The first volume in the Urgent Matters series, Trojan Goat: A Self-Sufficient House traces the design and construction of the University of Virginia's whimsically named, award-winning entry in the 2002 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. John D. Quale, the architectural advisor and coordinator for the project, provides here a firsthand account of the creation of the 750 square-foot solar-powered house.

Aiming to make the remarkable achievements of the project better known, while highlighting potential future applications for the practice of architecture, Trojan Goat...

Sustainable Affordable Prefab combines architectural theory and practice in a beautifully illustrated account of ecoMOD, the innovative design/build program pioneered by John Quale. Unlike most manifestos of green design, Quale's book describes a collaborative process that has produced, to date, four elegantly designed, built examples of sustainable affordable housing.

Implementing the principles that produced an award-winning Solar Decathlon project in 2002, Quale and his students at the University of Virginia, working with colleagues in the School of Engineering and Applied...