We are a group of around 20 students from Middlebury College entering the Department of Energy’s Race to Zero Competition. The goal of our team is to design a new elementary school for the town of Middlebury, Vermont that generates as much energy as it consumes over the course of the year. We aim to achieve this through thoughtful building construction and careful design of our building’s systems and use. Utilizing advanced building techniques and modern materials, our team hopes to design a “100 year” school that will be both durable and adaptable to changes in education.

Over the past few months, our team has considered every aspect of design relevant to elementary schools and specifically the needs of the town of Middlebury. We don’t want to design a school simply to replace Mary Hogan, we want to create a final product that is unique to Vermont and will transform education in our community. To achieve this, we have considered every facet of elementary education and consulted with both educators and school design professionals. Rethinking primary education and traditional school design has not been an easy process, but we consider it necessary to build a school that will be effective and flexible for the next century. In addition, we want to create a school that students are excited to attend every morning!