Five architecture students and their professor were well rewarded for their imagined revision of one of Buffalo's oldest neighborhoods, creating a more eco-friendly "fruit belt."
The students, from UB's School of Architecture, took home first, second and third prizes in The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's "Building Energy 2002 Conference" Saturday, March 23.
Under the supervision of Professor Dennis Andrejko, architecture students Hwan Choi, Eric Dolph, Sandra Heiser, Sheng Lin and Ashish Maldikar were given three weeks to devise their models for a "green home."
The team's project theme was close to home: create a housing prototype for Buffalo's "fruit belt" neighborhood - encompassing the downtown area's Grape, Peach, Orange and Lemon streets - that used energy in efficient and inventive ways.
"The project had a tripartite focus," said Dolph. "Issues of sustainability, accessibility and affordability all had to be addressed.
The conference's judges were sufficiently impressed with the Buffalo team's design to award them all three top prizes and also decided to split the prize money five ways between the students, awarding each student $350.
Dolph's project focused primarily on creating a sustainable, energy-efficient home as a model for the neighborhood.
"Fundamentally, this means optimizing energy consumption through intelligent design decisions and innovative material use," he said.
Heiser's work focused on creating what he called "the modest mansion" for a theoretical client, "an ecologically sensitive developer who owns several vacant parcels in the city of Buffalo."
"In three weeks, we individually developed designs and implemented sustainable systems such as passive solar heat, water collections systems, and economical building systems that were also energy efficient, such as super insulating techniques," said Heiser.
The students said the experience was a rewarding exercise in designing homes that serve the community, as well as the homeowner.
"The project was good for thinking about problems in our environment," said Choi.
"It's about responsibility," Dolph said. "Raising awareness of [environmental] issues, plus the practical advantages of lowered utility bills, has already and will continue to change the face of home design in the future."
Heiser said he would like to make a career out of environmentally safe designs.
"This was the perfect opportunity to study sustainable systems and ideas that could working this region. Winning the competition was a tremendous motivation as it would appear that our ideas are innovative and reasonable," he said.
In additional to personal rewards, Heisser said he felt privileged to "have the guidance of an expert in sustainable design, Professor Andrejko."
Although the prototype projects from each student were an academic assignment, Andrejko believes the project hops the "town-gown divide" appropriately. He had one fundamental goal in mind when he assigned the project: "We need to find harmony between saving energy and using energy wisely."
"This was done to spark interest in the Buffalo area and the prototypes are applicable to the Buffalo market and climate," said Andrejko.
