Architecture students' award-winning designs will help Hopi Tribe expand solar-powered housing, education

This is a an abbreviated version of an article originally published in UA News. Read the full article here

A School of Architecture Solar Decathlon design studio course spent the spring 2024 semester designing housing and an educational campus for the Hopi Tribe, as part of a solar-powered village, called Tawaovi, that the tribe has long sought to build on its reservation in Northern Arizona. The partnership with the university was a major step in the project, which the Tribe hopes will spur economic development, expand tribal services and provide more housing options for tribal members.

The partnership between the the Hopi Tribe and the CAPLA studio was initiated by School of Architecture Senior Lecturer Laura Carr. Carr is a founding member of College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture's  Native Peoples Design Coalition, which connects college resources to Tribal communities in need of architectural expertise. As the program coordinator, Carr partners with other university units focused on serving tribal communities, including the Native Peoples' Technical Assistance Office and the Office of Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement.

Thanks to other university partnerships with the Hopi Tribe, Carr was familiar with the Tawaovi project. She thought it would be a perfect match for a students in an architecture studio course that, for years, has been built around the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon Design Challenge. The annual competition challenges students from 93 universities across 18 countries to design "zero energy" buildings – buildings that can generate the energy they need each year with renewable sources, such as solar or wind, without using nonrenewable energy.

"It was a really good fit for what the Tawaovi team was looking for in terms of the challenges they faced," Carr said.

David Brubaker, an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Architecture who has led the Solar Decathlon studio for two years, agreed. The project would also provide students real-world experience with a client whose vision included many of the competition's requirements – especially those related to sustainability. 

The partnership was also an example of how the university can serve tribal communities in Arizona, said Levi Esquerra, university Senior Vice President for Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement."One of the best ways we can learn someone else's culture is to experience it with a passion you're interested in," he said. "If we have an opportunity to share resources with Tribes, we should share them."

LeRoy Shingoitewa, a former Hopi Tribal Chairman who now sits on the Tribal Council, said the vision for Tawaovi goes back about two decades. It would be a modern village, designed in a way that reflects traditional Hopi values, complete with career and technical educational facilities, housing and a home for the tribe's growing administrative services. The Hopi word "tawa" means "sun," and "ovi" means "on top," Shingoitewa said. When put together, it's difficult to translate all that the words are meant to capture. "In some respects," he said, "it means the sun is shining down on that area."

All three of the students' projects earned recognition in the Solar Decathlon design competition, with one team winning the Grand Prize.