An interdisciplinary Northwestern Engineering student team called engiNUity has been named a 2022 Design Challenge Division Winner in the US Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon, earning third-place honors in the competition’s Multifamily Building Division. 

The Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition that challenges students to design and construct high-performance, low-carbon buildings powered by renewable energy, while promoting innovation, STEM education, and workforce development opportunities in the buildings industry. engiNUity was one of 55 finalist teams from 38 collegiate institutions that competed during the Solar Decathlon Competition Event April 22-24 in Golden, Colorado.  

engiNUity’s winning concept, called TreeHouse, was created by 13 undergraduates at the McCormick School of Engineering. The multifamily building design addresses both Chicago’s lack of diverse housing options and the built environment’s contribution to CO2 emissions.  

“TreeHouse is a beacon of the possibilities of green infrastructure, combining material and operational sustainability with community enhancement and social equity,” said Robert Szymczyk, a junior civil engineering major and the team’s project manager and design leader. “Achieving net-zero performance in a building of this scale and demonstrating its socio-economic feasibility shows that building high-performance, mixed-use housing is possible, even while balancing the challenges associated with harsh climates and complex socio-economic contexts.” 

The concept multifamily development was designed for an 85,000 square-foot lot on Chicago’s riverfront across from the city’s Goose Island. The 10-floor development includes eight floors of affordable housing units and two floors of dedicated commercial space designed to provide valuable resources to residents of all income levels, such as a grocery store, daycare center, doctor’s office, library, tutoring center, gym, and local retailers. 

TreeHouse’s holistic approach to sustainability features passive design strategies to optimize natural ventilation, daylighting, and energy loads during Chicago’s harsh winter and summer climates. The design leverages geothermal and solar energy, high-efficiency HVAC and greywater systems, natural and recycled materials, super-insulated and continuous envelopes, and prefabrication to reduce both the operational and embodied carbon of the building. 

The team envisioned TreeHouse as a rent-to-own model that could provide an equitable opportunity for low-income residents to develop roots within the building, as well as further reduce construction costs. They estimated the building’s 30-year lifecycle construction cost is $340 per square-foot, below Chicago’s current $488 per square-foot baseline. 

The team collaborated with Neil Reindel, an associate at Perkins&Will and adjunct professor at Northwestern, to develop the TreeHouse concept. Other industry partners included Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Buro Happold, and Emersion Design. David Corr, clinical professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern Engineering, served as the team’s adviser. 

“Working alongside professionals in the industry and collaborating with peers over the past eight months has given our team a taste of the career possibilities within the built environment,” Szymczyk said.  

This isn’t the team’s first brush with success. Last year, engiNUity was named the Solar Decathlon’s 2021 Design Challenge Grand Winner (Residential Divisions) for NUHome, a residential building concept for Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. 

Szymczyk said the team is motivated to continue their success next year. 

“We faced some very strong teams whose projects featured many novel innovations in building science, engineering, and architecture,” Szymczyk said. “We’re proud of our third-place finish, but we’re motivated to design something even more innovative, sustainable, and holistic next year.” 

Learn more about TreeHouse.