From BLDG BLOG:

In the desert 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles is a suburb abandoned in advance of itself-the unfinished extension of a place called California City. Visible from above now are a series of badly paved streets carved into the dust and gravel, like some peculiarly American response to theNazca Lines (or even the labyrinth at Chartres cathedral).Bill & Ted meet Cerne Abbas Man.

Google Street View gives you a good view of this somewhat unfortunate art form. In light of the recent economic conditions you wonder how many more of these there are. The waste in terms of labor and money as well as the environment has to be staggering.

U of M ICON House

The annual U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a “competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house”. Twenty universities from around the world are competing to help determine the future of sustainable housing.

Most of the houses meet the second requirement, they run on solar power during the day and either store the power or put it back in the grid. All are energy efficient. It’s the first requirement that is the real obstacle for adoption. For solar houses to be widely adopted people have to like living in them. Aesthetics in this type of competition usually take back seat to engineering.

The University of Minnesota renowned for it’s solar car program is tackling not only the engineering problems but the aesthetic ones as well. They are designing a gable roofed house that is “influenced by traditions that surround us daily. Our love for using what already exists has lead us to take the concept of a gable roof and ‘solarize’ it!” More on their sites here, and here. This integration of design at the beginning of an engineering project is a step in the right direction for adoption of alternative energies.