HISTORY
The Architecture at Zero competition, now in its twelfth year, was conceived as a response to the zero net energy targets set out by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in the 2008 report, California’s Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan. In this report, the CPUC set out four “Big Bold Energy Efficiency Strategies” for California that include the goals that all new residential construction in California be ZNE by 2020 and that all new commercial construction be ZNE by 2030.
2021-22: Affordable Housing for Farm Workers: Visalia, CA
The 2021-22 competition was to create affordable housing for farmworkers in California’s Central Valley.
2020: PUBLIC LIBRARY: SAN BENITO COUNTY, CA
The 2020 competition challenge was to create a zero net energy public library in Hollister, CA.
CHANGER
STUDENT/COLLEGE
ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
MING CHUAN UNIVERSITY, TAIWAN
CHUN YUAN CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY, TAIWAN
2019: Recreation Center, California State University at Monterey Bay
The 2019 competition challenge was to create a zero net energy recreation center at the California State University Campus at Monterey Bay.
Bay Area Transect -Merit Award
2018: ESTUARY & OCEAN SCIENCE CENTER, Tiburon
Competition challenge was to create a zero net energy bayside community education and visitor’s center, in support of the mission of the Estuary and Ocean Science Center in Tiburon, CA.
Fogcatcher
2016: San Francisco State University
The 2016 competition challenge was to create a zero net energy student housing project at the San Francisco State University campus.
Weber Thompson
2015: UC San francisco
The 2015 competition site was part of the University of California, San Francisco’s Mission Bay Campus that would be developed into multifamily residential units over a ground floor of retail, community and support spaces.
University of Aalborg
2014: JACK LONDON GATEWAY, Oakland, California
The 2014 competition site was comprised of two adjacent parcels, each to be developed as mixed-use housing over commercial, in Oakland, CA. Parcel 1 was to be developed as affordable family housing over a childcare center or wellness clinic. Parcel 2 was to be developed as market rate housing over a grocery store.
Living in Flux courtesy Victor Bao (California Polytechnic State University)
2013: The Tenderloin
The 2013 competition site was at the northwest corner of the intersection of Taylor and Eddy Streets in San Francisco. Although currently used as a surface parking lot, the site is zoned for Residential-Commercial Combined, High Density.
Read: Think Global, Act Local: Young architects deploy new tools to advance common values in Architectural Record
Image courtesy Joseph Ng.
2012: UC Merced
The 2012 design challenge was for a zero net energy (ZNE) student housing or administrative office building design for the University of California, Merced. As part of the Architecture at Zero challenge, entrants were asked to create a diagrammatic district energy plan for the Bellevue Gateway development.
The 2011 Emeryville site.
2011: Emeryville
The design site for Architecture At Zero 2011 was an industrial urban infill site in Emeryville, California. The design challenge was to create a mixed-use building or set of buildings that included 240 residential housing units, one 1200 square foot retail space and a 4000 square foot new public library branch. As part of the competition, all building designs were required to be grid-tied and reasonably demonstrate the competition’s criteria for zero net energy; that the energy use of the building(s) and its occupants be less than or equal to the energy produced by on-site renewable generation, as measured over a calendar year.