In a historic win akin to David versus Goliath, a team of Rancho Cielo construction students and their mentors have captured two first place finishes in an international homebuilding sustainability competition, that saw the vocational school students pitted against students from top universities from across the U.S. and other parts of the world.
The team won first in Architecture and Interior Design, as well as Sustainability and Resilience, at the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon at the Orange County Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa. The first place results were announced in a ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 12.
"We're over the moon!" writes Thomas Rettenwender by email. Rettenwender, of EcoLogic Architects, is the architect who worked with students, along with other design and construction mentors, in creating the two-story, 750-square-foot unit, called Nexus 01, the team entered into the competition.
Rancho Cielo's team beat Cal Poly Pomona, which took second place in the architecture category, and a partnership between UC Irvine and Orange Coast College, which took third.
In the sustainability category, Cal Poly Pomona and the UCI/OCC team flipped their positions, with UCI/OCC placing second behind Rancho Cielo.
On Friday, the team won second place in the engineering and construction category. In accepting the award, John Phillips, the retired Monterey County Superior Court judge and county supervisor who founded Rancho Cielo, gave a brief backstory of the organization, outlining how as a judge he wanted to create an alternative to sending troubled youth to prison.
"The big thing for me wasn't building a sustainable house. It was building a sustainable future for these young people," Phillips said, during the livestream of the ceremony.
A student, who was not introduced by name, spoke in Spanish for the families from Salinas who came to see their students shine. In English he said the team was honored to win the award and said they were "proud of all the work we have done."
Rancho Cielo also took second place in communications and marketing, a category that required students to compile data on their target marketplace, as well as come up with an integrated plan for marketing the home for sale and educating the public about the benefits of sustainability.
The wins are the culmination of over a year of work, that began with Rancho Cielo's selection to enter the decathlon, the first time a vocational school had been invited to compete.
Their selection came with a $100,000 grant toward construction of the home. Rancho Cielo leaders then had to raise another $400,000 in cash and materials.
They built the home on the Rancho Cielo campus in Salinas and then had to take it apart in sections for transport down to Orange County by truck. Students, instructors and others have been there since September, reconstructing the home and then presenting it to the public once the decathlon was opened to the public on Oct. 5.
The team will recount how they created their entry in a YouTube livestream at 6pm, Friday, Oct. 13. The panelists include three students: Josue Cisneros, lead carpenter; Julieta Mendoza-Alba, carpenter and finishes; Kevin Cacho, carpenter.
The students' mentors will also appear on the panel including Rettenwender. the other panelists scheduled are: Laura Cowan Higuchi, also of EcoLogic; Bill Hayward, CEO of Hayward Lumber and Hayward Healthy Homes; Chris Devers, Rancho Cielo CEO; John Phillips, Rancho Cielo's founder; Pete Scudder, president of Scudder Roofing and Solar and chair of the competition committee.
Once the event is over on Oct. 15, students will take the building apart again, and it will be trucked back to Salinas and reconstructed on the campus for use as staff housing. A village of small, sustainable homes will be constructed by students over time.