Eco-friendly tiny house
Could you live in a house smaller than the average American kitchen? An interdisciplinary team of Berkeley students thinks so. The group took two years to design and build a 171-square-foot, off-grid, eco-friendly house for a statewide competition sponsored by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The students spent the first year puzzling over how to allocate space for a solar energy system, lithium-ion battery, greywater recycling and a heating system — while retaining enough space for two people to eat, sleep, bathe, cook and live comfortably throughout the year.
“We’re balancing affordability with new technologies and making the house as energy-efficient as possible,” says applied science and technology doctoral candidate Kenny Gotlieb. Other team members represent the Energy and Resources Group, business, architecture, urban studies, public policy and public health. Judges will evaluate the house on architecture, energy systems, sustainable materials use and how the house manages water and waste.