The Walls

They didn’t just build a wall – they designed a wall. It was not enough that it hold out the weather and let in the light. It also had to be the light, allow for individual choice of color on a whim and in a moment, and be beautiful.

Translucent walls that can be any color are one of several distinctive design features of the Virginia Tech solar house.

A class met for one semester to do nothing but research before the team began to build the house. One group worked on translucent walls and fabricated a prototype. “They realized the wall had a cavity where we could put shades, then LED lights to control color. These were simultaneous pursuits of technology and aesthetics,” says Robert Dunay, director of the interior design department in Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies.

He says the research came out of the 2002 solar house. “That was our first experiment with high-insulating material that delivered beautiful translucent light. In 2002, we had a single layer that we decided to increase to allow for insulation.”

“The desire was to have great light – to rethink what a window is,” says Joe Wheeler, assistant professor of architecture. “We wanted to let light in but be energy efficient, with extremely high insulation value.