Ever since the first forest-dwelling pagans grotesquely sacrificed children and virgins to what they believed to be the Sun God, humans have recognized the significance of the brilliant orb of energy around which our planet revolves. But even so many millennia after our ancestors performed violent rituals in ineffectual attempts to harvest just a bit of the sun’s seemingly infinite power, our ability to use the sun for our own purposes remains pitifully limited. Still, the U.S. Department of Energy is trying to rectify this problem with the Solar Decathalon. Running until Sunday on the National Mall, it is an attempt to produce solar innovation and energy-efficient technology.
Unfortunately, this event doesn’t involve athletes competing in ten tests of strength and speed on the surface of the sun. In fact, upon first viewing the twenty bizarre houses lined up in two rows across the Mall, you might ask, “Is this a new protest?” or “is this where Georgetown has quarantined its students with Swine Flu?” No—this is the Solar Decathlon. It’s a fantastical competition in which these houses, designed and built by U.S. and international college students, will be stringently judged on a myriad of factors, from engineering and architecture to home entertainment and comfort. It may seem like a feel-good architectural free-for-all, but there can only be one winner.
Each house uses the sun’s power to provide electricity. The teams’ innovative designs included a simple, sustainable house designed for a low-income family in Houston, and a modern “pod” house with movable solar panels, a greenhouse, and a wall of melted recycled water-bottles that provide light and assist in the building’s heating and cooling. The houses provided onlookers with a glimpse into the future, as throngs of intrigued D.C. residents and Columbus Day tourists lined up patiently while the hot afternoon sun beat down upon the happy solar panels. Like children waiting in line at Disney World, the visitors had a feeling of excited anticipation before taking a small glimpse into the future.
Energy-producing gardens, rain-using showers, big screen televisions, and beds that pull out of stairs filled my eyes as I weaved in and out of each house. Friendly and proud builders showed me the nuts and bolts of solar construction and the unique features of each home. While these houses were incredibly diverse in their construction and futuristic technological features, for some reason they all had one thing in common: horribly uncomfortable furniture. The German team’s house had spacious ceilings, a loft bedroom, and a beautiful luxury kitchen, but its chairs were hard, narrow monstrosities that looked terribly uninviting and somehow fittingly German.
Perhaps partly because of their uncomfortable furnishings, these houses, for all their insane and innovative features, still seemed somehow unlivable, little more than high-minded concepts that happened to have been magically incarnated for a few days on the Mall. While their advances certainly have the potential to change the way we will live in the future, they will have to become a little more real before anyone could consider actually living in them.
Due to changes made during the editing process, some of the views and judgments included in this article are not representative of my views or experiences.