Extended Stay

evolveEA’s solution, titled extended stay, is a proposal for an extendable domestic environment that can be transported and shaped on-site with the family’s fuel cell vehicle. Firm principal Christine Mondor says that the design takes cues from the automotive production process as the home’s systems become opportunities for product development made affordable through mass customization.

Products include XpandHarvest, an expandable building enclosure system with translucent solar electric technology for distributed power generation; FreeE Generators that capture incidental kinetic power where routine movement occurs; eFeedback for spatially integrated communication of energy use so occupants can adjust consumption habits; and the HydroFeed system which cleanses domestic waste water to close loops on site.

Pittsburgh-based design firm evolveEA was one of three firms recognized in the national AIA Committee on Design (COD) Ideas Competition. Cosponsored by Ford, the “Branding the American House” competition challenged designers across the country to examine the parallels between automotive and architectural design, especially in relation to the singular production of a house versus the mass production of automobiles.

The team received the third place award in 2008 at the AIA COD Design Parallels conference in Detroit.