On September 23rd the Empowerhouse Collaborative’s building opens to the public on the National Mall in Washington DC. After a summer of non-stop construction on the Hudson River waterfront, our team, among the 19 competing in this year’s U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, is hard at work to make our design real. Ten days after the opening, when the competition concludes, most of the teams will pack up their houses and go home. Our house, however, will be moving to its newly poured foundation in the Deanwood neighborhood of Washington D.C, where it will be expanded into a two-family home for Habitat for Humanity families.

This is just one way that the Empowerhouse stands apart from the other Solar Decathlon entries. In addition to designing a high-efficiency, solar-powered home for the competition, our team of students from Parsons The New School for Design; Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy at The New School; and Stevens Institute of Technology worked closely with the D.C.’s government and the local Habitat for Humanity, to create a new model for green, affordable housing for the city.

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