GEDDES -- It's not your typical three room house, not that there are many located in the middle of the New York State Fairgrounds. This 800 square foot home is built to stand on its own, quite literally. It's an energy efficient home designed and built by almost 150 Cornell University students. The entire home is solar powered and collects rain water to be used inside.
Even though it's a small space, the students designed it to "feel" much larger than it actually is. In the bedroom, the bed lifts to the ceiling using a weighted pulley system, so there is more room when not being used. The bathroom doubles as a shower to save on space. Tourist Julie Clougherty says, "I'm getting the sense from comments that a lot of people think this is not something for me and I would like to see houses like this become more obtainable to the average person."
After the home is displayed at the State Fair it will be taken down and transported to Washington D.C.'s National Mall, where it will be placed in a solar decathlon. Bobby Harvey is one of Cornell's team leaders. He says, "they'll be coming through regularly, an architecture panel will come through and judge the house, rate it. And then engineers will come and look at your engineering system, lighting professionals will come and do the same thing."
The home is on display through the remainder of the fair. Tickets are $2.00 per person and if you are interested in purchasing it, you can do so for $199,000.
