On one side of Gourrier Avenue sits the new Alex Box Stadium. With its towering lights and high grandstands that seat 9,200 people, it’s a new landmark that testifies to the resources and dedication of the University community to providing excellent facilities and resources. But in its shadow, across the street, sits a modest but elegant Louisiana-style home. Although LaHouse isn’t a landmark, has no bright lights and doesn’t attract large crowds, the educational center serves as a testament to providing the community with the best available resources.The staff at LaHouse researches and demonstrates energy-efficient and sustainable building technologies for the Louisiana environment to disseminate this knowledge to the home construction industry and to home owners. “We’ve tried to build a house that’s more energy-efficient and durable for the Louisiana environment,” said LaHouse coordinator Margaret Pierce. Professor Claudette Reichel listed five main areas of research for the LaHouse: resource efficiency, durability, health, practicality, and convenience.  “LaHouse was envisioned to be an educational resource center,” she said. “Its purpose is to demonstrate and teach concepts and methods for sustainable housing and development.” She said the LaHouse is not a model house, but rather “an exhibit of a wide range of solutions.”The AgCenter finished construction on LaHouse in July. LaHouse hosts open houses weekly, and private donations funded the project, which initially cost about $1 million. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita delayed the construction, but LaHouse, which at that time was just a foundation and a frame, hosted about 7,000 visitors wanting to learn about hurricane-resistant building technologies in the aftermath of the storms.Resource efficiency refers to energy-saving technologies. LaHouse, for example, features special roofing technologies that reflect 97 percent of the sun’s heat and special insulation keeping the attic 40 to 50 degrees cooler than normal insulation in the summertime. The house also features water-saving bathroom and kitchen fixtures and a rain-water collection system for lawn and landscape irrigation.     But not all energy-saving measures are technological. The builders situated the house on the property to take advantage of the sun and wind. The windows are on the north and south sides of the house rather than the east and west sides, which prevents heat from getting into the house. Durability refers to the ability to sustain natural disasters commonly plaguing Louisiana, especially hurricanes.  The frame of the house contains hurricane strapping, which links the frame as one continuous system, making it stronger. It also features wind-resistant windows, which are more like car windshields than normal house windows and don’t need hurricane shutters. The roof shingles are concrete and are more durable than normal shingles. The entire house can sustain winds reaching 130 mph.  The master closet is also a safe-room, featuring a steel door and independent electricity and Internet connections. The room can withstand winds up to 20 mph higher than the rest of the house and is large enough to comfortably fit the average family. The house is also safe for people with respiratory problems. The house’s design prevents the growth of mold and mildew. The house also contains no carpet, leather rather than upholstered furniture and a dehumidifier. Finally, the house uses products with no, or at least low levels of, volatile organic compounds, such as asbestos.  The landscape of the house is also sustainable.  “We try to use native plants, but we also use plants that are  highly adaptive,” said horticulturalist John Young. “They will generally require less care, less fertilizer, and you would use less pesticides.” One of the main goals of LaHouse is the educate the public, especially people in the construction industry.”Basically, our goal is to educate the home owner, as well as contractors, designers, and anyone in the home industry,” said Pierce. “One of the missions of the AgCenter is to take research information, break it down and disseminate it to common people.”For this reason, the developments LaHouse makes need to be both practical and convenient for adoption. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is to lower the cost and increase the availability of these products.”The more folks we’re able to educate, the more you’ll see the products in the hardware stores,” said Pierce, who added that availability would drive the cost down. “That’s one of the things that drives people … the buck.”To make the developments more appealing to the average Louisianan, the AgCenter constructed the house in familiar, Louisiana-style architecture. Pierce said the old-style Louisiana homes were more durable anyway.”If people look at older-style Louisiana homes, those houses were built to sustain similar conditions,” she said. “We’ve moved away from that in the last 30 to 40 years.” Pierce added because the home is in a familiar Louisiana style, “it makes it a lot easier for people to adopt these ideas.”The financial incentives, however, may alone be enough for people to adopt these products and building techniques, especially considering the economic recession and the fact federal and state governments are giving tax breaks for energy-efficient homes. Reichel said a home using these products and technologies, depending on which of these options the consumer chooses, will cost the home builder about 2 to 10 percent more. She said the savings from energy-efficiency will more than offset these extra costs in the long run.—-Contact Matthew Barnidge at [email protected]