Taubman College Thün and Velikov receive 2011 Evergreen Award From EcoStructure Magazine
Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün and Assistant Professor of Architecture Kathy Velikov were selected as one of the winners of the 2011 Evergreen Awards organized by Eco-Structure Magazine, receiving a Special Recognition Award for the North House Project, undertaken by Team North between 2008 and 2010. RVTR, where Thün and Velikov are principals, is the architect of record for the project, led by Thün and consisting of an interdisciplinary team of faculty and graduate students from the University of Waterloo, Ryerson University and Simon Fraser University. North House is a net-energy producing, solar powered, residential prototype designed to anticipate mass-customized housing manufacture.
Katie Weeks reflected on the awards program regarding trends in sustainable design, “Consider the North House project, the project’s forward – thinking design and technology wowed our jury and deserved recognition for showing what can be possible, likening the project to a concept car at an auto show. It may not be mass-market ready by show’s end, but it inspires and drives attendees to look for better more progressive solutions in the marketplace. And so, for the first time in the competition’s history, we are bestowing a non-category specific special jury recognition”.
The North House is currently being readied for installation at the Rare Research Reserve in Cambridge ON, where it will serve as a living laboratory for advanced residential systems. Thün and Velikov are collaborating with U-M faculty members Associate Professor Jerry Lynch (Civil and ECE) and Associate Dean Jean Wineman to develop a next generation of sensor-based distributed controls and user interface system that will be developed and installed in the North House testbed.
For more information on Evergreen Awards program, click here.
