Mr. CHIP Goes to Washington

A highlight of this year's Solar Decathlon was the CHIP house, designed, built, and transported to Washington DC by a team of over 100 SCI-Arc and Caltech students. The uniquely puffy "outsulated" CHIP house—the Compact, Hyper-Insulated Prototype—is an effort to "address the contemporary issues or sustainability, energy efficiency, and affordable housing through a built work." If you missed it during the Decathlon, you have a few additional opportunities to check it out, most notably an exhibition opening this Friday at SCI-Arc's Library Gallery. "Mr. CHIP Goes to Washington," running through December 16, displays through photographs, video, and time-lapse footage the "frantic month in Washington D.C. that is the culmination of the team's two-year effort to conceptualize and develop its proposition for a new sustainability."
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Alternatively, Dwell editor Diana Budds put together a great slideshow of highlights from the 2011 Solar Decathlon here.

Mr. CHIP Goes to Washington - Photo 1 of 2 -

A highlight of last year's Solar Decathalon, the CHIP house was designed, built, and transported to Washington DC by a team of over 100 SCI-Arc and Caltech students. The unusual home is an effort to "address the contemporary issues or sustainability, energy efficiency, and affordable housing through a built work. To see what CHIP stands for and a lot more, click here.

The CHIP team offers a virtual tour here:

And a discussion of the house's architectural highlights is here: 

For more behind-the-scenes videos, check out the CHIP website's multimedia page.

A view of the 750-square-foot interior of the CHIP house, with "programmable cabinets" and soft foam vinyl furniture that's easy to stash and store.

A view of the 750-square-foot interior of the CHIP house, with "programmable cabinets" and soft foam vinyl furniture that's easy to stash and store.

Jaime Gillin
When not writing, editing, or combing design magazines and blogs for inspiration, Jaime Gillin is experimenting with new recipes, traveling as much as possible, and tackling minor home-improvement projects that inevitably turn...

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