March/April 1984 RAIN Page 21 inity with A.T. Inferior of Eliot Energy House held as part of the May 1978 Sun Day activities gathered 100 people to discuss the possibility of creating an energy demonstration house in Portland, Oregon. They saw the Farallones Institute's Integral Urban House in Berkeley, California, as a possible model. From discussions and meetings held over the next few months, a unified vision of what such a project should be emerged—a community-based effort to establish an "integral urban house" that would demonstrate a variety of appropriate technologies, affordable and approachable by the average urban dweller. In the process, such a house could provide a hands-on laboratory for participants in the design and installation of these technologies. In July 1978, the group incorporated itself as RUNT and negotiated with the City of Portland's Development Commission to acquire one of the city's 70 abandoned houses. There it was—the dream house. For 10 years it had stood vacant, and its years of neglect were sadly evident: no front door, windows broken out, the paint gray and peeling. Inside, a fire had gutted part of the house, the electrical and plumbing systems were unusable, and pigeons had made the attic their home. Still, it had a sound foundation! Between the first Sun Day forum and the first day of demolition work nearly two years later, the Board of Directors and members of RUNT—most of them, then as now, volunteers—clarified their hopes and visions for the project and agreed on goals, an organizational structure, and an implementation strategy. They also assumed ownership of the house and began to raise funds. A garden committee formed to organize an organic community garden in the lot across the street from the house, and a design committee began on the working drawings.
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