UAF team takes third place at Solar Decathlon
A team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks took third place in the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2022 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge: New Housing Division. Of the five team members, two are from Nome: Deilah Johnson and Amanda Toerdal. Team Asriavik – Inupiaq for blueberry – grew out of a class on sustainable energy at UAF Bristol Bay’s campus, taught by team member Professor Mark Masteller. One hundred and one teams from around the world competed in six different divisions.
Team Asriavik’s proposal is a model for affordable housing designed with the Village of Solomon, of which Johnson is a member, in mind. It upcycles shipping containers and has specific spaces for subsistence game processing, addressing both environmental conditions and cultural components of building in the region. Judges at the awards ceremony at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, said that the team understood their climate better than any other team.
First place in the New Housing Division was a team from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia and the second-place team was from the University of Wisconsin. Both have extremely different conditions than Solomon. Another big difference was the makeup of the teams: both had large teams of architects and designers. Although the original class at the Bristol Bay campus had 10 students, seven of whom were engineering or architecture students, they all dropped out, leaving three students: one ethnobotanist, one biologist, and Johnson. Toerdal, who is the general manager of Pilgrim Hot Springs, had worked with Johnson on projects in the past and joined the team on the last day of enrollment. Due to remote learning during the pandemic, none of the team had ever met in person before the final presentation in Colorado.
Johnson explained that at first, she had been asked to draft an affordable housing strategic plan for the Village of Solomon’s lots in the East End of Nome. When she brought it to class, they decided to use it in their competition proposal. With the help of experts and industry leaders from across Alaska including the Cold Climate Housing Research Center and the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, they designed a single-family home using a hybrid construction with four 40-foot shipping containers. The team will present their design to the community at the Village’s annual meeting this August.
Next year, the Village of Solomon will be building three single family homes on lots in the East End, though not necessarily this model. The King Island Native Community purchased adjacent lots and has hired NANA Management to build modular homes. Solomon might partner with the two to reduce construction costs. Solomon is also reconstructing parts of the original village, and many of the techniques used here, such as the materials and 15-kilowatt solar panels, might be an option.
Affordable housing is about more than the upfront construction costs and includes annual operating and maintenance costs. Heating costs are sometimes more than mortgage payments in Alaska, and Johnson is working to draft energy code standards and educating people about upfront and long-term costs. “Setting our own [codes] and being an example is probably the best way for people to truly comprehend the innovation, the feasibility, and the affordability that ties into all of it,” she said.
According to the official website, The Solar Decathlon “challenge students to design and build high-performance, low-carbon buildings that mitigate climate change and improve our quality of life through greater affordability, resilience, and energy efficiency.” A team from UAF had never entered the competition before, and nobody really knew how much of a commitment it would take, but twice-weekly meetings became four times a week and new software had to be learned and doing it well took an extraordinary amount of studying and work.
“It was a great experience. I’ll never do it again,” Johnson laughed.
Donald Lee Fancher was born in Bethel, Alaska, on January 30, 1955 to Elizabeth Wassilie and Edward Giarraputo. He was later adopted by Maxwell and Gladys Fancher. Don grew up in Bethel, Alaska, and attended Bethel Regional High School up until junior high. While in junior high he was active on the wrestling team. He attended high school in Unalakleet at Unalakleet Covenant High School. While in high school he played basketball and played the trumpet. During the high school basketball games, he would take his trumpet, and being the lone instrument player, play a certain tune to rile the crowd up. He would continue to play the tune, louder and louder, and they would yell “CHARGE!” He graduated from Covenant High in 1973. He attended college at George Fox University in Newburg, Oregon, for two years.
Don returned to Alaska and worked for the Alyeska Pipeline at Pump 12. After working on the pipeline he moved to Unalakleet to work as a city police office for the City of Unalakleet. He met Charlene Paniptchuk in Unalakleet in 1979 and together they had five children: Donald Jr., Katherine, Wassili, Michelle and
Max.
Together they lived in Unalakleet, Quinhagak and Bethel.
In 1990 Don became a volunteer at the Bethel Fire Department and achieved a Bureau of Land Management Red Card Wildlands Firefighter and partnered with the Bethel Fire Department to use their training facility. He also worked as the Executive Director for the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) Housing Authority in the early 1990’s.
In his spare time in Bethel Don was able to obtain his private pilot’s license. He flew his first solo flight on July 3, 1987. He was able to obtain his multi engine rating, however, preferred to own a single engine aircraft. Don’s first aircraft owned was a Cessna 172 and he flew many hours in that plane. During one flight between Bethel and Unalakleet, the engine cut on him and the plane started to glide down. He was able to quickly get the engine started again and regain altitude. He flew much higher than normal after the engine started up again and made it safely back to Bethel without any more incident. He owned a Saratoga and flew that plane between Bethel and Anchorage many times taking his family on vacations. Eventually the family got too big for a Saratoga so he sold that and bought a Cessna 207, which had more cargo and passenger room.
Other outdoor activities Don enjoyed doing with his family was dip netting for smelts after the ice went out on the Kuskokwim River, drift netting for king salmon, salmon berry picking on the Johnson River, fishing for silver salmon above Kwethluk, at the “Y” and moose hunting upriver on the Kuskokwim near Red Devil and Sleetmute. On occasions, Don would take his family in his airplane and go berry picking in some of the surrounding villages for blackberries.
Don was also a certified plumber and had his own business in Bethel as a plumber, working on boilers and other plumbing issues people had.
He later became the Executive Director of the Orutsaramiut Native Council in Bethel. In 2003 he moved to Nome to work for the Bering Straits Regional Housing Authority. While in Nome he enjoyed traveling along the roads and being out in the country.
In 2006 Don moved to Anchorage to work for the Department of Transportation as an Area Planner for Southwest Alaska. He retired from the DOT in 2018. In 2018 he moved to Wasilla to live out his retirement.
Wherever he lived, Don enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping and living a subsistence lifestyle in Unalakleet, Bethel, Nome or on the road system.
He always made it a point to always take care of his five children and grandchildren. He always made sure they had a place to stay and food on the table.
Donald Lee Fancher Sr. earned his eternal wings and went to be with the Lord on February 17, 2022.
Donald Sr. is survived by his brother Will Fancher, sister-in-law Deborah Fancher, son Donald Jr., daughter-in-law Sylvia, daughter Katherine, son Wassili, daughter Michelle, son-in-law Jake, and son Max. Grandchildren Summer, Faith, Wyatt, Henry, and Joshua. Nephews Ron and Alex Fancher and David and Jonathan Dietz.
Don is proceeded in death by parents Maxwell (1998) and Gladys Fancher (2018) and sister Zola Marie Dietz (2014).