The Rancho Cielo Construction Academy and NexusHousing.org hosted an open house on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, to share the progress of their sustainable home build, Nexus_01, for the Orange County Sustainable Decathlon. Once completed, the home will be transported to the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, CA, for evaluation against the other contestants. The Rancho Cielo Construction students have until October 2023; designed by local architect Thomas Rettenwender and funded by Hayward Lumber and Scudder Roofing, among others.
During the event, Rancho Cielo Founder Judge John Phillips shared, “The one thing I saw when I was on the Bench–the one thing that would pull the kids out of probation–was that they got a job, and it was usually a job in the trades.”
One of the Rancho Cielo students on the Nexus_01 project, Kevin Cacho, said, “I came [to Rancho Cielo] as a kid that didn’t like school.” He continued, “I came across Rancho Cielo, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so interested as I am today—I say that because this school has brought me so many experiences that I didn’t think I would come across.”
Bill Hayward, CEO of Hayward Lumber, shared, “The vision here is that housing today needs to provide a lot more than it has ever provided before: it needs to be affordable (affordable underlies every challenge we have on the Monterey Peninsula), it needs to be attainable, it needs to be healthy, durable, and energy efficient.” He continued, “The myth is, you can’t have that – because it’s not out there.” That is what this project seeks to solve.
Rancho Cielo CEO Chris Devers closed with, “I also knew that if we took on this complicated, very complex building that – if they learned how to build this – that they would learn how to build any type of small home or tiny home underneath that umbrella; I knew that they could also learn all of the different aspects of the trades by taking on this one project.”
Next, we toured the Nexus_01 project home, a net-zero, 847 SF, one-bedroom, one-bathroom single-family home. Nexus_01 will be the first of several homes installed on the Rancho Cielo property, housing staff and students. One of the project’s goals is to create more affordable housing.
Special guests included:
- Hon. John Phillips, Founder of Rancho Cielo
- Chris Devers, Rancho Cielo CEO
- Joe DeRuosi, Director of College, Career, and Career Technical Education, Rancho Cielo
- Bill Hayward, CEO of Hayward Lumber
- Laura Cowan, Lead Project Manager and Project Designer
- Thomas Rettenwender, Lead Architect for the project and Founder of EcoLogic Architects
