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UPLOAD: THE NEW NORRIS HOUSE – A SUSTAINABLE HOME FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Impact/Purpose:
The design and construction of a replicable, sustainable home based on original Norris concepts.
The design and construction of a replicable, sustainable home based on original Norris concepts.
Description:
In 1933 the Tennessee Valley Authority constructed a model community, Norris, Tennessee, as part of the Norris Dam construction project. A key feature of this New Deal village was the Norris House, a series of home designs built as models for modern, efficient, and sustainable living. In light of the 75th anniversary of the Norris Project, we are reinterpreting the Norris paradigm and creating a New Norris House - a sustainable home designed for the 21st century.
As with the original Norris designs, the home created in this project will use state of the art technologies and techniques. The structure incorporates green materials and involves off-site construction. Yet the challenge goes beyond the creation of a model home design. The structure also addresses many of the community and legal constraints that currently deter sustainable home construction. The student design must be an affordable home buildable in the current city of Norris. To accomplish this, students will consult with community residents, work with local codes, and produce a structure that is compatible with the town’s National Register Historic District. In doing so, the students will confront and resolve not only technological or scientific challenges; they will also have to resolve the legal, social, and aesthetic issues that currently restrict green construction.
Demonstration and education are central to the project. Following Phase I, a large-scale model and associated media will be displayed in a number of regional venues via university and TVA channels. Key to the demonstration strategy is the construction of a home – for visitation by current and potential Norris residents and the greater public - that offers a model of how issues of growth and land and resource use might be addressed. The project will provide potential homebuyers, homebuilders and developers with a case study for how the Town of Norris (and with modification, similar towns) might achieve the multiple goals of environmental, historical, cultural, and economic stewardship within this unique community.
Participating students will gain skills and abilities that are acutely needed at this time – the ability to work in an interdisciplinary group, insights into how environmental and cultural strategies are embedded into design, in-depth knowledge of alternative construction delivery methods, and the challenges and constraints associated with sustainable development. This will be a highly visible project that will engage university and community participants. Students will promote the project and project progress through a website and interactive blog. The project will be evaluated using a wide range of performance and project indicators through student analysis and evaluation and visitor comments.