The management of society’s waste, once overlooked as a burden to simply dump onto the Earth, has grown in public awareness during the last several decades as critical to sustainable planning. For the 2020 Solar Decathlon Design Competition, we are excited to work with a client that is setting the gold standard for contemporary waste management in our home state of Virginia.
The Eco-Park Learning Center is a future municipal office building and community center owned and operated by Prince William County, VA. The Learning Center develops the County’s vision of the landfill as an eco-park – a nexus for interactive STEM education, community and professional engagement, and the demonstration of cutting-edge waste management technologies. It will house the county’s Solid Waste Division administrative offices, while serving as a venue hosting school groups, professional meetings, and larger community events.
The Mycorrho-grid is a blockchain based microgrid inspired by the way trees collect and distribute resources through mycorrhizal networks in the forest. It was first developed in conjunction with Virginia Tech’s grand-prize winning TreeHAUS entry in the 2019 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge and is expanded upon here with a focus on further potential for biologically inspired functionality. The baseline case as simulated in the competition is a 12-unit multi-family microgrid with a shared 50kW rooftop solar array and fixed price return from the grid.
