuals. 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-making and ribbon cutting, Kaine and his cabinet members had an opportunity to tour and discuss the project with students, who worked to make the design, build and evaluation initiative a reality. The ecoMOD3 project, a partnership with Piedmont Housing Alliance, 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. ecoMOD, a joint, multi-year project at the University of Virginia School of Architecture and School of Engineering and Applied Science, empowers students to research, design build and evaluate a series of ecological, modular and affordable house prototypes. Interdisciplinary teams of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, historic preservation, business, environmental science, planning and economics students are all participating. The scope of the ecoMOD project includes three prototypes for Piedmont Housing Alliance. Two have been completed. Another prototype was developed for Habitat for Humanity. The designs, licensed to Modern Modular of New York City, will be made available to affordable housing organizations, modular builders and individuals to build in the coming year. 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-19th-century historic property. The house on 4th Street, believed to have been built as slave quarters, was designated as a historic property by the City of Charlottesville, but was in a state of serious disrepair when the Piedmont Housing Alliance purchased the property. As part of the historic preservation effort, the team explored and documented the history of affordable housing for African-Americans in Charlottesville since the antebellum era. A modular, highly energy-efficient addition designed and built by the ecoMOD3 team is attached to the historic house. Envisioned as a contemporary structure, the project provides a highly flexible modular prototype system that can be added as an addition to any home. The highly energy-efficient studio unit that sits behind the historic house is comprised of two modules, and is topped by a "green" roof covered in plants that will provide environmental benefits, such as storm water management, building insulation and help improve air quality. The unit also includes sustainable cork flooring, on-demand hot water, highly energy-efficient appliances and heating and cooling system, as well as a trellis/shade structure. The team is aiming for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design "Platinum" rating for the unit within the U.S. Green Building Council?s LEED for Homes certification program. The unit's design explores the concept of the 'seam' between new and old ? and inside and outside ? while incorporating principles of "universal design," a philosophy that advocates design solutions for products, communications and the built environment that benefit people of all ages and abilities at little or no extra cost. ecoMOD3 is the second ecoMOD project in partnership with the Piedmont Housing Alliance, a central Virginia affordable housing organization that offers fair housing education, low-interest loans and affordable housing project development. ecoMOD1, a two-unit condominium, was completed in Charlottesville's Fifeville neighborhood in 2006. In the summer of 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 post-Katrina rebuilding effort exhibits nationally. A variety of non-profits, corporations and the U.S. Environmental Project Agency have funded the ecoMOD project. The American Institute of Architect's 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 effort to sweep all three major architectural education awards: the 2007 National Council of Architectural Registration Boards' Grand Prize, the 2007 American Institute of Architect's Education Honor Award and the 2006-07 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.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

U.Va. Group Fostering Communities that Embody Sustainability

News Source: Explorations Sept. 12, 2007 -- At U.Va., you have only to walk as far as the Lawn to see an example of a sustainable community ? Thomas Jefferson?s Academical Village. As in all sustainable design, the relationship of structures to the environment was an important consideration for Jefferson. He placed his suite of buildings at the end of a long ridge with an uninterrupted view from the Rotunda to the Ragged Mountains in the south. The classrooms and living quarters are in close proximity ? and the Rotunda serves as a natural gathering place. This built environment encourages the exchange of ideas between faculty members and students ? a process that is essential to its long-term viability. The Lawn also incorporates the cultural ideas of the time as well as enduring values of balance and proportion. Almost 200 years after its creation, it still excites our imagination. As School of Architecture dean Karen Van Lengen points out, ?Sustainability, broadly defined, is not only based in the ecology of an area, but supports equity and embodies important cultural ideas.? As part of U.Va.?s Sustainable Communities Group, Van Lengen and her colleagues seek to create and support communities that extend the characteristics of the Academical Village for our time. [For the complete article, please visit Explorations online - Fall 2007 issue]

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

ecoMOD3 Expands Modular, Sustainable, Affordable Housing Research

[from UVa News Services, by Jane Ford]: Aug. 20, 2007 -- Some University of Virginia students cheered and clapped as a crane lifted the prefabricated modules into place at their new home in the Castle Hill-Fifeville neighborhood in Charlottesville. The ovation marked the nearing of the completion of ecoMOD3, the third prototype in the ecoMOD project, a multi-year sustainable design/build effort at the U.Va. School of Architecture, in partnership with the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Architecture and engineering students, professors and contractors had worked for a year and a half to design and construct the three prefabricated modules that will transform a deteriorating 19th century home in a traditionally African-American neighborhood into an affordable home designed to accommodate aging residents while adhering to sustainable practices of design and construction, and incorporate energy saving technologies in a prototypical modular system. "Our goal is to challenge the modular and manufactured housing industry in the United States to explore modular and affordable house prototypes," said assistant professor of architecture John Quale, who serves as ecoMOD project director. ecoMOD3's 48-member student design/build team sought to address three major themes: housing appropriate for an expanding aging population that wants to 'age in place,' incorporating cutting-edge medical monitoring systems; a highly flexible modular system for affordable housing with rigorous standards for ecological sustainability; and the historic preservation of an 1850s to 1860s house which may have served as slave?s quarters or been built by a freed slave. Dubbed "the SEAM house," its design explores the concept of the ?seam? between new and old; the connection between older and younger generations within a household; the ?stitch? that connects modules together; and the link between inside and outside. One module is an addition to the historic home and will provide an Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant bedroom constructed with a green roof system and super-insulated ThermaSteel walls. The renovation of the existing home features reconditioned historic wood flooring, a solar hot water system coupled with on-demand water heating and energy-efficient appliances, fixtures and heating and cooling equipment. The other two modular pods form a separate housing unit to the rear, which may be used by the homeowners as a rental unit to contribute to the affordability of the property. That unit also features super-insulated ThermaSteel wall and roof construction, ADA compliance throughout the unit, sustainable cork flooring, on-demand water heating, a modular green roof system and highly energy-efficient appliances, plumbing fixtures and heating and cooling equipment. Additionally, the design incorporates a large deck with a custom trellis/shade device and a garden/courtyard space. The eventual tenants of the newly transformed home are yet to be determined. The property is currently owned by the Piedmont Housing Alliance. The ecoMOD team researched aging issues with the help of local experts and planners, as well as medical and nursing professionals. Energy-saving technologies are incorporated in all areas of the design, as well as careful consideration of natural light and ventilation. The modules' sustainable materials include no volatile organic compounds. A partnership with U.Va.?s Medical Automated Research Center will facilitate the inclusion of noninvasive medical monitoring equipment working in tandem with integrated energy performance monitoring devices developed by the engineering school. ecoMOD is also partnering with the Jefferson Area Board for Aging and Piedmont Preservation on the project. "I think this has been just the most incredible experience for me, for the team. I'm really proud of it because the more I hear, the more I realize how unique U.Va. is in this program," architecture graduate student and 2005 engineering school graduate Beth Kahley said. "There are a lot of other graduate schools out there doing design/build. There are a number that are focusing in on sustainability. There are a number that are looking at prefab, but the fact that we are rolling all of these agendas into one, along with affordable housing, along with evaluating the product once it's been built, really makes ecoMOD just a completely unique project." Quale is leading the multidisciplinary team of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, historic preservation and planning students. Engineering professor Paxton Marshall is the ecoMOD engineering director, and is coordinating the work of the engineering students. "It's a fantastic education for the engineering students that you can't get in the classroom," Marshall said. "The opportunity to work with the architect, working on a real-world project, having to do with all the contextual issues that are involved in a project like this ? budgetary, material selection ? and to actually bring it to fruition ... is something that doesn't happen in education too often." Over the next several years, students and faculty are designing and building several 600- to 1,400-square-foot ecological, modular and affordable housing units. ecoMOD1 ? dubbed "the OUTin house" ? was completed in Charlottesville, Va., in partnership with Piedmont Housing Alliance, a central Virginia affordable housing organization. ecoMOD2 ? "the preHAB house" ? was designed in response to Hurricane Katrina and is nearing completion in Gautier, Miss., for Habitat for Humanity International. Each of the homes in the ecoMOD project will be carefully evaluated. An interdisciplinary team of students are monitoring the energy efficiency, researching the overall environmental impact and analyzing the affordability of the first house. The ecoMOD project won three major architectural education awards in 2007: the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Grand Prize, the American Institute of Architects Education Honor Award and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Collaborative Practice Award. ecoMOD also received a P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Award Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the project's curriculum was selected for special recognition in the 2005 Ecoliteracy in Architecture School Report, published by the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment. ecoMOD1 was named the Best Residential Project for 2006 by the Virginia Sustainable Building Network, and ecoMOD3 received an Honor Award from the James River Green Building Council. ecoMOD3 design will be licensed to Modern Modular of New York City, with the drawings and specifications made available for purchase by individuals and affordable housing organizations.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

"Hi-Tech Homes Preserve Past" - CBS News

The third ecoMOD Project, SEAM House, was featured on WCAV television yesterday. ecoMOD is directed by Assistant Professor John Quale.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Faculty Member Elected to Sustinable Building Board

Assistant Professor of Architecture John Quale has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Sustainable Building Network (VSBN). VSBN was founded in 1995 brings together representatives from diverse sectors representing commercial design and construction, building management, residential, banking, utility, government, and environmental interests who are interested in building healthy, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly buildings and sustainable communities in Virginia. To date, VSBN has built a statewide network of Green Building proponents, provided Green Building events and training around the state and region, provided technical assistance on Green Building design and operations, and has created an information clearinghouse and resource directory.

Monday, June 11, 2007

University Launches Sustainability Website Featuring SARC Initiatives

The University of Virginia has launched a website to collect information about sustainability measures, research, and design/build projects underway by faculty and students. Several School of Architecture initiatives are featured on the site.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

ecoMOD and Learning Barge Win Awards in JRGBC's "Go Green" Awards Program

At the Go Green Awards ceremony sponsored by the James River Green Building Council (JRGBC) on April 20, the ecoMOD Project, directed by Assistant Professor John Quale, won both the JRGBC High Performance Building Award Grant of $10,000 and the Honor Award in the Built Work category. Quale announced that the grant funds will support the modular green roof and evacuated tube solar hot water panel at the third ecoMOD house to be sited in the Castle Hill / Fifeville neighborhood of Charlottesville. The Learning Barge Project, directed by Assistant Professor Phoebe Crisman, won the Honor Award in the Unbuilt Work category. Also, several projects designed by alumni practitioners won merit awards.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

ecoMOD Project and Learning Barge Project Win National Prizes

Two projects based at the UVa School of Architecture won 2007 NCARB Awards, it was announced March 10th. The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) sponsors an annual awards program to honor a total of six projects across the nation that reflect ?creative integration of practice and education in the academy.? The jury consists of six architecture school deans.
The ecoMOD Project , directed by Assistant Professor John Quale, received the $25,000 Grand Prize, its third major award this year to date, following the AIA National Education Honor Award and the 2007 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award.
The Learning Barge Project, directed by Assistant Professor Phoebe Crisman, received one of five $7,500 awards. The project has won other important accolades, including the American Society of Landscape Architects Student Collaboration Award of Honor in 2006.
Prize-winning submissions will be exhibited at the NCARB Annual Meeting, featured in NCARB's Direct Connection, and highlighted in the NCARB Prize Book.
This is the first time that two projects from the same university have been selected for NCARB awards, a significant achievement.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Assistant Professor John Quale and the ecoMOD Project receive two significant awards

It is a great pleasure to announce that John Quale and the ecoMOD Project has received two significant awards recently: The first is the Collaborative Practice Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.  Criteria: This ACSA award recognizes programs that demonstrate how faculty, students, and community/civic clients work to realize common objectives. Participation by professional practitioners and colleagues from other academic disciplines is encouraged. Architecture, Landscape, Interior, Planning, Industrial, Urban Collaborative projects and practice can encompass a variety of endeavors, including but not limited to: design/build, new construction, rehabilitation, open space planning, zoning and regulatory reform, and the development of new institutions or social processes. The second is one of three Education Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects.  Criteria: The awards jury will seek evidence of exceptional and innovative courses, initiatives, or programs that: - deal with broad issues, particularly in cross-disciplinary collaboration and/or within the broader community; - contribute to the advancement of architecture education; - have the potential to benefit and/or change practice; and/or - promote models of excellence that can be appropriated by other educators. Both awards will be presented at next month's ACSA Convention in Philadelphia. Congratulations John and all of the students whose commitment has made this recognition possible.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

ecoMOD2 Selected for ?Project New Orleans? Exhibit

Work from the ecoMOD2 design/research/evaluate project directed by Asst. Professor John Quale and sited in Gaultier, Mississippi, will be on display at the New Orleans African American Museum from October 28 through December 8 as part of the ?Project New Orleans? exhibit. ?Project New Orleans? is a team effort to catalog the work of all architectural and planning proposals created for the post-Katrina rebuilding of New Orleans and surrounding areas curated by Michael Sorkin, Director, Graduate Urban Design Program, City University of New York; Carol Reese, Associate Professor of History and Theory, School of Architecture, Tulane University; and Anthony Fontenot, Doctorial candidate, School of Architecture, Princeton University. In addition to mounting the exhibit, the team plans to publish the collected work in a book to be released in 2007.

Friday, August 18, 2006

ecoMOD2 and "Higher Density, Higher Ground" Competition Merit Award Winners Featured in Virginia Magazine

The installation of the ecoMOD2 house, preHAB, in Gautier, Mississippi during the summer is featured in the Fall issue of Virginia Magazine along with a mention of graduate students Justin Laskin and Kathleen Mark's merit-award winning entry in the "Higher Density, Higher Ground" design competition.

The ecoMOD Project is directed by Assistant Professor John Quale.

For additional information, visit the ecoMOD website.

Monday, May 29, 2006

"Architects Help Build Community"

"In their own way, architecture faculty members Craig Barton and John Quale each underscore a fundamental truth about their field. Architecture is not simply about the buildings. It is about the values and aspirations that buildings represent?." [Explorations:Research Highlights from the University of Virginia, Spring 2006

Thursday, May 18, 2006

ecoMOD2, "preHAB," Destined for Hurricane-Devastated Mississippi

"The challenge of combining ecological technologies with the need for affordable housing in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast occupied the minds and talents of 18 University of Virginia students taking part in a unique student/faculty project. The interdisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering and Applied Science teamed up throughout the spring semester to create a Habitat for Humanity home to be constructed in Gautier, Miss. Along the way, they tackled issues related to high winds, humidity, moisture and hurricanes, and employed passive and active solar technologies to build preHAB, a prototype environmentally responsive panelized house kit ? the second house in ecoMOD, a multi-year research and design / build / evaluate project at the School of Architecture?." ~ Jane Ford, UVa News

Thursday, May 11, 2006

ecoMOD Project Receives Honorable Mention in P3 Competition

?Evaluating ecoMOD: Building Performance Monitoring and Post-Occupancy Evaluation of an Ecological, Modular House,? a component of the ecoMOD Project directed by Asst. Professor John Quale, received an honorable mention last night at the Environmental Protection Agency's P3 Competition, a science and technology sustainability competition. The event was presided over by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, and the awards ceremony included speeches by Congressman Mark Udall (D-Colorado) and Charles O. Holliday, Jr., CEO of DuPont.

ecoMOD2 was featured in the local newspaper, The Hook, this week as a positive step toward aiding those displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Asst. Prof. John Quale Discusses Sustainable Design on WNRN

John Quale, Asst. Professor of Architecture and Director of the ecoMOD Project, was featured on local radio station WNRN's "Wake Up Call" yesterday in a segment entitled, "Sustainable Design in Charlottesville."

Thursday, November 17, 2005

ecoMOD Featured on CNN Program, "Global Challenges"

The house designed by the first ecoMOD project team, led by Asst. Professor John Quale, will be showcased on the CNN television program, "Global Challenges," on Saturday, November 19 at 4:30pm (EST). The program will be rebroadcast several times before December 10th.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

ecoMOD Featured in Architectural Record Article

DESIGN, BUILD, AND REPEAT

By Sarah Cox

While other architecture students were sleeping off the stress and caffeine-induced stupor of their final charrettes early last spring, the ecoMOD studio at the University of Virginia was just gearing up for construction of a prefabricated, ecological, and affordable home of their own design?.

(Architectural Record, November 2005)

Sunday, October 30, 2005

UVa Students Think Modular to Aid Needy

With the leadership of John Quale, an assistant professor of architecture, and the Piedmont Housing Alliance, a nonprofit housing organization, the students, whose disciplines span architecture, engineering, business, environmental science, planning and economics, will soon complete the ecoMOD project, which may be the first of its kind, Quale said.

Monday, September 5, 2005

Hangar to Home: On-site construction of first ecoMOD house begins

Kyle Sturgeon (BSArch’05) stands in the second floor of the OUTin house, the newest addition to 7th Street in Charlottesville’s Fifeville neighborhood. “The light in here is great. You plan for these things, but this is amazing.”

The planning and design of the house is the result of a collaboration between students in architecture, landscape architecture and planning. The brainchild of John Quale, Assistant Professor of Architecture, ecoMOD is a research and design/build project organized as a series of four design studios intended to produce an ecological, modular and affordable housing system using sustainable and passive design strategies.

Thursday, August 4, 2005

ecoMOD Project's OUTin House Featured in Richmond Times Dispatch

ecoMOD, the interdisciplinary research project lead by Assistant Professor of Architecture John Quale (March'93), is featured in the "Explore" section of today's Richmond Times Dispatch in an article entitled, "It really is easy being green Green-building techniques better for environment, lessen energy use." The printed version includes a prominent image of the model for ecoMOD's OUTin house, the house being constructed this summer by students from the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering. Alumnus Patrick Farley's (BSArch'88, MArch'93) "green design" for a Richmond house is also discussed.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

ecoMOD Project Featured on Local News

Members of the first ecoMOD team were interviewed by local television news reporters on July 19th. A transcript as well as a video clip of the CBS interview is available online.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

ecoMOD Exhibit and Silent Auction to be Held Friday

The Charlottesville Community Design Center hosted an exhibit opening and silent auction to benefit ecoMOD, a research and design/build project led by Asst. Professor of Architecture, John Quale on Friday, May 6, 2005.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

ecoMOD Website Launched

ecoMOD, the research and design/build project directed by Asst. Professor of Architecture John Quale, announced today that their website is launched. This summer, students in the ecoMOD program, in cooperation with the Piedmont Housing Alliance, will build the first of three modular, ecological, and affordable houses for a family in the Fifeville Neighborhood in Charlottesville.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

ecoMOD : an Ecological Modular House Proto-typing Project

University of Virginia students are designing and will construct at least three proto-typical 1,000 to 1,250 square foot modular houses, and monitor their performance.

John Quale, Assistant Professor of Architecture, founded and directs the ecoMOD research and design/build project, which is organized as a series of studios held across four years that began with fall semester 2004. The primary goal of the project is to produce an ecological, modular, and affordable housing system that incorporates sustainable design strategies while providing comfort and marketability.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

UVa Donates "Trojan Goat" Solar House to PHA

By Jane Ford, UVa News Services

The University of Virginia?s award-winning solar house, which competed in the 2002 Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C., is being donated to Piedmont Housing Alliance, a Charlottesville non-profit housing organization. PHA will eventually sell the house to raise funds for their low-income housing programs.

The solar-powered house uses sophisticated renewable energy systems, and integrates building materials that maximize energy efficiency, while minimizing the impact to the environment. The house was designed and built by U.Va. students and was moved temporarily to the National Mall in Washington for the Department of Energy-sponsored decathlon event in September 2002. The house won 1st place for architecture in the first-ever national competition, and 2nd place overall. Students from the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering and Applied Science made up the team on the experimental house.

Assistant Professor John Quale of the School of Architecture and Professor Paxton Marshall of the School of Engineering and Applied Science advised the U.Va. Solar Decathlon team over the course of the two-year project. Former engineering research scientist Dan Pearce also advised the group.

"We have been searching for the right place for the Solar Decathlon house since the competition, and this is the best possible situation. It allows the University to show its support for the important work of PHA, while making sure the house will eventually have a permanent home," Quale said.

?We?re excited about the opportunity to continue our successful partnership with the U.Va. School of Architecture. The Solar House donation symbolizes our mutual values in harvesting new technologies that produce sustainable building models for the future,? said Stu Armstrong, executive director of Piedmont Housing Alliance.

Details of the sale of the house by PHA have not been determined, but it is likely the sale will occur during the late spring or summer. PHA will seek potential buyers interested in using the house as intended ? as a small home or guest house. The 750 square-foot home includes a living room, dining area, kitchenette, home office space, bathroom, bedroom and sunspace. The eventual owner will be required to move the home to its final location, using the services of a house-moving firm.

Currently, the School of Architecture is partnering with PHA on a new project to create low income, sustainable houses for the Charlottesville area. Called ecoMOD, the multi-year research and design / build project is focused on the creation of ecological and modular house prototypes. The first ecoMOD house will be built off-site this summer by students as separate modules, and assembled on a permanent site in the Charlottesville Fifeville neighborhood. Quale founded and directs the ecoMOD project.