A band of students from SCI-Arc and Caltech have been selected to compete in the DOE’s Solar Decathlon, to be held on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on October 2011. The team will go head to head with 20 other student groups from all over the world—including Canada, Belgium, China, and New Zeland—to determine once and for all, or at least for the next two years, who can build the most livable and sustainable sun-powered residence of 500 square feet or less.

SCI-ARC/Caltech will spend the next year and a half completing design and construction on their entry, which, at least in its conceptual stage, they have dubbed CH:IP/Compact House: Increasing Possibility. An exhibition of the proposal is now on display at SCI-Arc, and will be shown at Caltech on Earth Day, April 22. The team will also have a booth at the ArtBuild Expo on May 7-8 in Santa Monica. Go, see, and you may have a chance to meet AN intern Elizabeth Neigert, who is a member of the team from SCI-Arc.