Cardinal Homes Supplies Modules for ‘Architect’ Magazine Award Winner

Muncy Homes

Signature

Superior Builders

Premier Builders

Architect Magazine

2013 R+D AWARDS

Winner: EcoMod

The University
of Virginia is redefining
the notion of high-performance, modular housing, beginning in the neighborhoods
that need it most. The modules were built by Cardinal Homes.

By Gideon
Fink Shapiro

EcoMod recently completed two modular houses in South Boston,
Va. Sited side-by-side, the structures look nearly identical, but the one on
the left is designed to Passive House standards—a challenge given the area’s
hot, muggy summers and cold winters—while the other serves as a control house
against which to compare building performance.

Credit: Trent Bell Photography

Sustainable and affordable are two words that
aren’t typically seen together in the building industry. The juxtaposition is
what caught the eyes of the jury as it reviewed the high-performance, modular
housing design led by John Quale, an associate professor of architecture at the
University of Virginia (UVa). Over the past decade, the EcoMod project has
pooled the research and development efforts of more than 370 students from
UVa’s architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, planning, business,
and historic preservation programs. Together, they’ve ventured into merging
ecology with economy, and modern design with modular construction and community
partnerships.

This summer, EcoMod is wrapping up its first three modular, “commercially
viable,” and affordable houses. Juror Jing Liu praised Quale’s dedication “to
hold on to something so unflashy and make it happen eventually.”

Reaching this current state of imminent commercialization
required the completion of several one-off housing prototypes. The first
iteration of EcoMod, an energy-efficient, two-unit condominium in a low-income
neighborhood of Charlottesville,
Va., was realized in 2004 in
collaboration with the local affordable housing organization, Piedmont Housing
Alliance. The next iteration, designed and built in collaboration with Habitat
for Humanity of the Mississippi
Gulf Coast
in 2005 and 2006 for a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina, was a
steel-and-foam panel house with both passive and active energy-saving technologies.
In 2009, the group realized a prototype house for Habitat for Humanity of
Charlottesville that featured a super-insulated building envelope, stormwater
recapture, and a photovoltaic array donated by the local utility company.

In 2011, Quale received a $2.45 million research grant to
redevelop and “commercialize” the Charlottesville
prototype into a replicable, economically sustainable design. Working with a
Passive House consultant, a local modular homebuilder, and two nonprofit
housing organizations, Quale and his students experimented with massing studies
and building components in an attempt to optimize housing costs, livability,
and energy performance.

To determine which building system or component to
implement, the team developed a Decision Analysis Tool (see examples below), a
radial chart that quantifies any number of parameters in six categories:
social, environmental, financial, technical, aesthetic, and energy. For
example, after comparing the benefits of structural insulated panels (SIPs)
with a more conventional double-stud wall, the team opted to combine aspects of
both: SIPs on the outside plus an extra stud wall on the interior, for a
three-layer wall separated by two layers of insulation.

Fabricated earlier this year, the first three commercially
viable modular units—all two-story, 1,800-square-foot, four-bedroom
residences—are being installed on site this summer. All three houses are slated
to be rented or purchased by low-income families. Two of the houses have been
built to international Passive House (PH) standards at the construction and
delivery cost of $105 per square foot (this does not include design fees or
foundation work). One PH unit is sited in muggy South
Boston, Va., while another is
sited 200 miles west in mountainous Abingdon,
Va., where winters are much
colder. The third unit, sited next door to the South Boston PH unit, was built
to the local code requirements and cost $70 per square foot—it serves as a sort
of control unit. EcoMod plans to monitor the thermal and energy performance of
all three units throughout occupancy to compare the effect of climate variation
and to “assess the return on investment” on energy-saving components and
systems.

“I don’t see anything super innovative here,” juror Bill
Zahner said, but the project’s objectives “to deliver energy efficiency and
build affordable housing in an area that is depressed are great.” To which
juror Lawrence Scarpa noted, “Well, here’s something innovative: $105 a square
foot. The project is doing more than just providing shelter: It’s really adding
to the environment and community and the economy.”

The modules were fabricated just 20 miles away from the South Boston building site in the Cardinal Homes factory.
Meanwhile, many of the building materials were regionally sourced: the
FSC-certified red oak flooring hails from Abingdon, the bark siding from just
south of the Virginia–North Carolina border, the decking lumber from in-state,
and the SIPs and cementitious fiber board siding—which contains 50 percent flyash
recovered from nearby coal-burning power plants—from Georgia.

EcoMod is on the verge of redefining what affordable housing
means. Its high-performance modular house could proliferate in the coming
years; it can now be licensed to potential homeowners, developers, affordable
housing organizations, and modular home builders. Meanwhile, Quale and his
collaborators are embarking on another energy-efficient renovation initiative
in Charlottesville,
while pursuing the dream of designing a LEED certified residential ranch that
costs $65 to $70 per square foot.

Project Credits
Project EcoMod South: High Performance Affordable Housing
Client Southside Outreach, South Boston, Va.—Earl Howerton, Earlene
Powell; People Inc., Abingdon, Va.—Mike Rush, Michael Weaver
Primary Investigators University of Virginia, School of Architecture,
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Project Team John Quale (associate professor and EcoMod project director);
Michael Britt, AIA (project manager); Elizabeth Rivard, Assoc. AIA, Erik de los
Reyes (research assistants: architecture); Beth Bailey (research assistant:
landscape architecture); Barbara Gehrung (Passive House consultant); Paxton
Marshall (engineering director); Nancy Takahashi (landscape architecture
adviser); Eric Field (digital simulation adviser); Galen Staengl, Staengl
Engineering (mechanical design); Phil Parrish (associate vice president for
research)
Prototype Design Team The EcoMod South design is based in part on EcoMod4,
a modular home completed in 2009 for Habitat for Humanity of Greater
Charlottesville; the design and construction team included more than 70
architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, planning, and commerce
students.
Off-Site Construction Cardinal Homes, Wylliesburg, Va.—Bret Berneche
(president)
On-Site Construction Allen Stevens Construction (site in South Boston,
Va.); People Inc., C.W. Denton Construction (site in Abingdon, Va.)
Funding Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission of
Virginia