Background
The Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN) today is facing several critical challenges associated with the development of housing infrastructure throughout their communities. In order to meet the growing demand of people seeking to return to the lands of the PPN, more housing developments are being undertaken. At the same time, rising energy costs associated with heating and cooling current houses is placing an increased burden on residents. Furthermore, the drought conditions within and around the PPN are also taxing the resources of the residents and the local government. As a result, the PPN is seeking to implement sustainable technology and best practices that will increase their self sufficiency and meet their housing, energy, and water conservation needs.
In order to address the aforementioned concerns, a specialized team called CARES4Pomo was formed to work with members of the PPN to evaluate sustainable technology and best practices such as solar photovoltaic systems, wind turbine systems, passive and active solar water heaters, grey water systems, and passive building design strategies such as passive solar gain and sun shading.
The team members from CARES4Pomo come from UCB and work under the umbrella of the Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability (visit the CARES website here).
On April 13, 2008, residents of the PPN in northern California and members of the CARES4Pomo team participated in an innovation workshop to understand the sustainability, environmental, and cultural needs of the PPN community and to provide recommendations for housing designs for the community. The underlining principal of the innovation workshop is that the residents of the PPN community are the most knowledgeable about their needs and therefore should be active participants in the design process of their housing.
As a result of the innovation workshop, members of the CARES4Pomo team were able to create a roundhouse-style design. Based on this design, the CARES4Pomo team is helping to co-design a roundhouse prototype; construction will begin on this prototype design in Summer 2009. Read more about this prototype housing design here.
Even more projects have blossomed out of this partnership, such as research into cost-effective retrofits for existing homes, and the eventual energy independence of the PPN based on community-scale renewable energy technologies. Read all about the PPN/UCB partnership's projects, past, present, and future, in the menus on the lefthand side of the screen.
Fig 1: Roundhouse style design created for the PPN
Fig 2: Members of the PPN and the CARES team after the innovation workshop.
Fig 3: CARES team members with the roundhouse style design
