I'm Tricia Stuth and this is Robert French from the College of Architecture and Design
and we are going to try to fit two and a half years of the New Norris house in 20 slides.
So wish us luck.
In 1933 the Tennessee Valley Authority constructed a model community, Norris, Tennessee, as part
of the Norris Dam construction project.
A key feature of this New Deal village was the Norris House, a series of homes built
as models for modern and efficient living.
Original Norris cottages took advantage of new technologies - municipal electricity,
water, and sanitary systems; the TVA tested modern materials and innovative building techniques
–yet Norris was not based solely on technological aims, but was also a progressive social experiment.
Upon TVA’s 75th anniversary, a team of students and faculty won the EPA P3 competition.
P3 refers to People, Prosperity and Planet.
It served as an ideal lens to revisit the Norris experiment and a vehicle to question
the use and scale of public and private resources.
Norris is one of the first planned communities in the US, and the Plan of Norris provided
the team with a series of lessons - compact houses connected by footpaths and roads to
schools, services, and a central common.
The town is bounded by a greenbelt that exists to this day and serves as an aesthetic and
natural preserve.
The project entails the design, construction, evaluation and demonstration of a model dwelling
for this century and the process required that the team confront and resolve not only
technological or scientific challenges; but also legal, social, and aesthetic issues that
currently restrict green construction.
Progressive environmental design touches many issues and disciplines and thus requires an
integrated team to optimize results.
Through this project faculty and industry partners taught students to work in this way,
from concept to reality.
Industry partners include Clayton Homes, the nation’s leading producer of manufactured
and modular homes, headquartered in Alcoa.
The team worked with corporate and factory teams to prepare and produce the home in two
prefabricated modules for transport and installation at the project site.
Students, taught by faculty and trade experts, prepared the site and foundations for installation
of the modules and completed construction of the home and landscape.
Combining on- and off-site construction, the process engaged students through design/build
curricula that enriched understanding of the inter-relationships between theory and practice.
The project is enrolled in the US Green Building Council’s green building rating system and
is on target to achieve a LEED Platinum rating – the first UTK facility to achieve this
top rating.
A home’s impact on its environment begins with where it is located and how it fits into
its community.
The project replaces a neglected house, its footprint marked by the drive court, and reuses
a previously developed lot with existing infrastructure.
The site is designed as an aesthetic and performative landscape through its approach to drainage,
wastewater, rain water, planting and material selection.
The scale, form, plan organization, materials and details of original Norris houses were
examined and transformed to address contemporary issues.
The new Norris house is of similar size but exploits the full interior volume and enhances
daylight and connections to outdoors.
Passive design encompasses strategies that do not require energy input and instead reduce
demand and therefore systems loads.
The New Norris House is super-insulated, with openings placed to enhance useful solar gain,
natural ventilation and daylight.
Passive design effectively allows down-sizing of active, or energy powered, systems.
Efficient equipment is selected and integrated, including ductless heat/air systems, energy
recovery ventilation and ceiling fans.
A solar hot water panel combines active and passive systems to heat and store water, and
an instantaneous water heater provides make-up heat if weather/demand require.
The panel is not visible from the street, mounted on a dormer that also provides light,
air and volume to the loft.
Greywater – waste water excluding toilet and kitchen sink – is released into the
first terrace and treated in a basin of mulch and plants before joining rainwater terraces
that prevent erosion and aid infiltration.
A path connects community walking trails and native, drought tolerant plants enhance landscape
performance and experience.
Rainwater from the roof is captured and stored, and treated through UV and carbon filtration
for use in toilet flushing, clothes washing, and exterior hose bibbs.
Experimental permits granted by the Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation and
a monitoring period evaluate suitability and capacity for potable uses.
The design/build team and the Clayton team reduced material use and waste during design
and construction processes, and adjusted supplier practices to obtain local and recycled materials.
A healthy indoor environment benefits from daylight and views, and avoids finishes with
VOC’s, volatile organic compounds.
The current phase of the project includes a residency.
A married UTK couple resides in the house and participates through educational tours
and blogs, sharing their experience living in the house and community with the public
and research team.
In addition to providing qualitative feedback, the residents’ daily activities generate
data on energy and resource use and occupancy patterns for analysis of the building performance.
ORNL’s Buildings Research and Technologies Integration Center (BTRIC) is assisting the
team with digital data collection.
See our website if you would like to attend a tour for UTK faculty and staff on Saturday,
November 12th – where you can also sign up for information about auction of the property
at the end of Demonstration, Monitoring, and Evaluation phases!