Sto Sponsors Design-Build Ice Box Challenge
At the end of last month, building materials firm Sto Corp. announced it has teamed up with the Pratt Institute and Passive House for Everyone (PHFE) for the first-ever U.S. Collegiate Designed and Built rendition of the International Passive House Ice Box Challenge.
The Ice Box Challenge was created to demonstrate the five Passive House standards and how they can mitigate the global climate crisis. The challenge launched on May 1 in the Pratt Institute’s Rose Garden.
About the Project
The Ice Box Challenge is described as an interactive public installation and contest demonstrating Passive House’s advantages. One box will reportedly be constructed by architecture students to local building regulations, while the other will meet the international Passive House Standard, a highly energy-efficient building performance standard.
Each box is then filled with an equal amount of ice at the beginning of the experiment, and at the end of the week the amount of ice left in each box will be measured, with the level of ice remaining used to demonstrate how well each ice box passively kept out the heat.
Pratt Institute visiting professor and PHFE founder In Cho is overseeing the challenge as part of her curriculum. According to Sto’s emailed release, the students will be the first to feature a modular construction technique, which will allow the two ice box structures to be deconstructed and reassembled on other campuses for future Challenges.
“Buildings contribute up to 40% of carbon emissions that are conducive to climate change, and in dense cities like New York, that number is almost up to 70%,” said Cho, noting that Passive House principles can go a long way toward addressing these issues by lowering “heating and cooling energy demands by up to 90%.”
Cho added that the principles are multifaceted, saying, “It’s great for energy efficiency, but it also creates incredible comfort and health,” referring to the cleaner, filtered air and more consistent temperatures inside Passive House buildings.
Dan Canova, Construction Design Manager at Sto Corp., also reportedly provided hands-on training on Sto’s energy efficient system solutions. His instruction was repotedly “essential” to this challenge as air and water-resistive barrier Sto Gold Coat will be applied to the Passive House structure.
“This project was about educating our up-and-coming generation, so it was a real treat to get to work directly with the students,” Canova noted.
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Dan Canova, Construction Design Manager at Sto Corp., also reportedly provided hands-on training on Sto’s energy efficient system solutions. His instruction was “essential” to this challenge as air and water-resistive barrier Sto Gold Coat will be applied to the Passive House structure. |
Additionally, Sto contributed to the Passive House movement with a wide range of systems designed to minimize energy consumption.
“Energy efficiency is a major focus of what we do at Sto. So we’re excited to be a part of Pratt Institute’s Ice Box Challenge and to support these rising students,” said Jose Berlingeri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sto Americas, “Together with the next generation, we can start a new era of Building with conscience for new and retrofit construction.
Other advocate sponsors include Rockwool, 475 High-Performance Building Supply, Klearwall, Square Indigo and Passive House For Everyone, further supported by the International Passive House Association, Passive House Network, NYC DOE Office of Sustainability, Building Action Coalition, Zehnder, Cascadia Clip and Knightwall.
The final result is expected to be revealed on May 8 at the institute’s main campus. Project updates throughout the week can be found here.
