Belfast-based GO Logic Homes is building the ‘cottage-style’ residence hall based on the principles of passive house design jointly with the design firm of Ann Kearsley. A notable element of the residence hall is that it will be the involvement of Unity College students in the design, construction, and monitoring of the facility through both curricular and co-curricular activities.
The design makes use of super-tight insulation, passive solar orientation and other green building technologies to radically reduce the energy needed for heating and cooling. The Passive House residence hall will use sunlight to generate energy with using little or no active mechanical systems. Sunlight will be converted into usable heat.
The Student Passive House is the first of the three 10-person residential halls that would be built in phases. The project is slated to be completed by in 2011. The project has received a grant of $389,000 from the Kendeda Fund, a Delaware-based charitable program dedicated to exploring how to use natural resources sustainably.
Unity College is also home to Unity House, the first LEED Platinum, net-zero campus residence of a college President in the United States. Unity College is a small private college in rural Maine that provides liberal arts education which emphasizes the environment and natural resources.
