The following year, the university created a design-build course to bring the charette’s concept to reality. Students contributing to the project included engineering students in a year-long Senior Design course, landscape architecture students through a studio course, and architecture students through the design-build course. Designing and building the tiny home gave students hands-on (and life-changing) experience not always available in a traditional classroom.
In 2017, the Office of Sustainability—including Rebecca Collins, director; Caroline Burkholder, manager; and Adebola Duro-Aina, an “energy extern” and graduate student— along with architecture and engineering students, compiled documentation for the Living Building Challenge’s Petal Certification.
The Living Building Challenge uses a flower metaphor as a framework for the Petal Certification. The flower represents regenerative buildings that receive energy from the sun, nutrients from the soil, and water from the sky. Like flowers, these buildings are also designed to provide shelter, support the surrounding ecosystem, and inspire the people who use them. The petals represent materials, place, water, energy, health and happiness, equity, and beauty. In April 2019, Temple University’s tiny home received Petal Certification.
