'Solar Village' Illuminates a Rainy Mall

The countertops made of recycled newspapers impressed Bob Shaw, 63, who traveled from Detroit for the event.

"We've been looking at this for a long time; we want to build a house of our own using some of these elements," he said.

He wanted to see the solar panels, hydrogen cell systems and structural insulation panels. His wife, JoAnn, 68, was looking at the aesthetics.

"I want to know it's comfortable, livable. This one is nice," she said of the University of Maryland entry.

It was impeccably designed, right down to a closet full of Terrapin clothes, modern furniture and the LaRousse Gastronomique cookbook displayed in the kitchen. All the lights were on, someone was Googling on a computer, a ceiling fan was spinning overhead and a tourist flopped on the couch and flipped through news channels on the flat screen television.

Their 51 solar panels were drawing 17,500 watts to power the buzzing house, even through the cloud cover.

Engineering is historically the university's strong suit. In the 2002 decathlon, the team created a house that took fourth place in a competition scored in 10 categories.

"The engineers scored pretty low in the, um, livability department," Chinchilla said. "So we learned and made it a little nicer this time."

The homes will be open until Oct. 16. They are judged daily, and the winner is scheduled to be announced Oct. 14.