Imagine that all of New York City’s rooftops are covered with photovoltaic panels. They could provide enough electricity to meet around 14% of the city’s needs, according to calculations by Tria Case, one of the City College of New York's directors. Comprised of students from The City College of New York’s (CCNY) Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture and Grove School of Engineering, Team New York, who are competing for the first time this year in the Solar Decathlon, asserts that NYC’s roofscape is vastly underutilized, not only for its potential in collecting solar energy but also for its potential to provide prime living and outdoor space for its citizens. Their design for the Solar Roof Pod could prove a versatile and sustainable solution.

Libraries, in essence, are outdated. Why crack open a dusty old tome when you can just “Google it?” In order to stay relevant, some libraries are shifting toward a new model, simultaneously serving as technology hubs and community centers. The new Anacostia Library in Washington, D.C., designed by the Freelon Group along with Associate Architect R. McGhee & Associates, exhibits the qualities of a 21st century library. Its eco-friendly design welcomes the neighborhood and doubles as an educational tool for children.

Because the Solar Decathlon competition stipulates that homes’ interiors measure less than 1,000 sq. ft., many teams choose young or retired couples as their target market. However, Team Massachusetts, which is comprised of students from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, created a home fit for a family of three. They articulated spaces with flexibility in mind in order to meet occupants’ changing needs throughout their lives: the 4D Home is three-dimensional over time.

Many Solar Decathlon entries make futuristic propositions for green living, but the Tidewater Virginia team chose to design their house by using a familiar language. Their target market is the Tidewater region of southeastern Virginia, specifically the dense, middle-class neighborhoods of Norfolk, home to many military families. Designed as urban infill, Unit 6 Unplugged draws inspiration from its Arts and Crafts context and provides an affordable housing option for a working couple.

This summer, the second portion of the High Line will open between West 20th and 30th Streets along the west side of Manhattan. An elevated railway had been abandoned for decades, a piece of urban detritus with grass growing between the tracks. Now it is teeming with wildflowers, having recently been transformed into an urban park known as the High Line, designed by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The surrounding West Chelsea neighborhood, a popular location for art galleries and nightclubs, has experienced a surge in development in the form of luxury residential towers, pressing westward to claim views of the High Line. The HL23, located at West 23rd Street and 10th Avenue, not only succeeds in pushing to the front of the line, it billows over.

Solar Decathlon homes typically focus on the obvious – using energy from the sun. Students of the University of Maryland chose instead to highlight another precious resource often taken for granted: water. Their design, titled WaterShed, was inspired by the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the largest estuary in the United States with an area of 64,000 square miles spanning the states of Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Suburban sprawl combined with the lack of stormwater management has threatened these natural ecosystems. WaterShed offers a sustainable model for living in the area, incorporating a range of water features and living elements. Leah Davies, who serves as one of the team leaders, explains that the home "mimics the cyclical nature of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem by demonstrating the hydrologic cycle on a micro-scale."

perFORM[D]ance House

Teams participating in the 2011 Solar Decathlon strive to create high-tech, low-energy houses, but one team has created a home that also "dances." Florida International University's perFORM[D]ance House features movable facades that allow it to adapt to the needs of its occupants and environmental conditions. This flexible concept fosters connections between indoors and outdoors while mitigating Florida's hot, humid, and hurricane-prone climate.

Empowerhouse: a collaboration between Parsons The New School for Design, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, and Stevens Institute of Technology

The Solar Decathlon competition requires teams to meet pages of rules, so not much time remains for considering what will become of the houses following their debut on the National Mall. However, the students of Parsons The New School for Design, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, and Stevens Institute of Technology have a definite post-competition plan in mind: to provide housing for two families in the Deanwood neighborhood of Ward 7 in Washington, DC. The team has partnered with Habitat for Humanity and DC's Department of Housing and Community Development to build Empowerhouse, an affordable model for living that uses passive design strategies.

When disaster-prone states come to mind, California, Florida, and Louisiana likely top the list. Surprisingly, an average of eight strong-to-violent tornadoes hit Illinois each year, and because the damage to homes is often random, many homeowners don't qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding. Students of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participating in the 2011 Solar Decathlon competition identified an opportunity to create a disaster housing solution that is much more comfortable and attractive than the typical trailer. The design of Re_home features flexible spaces to accommodate the diverse needs of families while fostering community recovery.

September 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Although the design of the World Trade Center (WTC) site once dominated the news, coverage of the most significant construction site in the country has been quiet. Some might assume that progress is slow, which would be logical, given the complexity of the project: a range of stakeholders are involved, including government agencies, private developers, and civic organizations; nine diverse programs must coexist on only 11 acres; and multiple construction schedules must be coordinated at once.