Interior of Crowder College and Drury University at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015 at the Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California (Credit: Thomas Kelsey/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon) 
Interior of Crowder College and Drury University at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015 at the Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California (Credit: Thomas Kelsey/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)
By Miranda O’Berry
Reporter
It’s been four years since Crowder College and Drury University teamed up to enter the 2015 Solar Decathlon. As of mid October, the tornado-resilient home built in the process, ShelteR3, has found its final resting place–in the most fitting setting.
“It will be set up at Eden Village, a village for the disabled and in-need people,” stated Terry Clarkson, construction instructor at Crowder.
Eden Village was a project started a little over a year ago by David and Linda Brown in Springfield. It was built as a community of tiny homes for disabled, homeless people living on the streets. ShelteR3 (pronounced Shelter Cubed) will be placed there not as a house, but as a new community center.
The philosophy of ShelteR3 is Respond, Recover, Resist. The aftermath of destruction from the horrific Joplin tornado inspired Crowder College and Drury University to pool resources and build a solar house that can permanently be stationed as a tornado-resilient house or brought to a disaster setting for emergency help.
“The house was built so it could be hauled on a semi without special permits,” stated Clarkson.
Tested personally by Drury University’s engineering team, ShelteR3 has hurricane rated doors and windows and an all-encasing impact-resistant fence. It uses 36 solar panels with a 14-kilowatt energy system.
After 18 months of blueprints, meetings, trials, and triumph, ShelteR3 was completed. The construction team packed and headed to Irvine, Calif.
“We were competing against schools [where] most of them were grad students” stated Matthew Keeton, former Crowder student and construction manager for ShelteR3.
Crowder/Drury placed 8th overall in the 2015 Solar Decathlon. Clarkson remarked how proud he was of his students, and stressed how much labor went into the project. “A lot of things had to take place for it to even manifest, to even be able to go to the contest.”
While built on the grounds of Crowder, Drury had an equally large hand in the building and process. They worked with the DOE, the Department of Energy, to keep the progress going.
“There were a lot of stages before Crowder was even able to start building it,” Clarkson explained. Drury students came to Crowder for the construction of the house, but the majority of meetings took place at Drury in Springfield.
Since 2015, the solar house has sat at the back of Crowder’s property, unassembled due to lack of funds. It was put up for auction in late 2015 until Eden’s Village snatched it up. By luck or fortune, ShelteR3 is fulfilling its true purpose–helping people. As Clarkson quotes one of his coworkers, “The homeless home has found a home.”
More information about ShelteR3 and its final destination can be found at https://www.gatheringtree.org/eden-village or by going online to the “Crowder & Drury Solar” Facebook page.
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