 "Photo: Rachel Colson/The Daily Texan")
A sustainable building group affiliated with UT’s School of Architecture unveiled a prototype of an environmentally-friendly housing project in East Austin on Thursday.
More than 140 people, including U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, celebrated the completion of the Lydia Street house, constructed by the Alley Flat Initiative, whose goal is to provide sustainable, green, reasonably-priced housing alternatives for Austin.
UT architecture students designed the basic form of the house in spring of 2007. Another group of architecture students participated in the construction of the project for five weeks this summer. They painted the house, installed the fence, built the portico over the door and designed and formed the entire landscape of the property.
Steven Moore, co-director of the UT Center for Sustainable Development, said the housing prototypes created by the initiative are affordable and green because of their design, the materials used to build them and technical systems installed in them, including high-efficiency air conditioners and low-flush toilets.
Strategically placed windows and shades, combined with high volumes of space inside the building, decreases the need for air conditioning. Such innovations and a myriad of others allowed the new house to receive a five star efficiency rating from Austin Energy, the city’s electricity provider.
The Lydia Street house was the second sustainable-building project Alley Flat has completed. It unveiled the first prototype home, also in East Austin, in June 2008.
Aside from providing “greener” housing designs, the Alley Flat Initiative helps the greater Austin community by creating housing within the city limits, Moore said.
“We can make our cities denser, without making the city dramatically different,” he said. Traditionally, “we go out to the urban edge where land is cheaper and we make new streets and extend water lines, all of which are hugely expensive projects.”
Despite the smaller environmental impact of the prototype home and more efficient energy use, it remains to be seen what gains the initiative can make on a larger scale. Despite this, Sarah Gamble, Alley Flat Initiative coordinator, remained optimistic and said the first step toward solving global environmental concerns is knowledge.
“A primary component of the Alley Flat Initiative is advocacy and education,” she said.
In an e-mail, Doggett said the program was “an example of the best of what Austin has to offer, and an important reminder that Austin is at the forefront of moving Texas toward a future that is a vibrant shade of green.”
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