There is something to be said for playing fast, if not loose, with the facts when it comes to presenting the essentials of a building project. Or at least that’s the driving concept behind the 10x10x10 Green Building Slam, scheduled for Wednesday at the Magic Lantern Theatre in Spokane, Washington.

Ten builders, using 10 slides apiece, will have 10 minutes each to highlight the green components of one of their recent projects. Like poetry-slam competitions whose contestants punctuate their verse with dramatized readings, participants in the 10x10x10 Green Building Slam will use slides and concise, vivid description to highlight the green design, landscaping, water efficiency, energy efficiency, and materials aspects of their projects.

This event – one of at least nine similar events held recently in the Northwest – will not feature audience voting. And if it falls just short of poetry, it still could come close to it for the commercial and residential builders, architects, designers, and engineers the event is expected to attract.

The projects were selected by a seven-member panel for their innovation in design and construction in both urban and suburban settings, notes a blog post by conservation website Down to Earth NW. And the lineup goes beyond residential and commercial buildings.

A wide range of project types

For example, lighting designer Elizabeth Pece, of MW Consulting Engineers’ Escent Lighting Gallery, will deliver 10 minutes on Escent’s photovoltaic lighting installation for the Spokane Convention Center south parking lot. And Alex Mann, of engineering firm AHBL, will zero in on an 11-block street storm-water retrofit, called the Lincoln Street SURGE Project, in a section of Spokane’s South Hill residential neighborhood.

Entries focused on buildings include MW Consulting Engineers’ work on a lecture wing of Spokane Falls Community College’s science building and Uptic Studios’ office designs for advertising firm Magner Sanborn.

Five single-family homes and one multifamily project are on the building slam roster.

One of the more unusual single-family buildings on the schedule, Earthflow House, in Elk, Washington, is a three-bedroom, two-bath of almost 1,900-sq.-ft. A portion of the house is buried in the hill behind it so that the building looks as if it is snaking in and out of the earth.

Colin Anderson, of Copeland Architecture & Construction, designed the home and will present its 10 minutes at the building slam. He tells GreenBuildingAdvisor that the slab and buried walls are insulated to R-15, while the exterior walls, built of structural insulated panels, are R-27. The SIP roof is insulated to R-43, while buried portions of the roof are insulated with a minimum 10 in. (sloping up to 16 in.) of expanded polystyrene.

Anderson said he is not at liberty to disclose the construction cost but did note that it was very close to that for conventional construction.

The Building Slam is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Magic Lantern, 25 W. Main Avenue, in Spokane. Admission is $10, $5 for students.