Celebrating the 10-year Anniversary of the Solar Decathlon and our Solar RoofPod!

This year is the 10 Year Anniversary of CCNY’s participation in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

The Solar RoofPod is a "Plus-Net-Energy" roof pavilion designed to provide local green energy for urban environments. The pod was initially constructed as part of an interdisciplinary design-build initiative at The City College of New York and featured in the 2011 Solar Decathlon. With a customizable, modular design, the Solar Roofpod can be assembled based on the environmental variables of its site. The house placed 17th overall in the 2011 Solar Decathlon competition.

In Spring 2014, the prototype returned to the rooftop of CCNY's Spitzer School of Architecture, where it now serves as a living classroom, a lookout, and hub for urban sustainability.

Performance is monitored to evaluate and improve its functions and make it a comprehensive precedent case study for urban roof-scape living.

The RoofPod is more than just a house, more than an energy source or a garden.

It is a piece of urban infrastructure, part of an integrated system to simultaneously address the challenges of electrical energy production, heating and cooling, stormwater retention, heat island effect, urban wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration with biomass. The architectural design adopts a modular, yet customizable, approach to assembly, calculating that there will be sizable economies of scale when numerous RoofPods are fabricated and installed.

Through presentations and conversations with policymakers, architects, engineers, and sustainability specialists, the space will create an open forum to exchange ideas. The pod serves as an intellectual arena to fuel dialogue amongst students and propel investigation of how we must develop our buildings and cities for a sustainable future.

Dechatheletes: Where are they now?

Students and faculty from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture and the Grove School of Engineering, of the City College of New York, comprise the culturally diverse and interdisciplinary Team New York. In honor of the 10-year anniversary, the CCNY Architecture Alumni Group is featuring several of the Decathaletes who participated as they look back on their experiences and where they are today! See the features here!

Learn More:

Construction time-lapse of the Solar Roof Pod at Marshak Terrace, City College of New York. (Summer 2011)

Participating Students:

Farah Ahmad, Ozgur Akkas, Francisco Arias, Yinery Baez, Adra Bubesi, David Cano-Bedoya, Michael Catalano, Mike Cheng, Steve Cummings, Chetram Dasrat, Mary Doumas, William Eng, George Fahim, Joseph Fisher, Karl Francis, Analisa Gerken, Giovanny Giraldo, Yelisa Grullon, Alex Gurevich, Andriy Herasymchyk, Christopher Hopstock, Joann Lee, Qi Fu Li, Tiffany Liu, Shwuyi Liu-Ma, Melissa Lopez, Juan Luengas, Astrit Maksuti, Carlos Matute, Samuel Mikhail, Javier Montesino, Wallace Ng, Selton Ng, Kyle O’Connor, MauleshPathak, Pablo Patino, Ross Pechenyy, Kurt Peters, Iskra Petrova, Wennian Qu, Nisu Quayum, Rajeevan Ratnanandan, Joileen Richards, Edwin Rivas, Asher Salzberg, Billy Schaefer, Mohsin Shabbir, George Sulley, Relbin Thomas, Zaman Tushar, Polina Tymoshenko, Ivan Uquillas, Fredy Uruchima, Teicha Villegas, John Vlahakis

Faculty:

Prof. Christian Volkmann, Program Manager, Prof. Hillary Brown, Prof. Alan Feigenberg, Prof. Jorge Gonzalez, Prof. Holly Kallman, Prof. Susan Kaplan, Prof. Nicholas Madamopoulos, Prof. Fred Moshary, Prof. Dominick Pilla, Prof. Ali Sadegh, Prof. Lee Weintraub, Prof. June Williamson

Schematic Design: Prof. Alberto Foyo, Prof. Fabian Llonch

Construction Assistance: Louis Hernandez, Jorge Plazas, David Seto, David Wright

Friends of the School:

Bernard + Anne Spitzer, Robert B. Catell, Andy Grove, P. + R. Fenster, Floyd Warkol, City College Architecture Alumni Group, especially Carol Kurth, Bill Stein, Joseph and Carolyn Fleischer, Laura Osorio, Frank Sciame, Howard Schlesinger, VenesaAlicea, Al D’’Elia, Alan Hantman, Roland Charpentier, Jeremy Reed, Domingo Gonzalez

Location: The City College of New York
Spitzer School of Architecture
New York, NY
Map This House

Public tours: Learn more at the house's website, SolarRoofpod.com.