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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Decathlon starts construction

On Tuesday, April 5, the Solar Decathlon team hopes to gather members of the College and local community as well as sponsors and donors to celebrate an “Up-Rising” — the beginning of construction for their solar-powered home to be featured in the U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored Solar Decathlon competition held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. this September.

The event will mark the establishment of the first wall of the home and kick off the construction process to take place in the coming months in the Ridgeline parking lot behind the Mods. The “Up-Rising,” will take place the Tuesday following spring recess at 11 a.m. at the Harris Farm House, located on College Street across from the Recycling Center.

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"The Solar Decathlon Team is really excited to pause and recognize this huge milestone, and hopes that the whole student body will come celebrate with them!" said Astrid Schanz-Garbassi ’12, who is heavily involved in event planning for the team. “The event will be an excellent opportunity for everyone in the student body to celebrate one of the many great initiatives on campus.”

Those attending can enjoy milk from local dairies, Stonyfield farm yogurt, apple cider and Otter Creek baked goods. In addition, team members will be selling T-shirts and awarding prizes.

Student Construction Coordinator Alex Jopek ’11 described how at the event, construction team members will raise and then brace a wall of the home.

“This is a significant part of the process because it’s the first wall,” said Jopek. “It’s a fun part of the process — a lot of people haven’t done that [raised the wall of a home] before.”

The team will prepare for this event by beginning the construction process over spring recess. Jopek outlined an estimated timeline for the spring recess construction process.

On Monday, March 28, the team will survey the site and set the temporary foundation. The team will work Tuesday through Thursday on the floor of the home, with a crane arriving on Wednesday to place the floor onto the temporary foundation. On Friday, the team will begin building a wall frame and putting sheathing (plywood) on the frame. It is this wall frame that the team will raise on April 5.

After the April 5 event, students will primarily use Saturday workdays for construction of the home, Jopek said.

“You can’t really construct an hour here [or] an hour whenever you have time — you have to get out all the tools and you have to have the rest of the team there,” said Jopek.

As a result of the time-intensive nature of the process, Jopek hopes to make the most out of the upcoming Saturdays.

“The team is tremendously dedicated to putting forth the effort to build as much as possible ourselves, and we’re ideally going to have six to eight hour work parties," said Jopek.

Three students with construction experience were recently hired by the team. These students, along with current team members, will be primarily responsible for leading the workdays and working on construction of the home.

Although the team encourages others to get involved, Jopek emphasized safety training as an important prerequisite.

“We'd love to get more students involved, but they would have to go through the safety training process,” said Jopek.

Team members are grateful for the role of donors and sponsors in making the construction of the home a possibility. Middlebury-based rk MILES has donated materials to the project.

When the team traveled to the International Builder’s Show in January, they were able to make connections with national companies as well.

“Bosch approached us, [told] us that they were huge supporters of the project, and they asked us to make a shopping list,” explained Jopek.

In addition to material aid, the team has also benefited from the advice of staff members and professionals in the design of the project. Faculty members James Ashar Nelson, visiting assistant professor of architecture and Andrea Murray, visiting lecturer in architecture, are working closely with the team.

The team has also benefited from the expertise of local professional Karen Maxon for instruction in the software program Autodesk Revit Architecture, which has allowed the team to build detailed digital models of the home.

The team will sponsor a 5K Race on April 24 to raise awareness and funds for the project.


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