Month: May 2017

Dezeen profiles CGBC’s HouseZero project “to retrofit an old house, demonstrating how existing buildings can be made more energy efficient to help address climate change.” The retrofit challenges the idea that you have to build new homes from scratch in order to implement energy-efficient design. Professor Malkawi, founding director of the CGBC, explains that his goal is to “show how this can be replicated almost anywhere” to enhance existing building stock. Read the article […]

Architect’s Newspaper profiles CGBC’s HouseZero project “to transform its headquarters into a test site for technology that may make it easier to retrofit older homes.” Designed by Snøhetta, the HouseZero project revamps the CGBC’s 1924 stick-built house to run without an HVAC system, without daytime electric lighting, and produce zero carbon emissions, among other efficiencies. Read the article here.

Curbed profiles Harvard CGBC’s HouzeZero project “creating a new prototype of ultra-efficient building that requires almost zero energy, relies on natural daylighting, and produces no carbon emissions.” The website spotlights energy-saving designs, such as “the geothermal wells, which can draw up underground heat or help cool the building, and a concrete slab, which functions as a thermal mass, soaking up heat like a sponge during the winter.” Professor Ali Malkawi, CGBC […]

CGBC’s HouseZero project is featured in Construction Dive. The piece offers an overview of the retrofit’s energy-saving changes such as “eliminating the HVAC system for a thermal mass to absorb and store heat as well as a ground-source heat pump; an automated system will use algorithms to open and close windows” and “daylight-enhancing features to eliminate the need for electric lighting during the day,” which will result in a positive […]

CGBC’s HouseZero retrofit project is featured on Archinect. The author offers an overview of the project’s intent to provide a sustainable model for retrofitting existing residential buildings.  The piece goes on to describe CGBC’s goals to both achieve “100% natural ventilation, 100% daylight autonomy, almost zero energy required for heating and cooling, and zero carbon emissions, including embodied energy in materials” and provide a living lab for its researchers. Read more here.

Today, Metro features CGBC’s HouseZero: a “first-of-its-kind” project that challenges the idea that you have to build new homes from scratch in order to implement energy-efficient design. Professor Malkawi, founding director of the CGBC, explains that his goal was to “push the limit” for what energy-efficient upgrades can be added to an existing home — a part of the market people think “you can’t do much with,” he said — […]

CGBC’s HouseZero project is featured in Fast Company. The piece explains how a retrofit of CGBC headquarters will result in a positive energy building. “We could have done something that’s futuristic,” says Ali Malkawi, professor of architectural technology at the GSD, founding director of the CGBC and the creator of the HouseZero project. “But what we chose to do is use existing ideas and technologies, put them all together, and see what […]