A team of students from UW-Milwaukee (Jonathan Nelson, Laura Valdivia, Nasim Shareghi) and UW-Madison (Robert Schaffer, Jacob Moffat, Daniel Baker, Drew Dillmann, Nicholas Scharping) placed second in the U.S. Department of Energy's Race to Zero student design competition.

Under the guidance of Prof. Mark Keane (UWMilwaukee) and Dr. Michael Cheadle (UW-Madison), Team Forward, named after Wisconsin’s state motto, participated in the Urban Single-Family Detached Housing category of the competition. The annual design challenge asks college students to develop sustainable homes so energy-efficient that renewable power can offset most or all of the annual energy consumption and is based on real-world scenarios, where builders develop high-performance homes or update existing designs.

"Forward House", the team's entry, is located in Milwaukee, WI, in a neighborhood blighted by foreclosure in the 30th Street corridor. A return to a classic Wisconsin craftsman style with a Milwaukee flair will help reinvigorate the neighborhood while remaining true to its roots. The overarching goal is to provide an affordable home with a people-centered interior design that will deliver comfort and high-energy performance, reducing the cost of living for a first-time home owner.

Community was an important part of the overall design and the mechanical systems team coupled with the architecture team collaborated to maintain the craftsman feel while optimizing performance.

The goal of the HVAC system is to minimize upfront equipment cost without compromising performance. To this end, the domestic hot water system and cold weather heating have been integrated into one system with easy to install ductwork.

The envelope was designed to be easy to install and to keep the harsh Wisconsin climate using high insulation values.

Forward house has an average monthly utility bill of $51, with $24 composed of water and utility service charges. This can be attributed to the strong design which produced a HERS score of 36 without PV. With the addition of the PV system, the project achieved a HERS score of zero.

The 8.2 kW PV system installed is capable of providing slightly under 11,000 kWh per year of energy production. This system was placed on the south-facing rooftops of both Forward House and the garage, at an inclination angle of 38 degrees, to coincide with Milwaukee’s vernacular while also optimizing energy production over the summer months. When determining the PV systems affordability metrics, the team utilized NREL’s system advisor model. Using input data specific to the location along with renewable energy rebates and incentives, the PV system is projected to have a reasonable payback period of slightly over 14 years.

The hope is that the net-zero performance and efficiency of Forward House will provide not only comfort, but also more financial security to the occupant through reduced utility bills. The chosen location is similar to many of the vacant lots in the area, so the design strategies of Forward House should be able to extend beyond the bounds of the current lot and impact an even larger community.

Like many cities in Switzerland, Rorschach—on the shore of Lake Constance—recognizes the need for urban planning and design strategies that increase urban density, enhance the urban character of the city, and improve the quality of life for residents.When developers expressed interest building... View full entry

Writer: Angela McManamanIt was an early-August evening in rural Wisconsin. An SUV traveling north along a two-lane road veered over the center line. Before landing in a ditch, the car hit a light pole, speed-limit sign and a 13-year-old pedestrian, who died at the scene.The police report, like... View full entry

by Kathy QuirkThe practice of architecture is moving into a new, increasingly digital dimension, and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is moving with it.“The relationship between architecture and construction is basically changing because of... View full entry

UW Milwaukee students Dan Causier and Matt Moulis received the top Benn-Johnck Award at the Chicago Student Awards in Architecture from AIA Chicago recently, for their project "Restraining Order". The project was completed with the guidance of Brian Johnsen and Sebastian Schmaling... View full entry

“Again we decree that the monasteries which are to be built shall be built as humbly as possible, from mud and twigs, or from rock and clay where twigs cannot be had easily… We also decree (…) that absolutely all vanity, superfluity and precious things of gold, silver, silk or velvet shall... View full entry

I love thesis day! I love watching the presentations, the energy and excitement as students suddenly look and feel like the professionals they will soon be, so I decided to take the opportunity to ask a graduating student to share his project....Robert Guertin | University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee... View full entry

The latest From Waste to Wonder studio project, conducted by Asst. Prof. Nikole Bouchard, is a three-part exercise that challenges students to identify, locate, quantify and create with various types of waste, this time at a Landscape Urbanism scale.Students were asked to identify a type of local... View full entry

Milwaukee’s future is inextricably tied to the Inner Harbor and the estuary on which is was built. Our port city is full of economic potential, untapped ecological resilience and the pure urban drama inherent in a working waterfront.If Milwaukee is to transform its industrial identity into that... View full entry

Professors Antonio Furgiuele and Whitney Moon embraced the Wisconsin winter by conducting a workshop in sub-zero temperatures last month!‘Frozen Form-Finding’ was a hands-on UW MIlwaukee SARUP workshop that allowed participants to advance the field of experimental structures, form-finding... View full entry

I was recently shown drawings by SARUP student Amin Mojtahedi, and am delighted that he shared them.Amin explains "I draw and I move freely between different architectural compositions, artistic genres, or even research ideas without feeling committed to, competitive with, or critical of a certain... View full entry

We were recently intrigued at the sight of students following people around the school, filming their movements and patterns. Of course, we had to investigate to see what was going on, after seeing the students' obvious enjoyment of the project! Assistant Prof. Jasmine Benyamin readily shared what... View full entry

Assistant Professor Nikole Bouchard has given her students the challenge to reconsider waste in our lives.Waste is generally a concealed and ill-understood amalgamation of items, most often hidden from view, whille on the other hand, reflecting our society. How do we engage with an infrastructure... View full entry

In 2000, Community Design Solutions, SARUP's outreach arm, was founded by UW-Milwaukee as a provider of preliminary design and planning services to underserved Wisconsin communities, and as a promoter of research and instruction concerning public interest planning and architecture.With the... View full entry

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SARUP’s building has lately been festooned with installations created in the studio conducted by  2014-2015 Research Fellow Antonio Furgiuele, in collaboration with Assistant Prof. Whitney Moon. The first project by students in "Tectonics & Compositional Order: Assemblies of Space", is... View full entry

Last month, students in SARUP's Urban Edge Award Studio received grants to travel to India for two weeks. Directed by Prof. Manu Sobti, the UWM team visited numerous sites in the cities of Delhi and Agra before their arrival in Chandigarh.There they were joined by seven students from the... View full entry

Internationally recognized artist Mary Miss is working with SARUP's Urban Design Community Redevelopment studio this semester.Mary combines art + architecture with an emphasis on sustainable infrastructure.  Her past work includes a temporary memorial at Ground Zero, 1,000 Steps on Broadway... View full entry