Taking part in the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Build Challenge, an international collegiate design and build competition held biannually since 2002, was one of the most influential projects during my formal education. Serving as the Student Team Lead and Graduate Assistant for the Design+Build Studio, I wore many hats and worked with many different individuals. In addition to learning communication and time management skills, this included taking part in the initial design and entry into the competition phases. Which involved researching potential design solutions for our intended occupant, a military veteran with traumatic brain injury(TBI) and/or post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). For example, the home uses prospect and refuge theory to inform the spatial configuration and features an acoustic ceiling made of Tecum panels and recycled denim insulation. Another one of my tasks was to test variations on window opening placement and sizing to ensure we could utilize passive ventilation to cool the home. Starting with calculating interior heat gains, I then made a bioclimatic chart that tells us when different passive cooling strategies would work with the Las Vegas climate. Using the wind speed, wind direction, and temperature parameters from the months from the bioclimatic chart, I used CFD software to iterate and test various window schemes. After the home was built and during construction, we found that passive ventilation cooled the interior spaces well. 

Conceptually, the home is based on the Islamic Sahn or courtyard house. This not only roots the house in desert architectural tradition but also works well for someone with PTSD or TBI by creating open sight-lines throughout the interior spaces and allowing for controlled openness.
Moving into preparing the construction documents we considered best practices in building science to achieve a high-performance envelope that reduced heat gains and noise infiltration. Utilizing a steel space frame super-structure, the home was also designed to be transported across the country for the competition. This also allows the house to be stackable as it was built. Serving as a prototype Mojave Bloom has potential as a module of a prefabricated multi-family dwelling, where individual modules could be stacked on top of each other.

During the construction phase, I was scheduling deliveries and sub-contractors, managing student construction activities, and building or putting together components myself. I was involved with or learned about woodworking, metalworking, window/door/skylight installation, insulation, cladding systems, finish materials, MEP systems, and more.