Solar Decathlon 2017 takes place in Denver, Colorado, at the 61st & Peña Station October 5–9 and October 12–15, 2017.
Sneak Preview of Solar Decathlon 2017 Houses
Ruby Theresa Nahan | Solar Decathlon
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017 is only eight months away, but the competing teams have been hard at work for more than a year. Competition organizers recently reviewed team design development drawings, which reflect about 90% completion of the design details.
Solar Decathlon 2017 takes place in Denver, Colorado, at the 61st & Peña Station October 5–9 and October 12–15, 2017. So, just what are you going to see there? A few themes are emerging as the student teams’ ideas take shape.
The teams competing in the 2017 Solar Decathlon have submitted their
design development drawings, which reflect innovative efficiency and
sustainability elements.
Innovative Modular Construction
Think about this. The Solar Decathlon requires each team to design and build a house, then take it apart and ship it to the competition site. On the competition site, teams re-assemble their houses, then compete in 10 contests and provide free tours to the public. After the competition, teams take the houses apart again; and ship them to their final destinations, where they re-assemble them all over again. Needless to say, modular construction, in which sections or “modules” of the house are constructed in controlled conditions and then shipped to the site for final construction, is an appealing idea. These two teams are taking an innovative approach to modular construction.
Rather than prefabricating three-dimensional modules, such as an entire living, dining, and kitchen area of a house, the Netherlands’ team is taking a two-dimensional approach to modular construction. Their house will be assembled from façades, walls, floors, and roof sections that are manufactured, transported to, and assembled at the building site to minimize waste and construction time. Individual components of the house can be moved around to create a new layout or removed and reused in an entirely new structure.
Maryland’s reACT house is intended to serve as a seminal prototype for a “house as a kit of parts” design concept, with the kit consisting of separate components and systems parts that can be efficiently manufactured, transported, assembled, and disassembled. This home-building kit can be readily adapted to a range of clients, communities, construction technologies, and ecological environments.
Concrete!
Given Solar Decathlon houses must be transported to the competition site, it’s always a surprise to discover concrete in the mix of design approaches. The house being designed by the Wash U – St. Louis team consists of a single precast concrete structure intended as a demonstration of integrated advanced building technology and a compelling alternative to traditional wood, light-frame construction.
Water Conservation and Re-use
For the first time, Solar Decathlon 2017 includes a Water Contest, so you’ll see plenty of strategies for minimizing water use and maximizing water re-use, such as greywater reclamation, filtration and re-use; rainwater catchment and filtration; and low-water landscaping. UC Davis is making water the central focus of its Our H2Ouse (pronounced “Our House”). The team intends the design to respond specifically to the super drought that has gripped its home state of California for several years.
Accessibility and “Aging in Place”
Two teams are bringing houses designed for active seniors. Both houses feature key aging-in-place design elements such as adjustable countertops and wheelchair accessibility. However, the teams each present unique solutions to serve this growing market.
Team Las Vegas is constructing a house that features a retro 1960s aesthetic, but is completely tricked out with an integrated home application system that connects the occupants with security, heating and cooling, and lighting control from any mobile device, at home and away.
The team from Northwestern in Chicago has conducted interviews and home visits with individuals and couples who represent its soon-to-retire baby-boomer target market. The team will continue to engage these individuals for user testing and feedback throughout the process of building the house to ensure the finished product truly meets the needs of its intended occupants.
Reflecting Local Style and Needs
Architects use the expression “rooted in place” to describe a building that responds to the environment around it and supports local cultural values. These three teams have developed designs to respond specifically to their unique locations.
Team Alabama’s house features classic southern style with large overhangs and a welcoming front porch. The design is also inspired to respond to devastating tornados and includes a “strong room” that extends below the level of the house’s subfloor to allow permanent footings, so that even if the house around it is impacted by a tornado, the room and everyone in it survives.
What could be more fitting than a BEACH house from Florida! In this case, however, Team Daytona Beach is designing Building Efficient, Affordable, and Comfortable Homes (BEACH) that feature a forever-home design plan, allowing the homeowners the freedom to grow and stay in the house as long as they wish. Passive, energy-neutral technology is incorporated throughout the house and designed to perform in Florida’s hot, humid climate.
West Virginia is Offering Appalachian States Innovative Sustainability, or “OASIS,” a house the team intends to embody purity, privacy, and healthiness. These three core design principles were chosen in response to the mix of a rich cultural history rooted in the natural world and the impacts of industry in the Appalachia region. The design of OASIS combines modern technologies, traditional features, and reclaimed materials to create a house that both evokes and improves on the past while fitting right in with West Virginia’s increasingly modern, urban architecture.
A Larger Community Vision
Competing at the Solar Decathlon is just a first step for the teams and the houses they design, build, and operate. Where each house goes after the competition is up to the team. These four teams have plans to integrate their Solar Decathlon houses into a larger community context.
Intended for urban infill in Richmond, California, where land is scarce and expensive, the UC Berkeley/DU team set out to design a home that is simple, affordable, and sustainable. The result is R I S ☰ (RISE), a single-family home that meets the requirements of the Solar Decathlon competition, but is ultimately planned as just the first floor of a three-story multifamily housing building. The house design features moveable walls, so the unit can transform from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom unit, depending on the needs of the occupants.
Washington State’s Solar Decathlon house is planned as part of a village of not-quite-tiny houses that can fill an urban lot, which already has access to services, infrastructure, and utilities but may be a little too small or oddly shaped to be attractive to more conventional development.
The sustainability of the Swiss Team’s Solar Decathlon house goes beyond energy and materials. Its house is designed to be highly flexible so that over its long lifetime it can be whatever the community around it needs it to be—from a house to a community center to a bike shop or grocery store.
The Missouri S&T team will locate its SILO house in a solar village on campus, where it joins houses from five past Solar Decathlon competitions. Collectively, the village and its houses are called the S&T Solar House Project, which is a truly immersive learning experience, where student team members live in and learn from the existing houses while designing and building another one.
This sneak preview can give you an initial idea of the design approaches you’ll find at Solar Decathlon 2017, but there’s so much more to see. Visit the team pages to check out additional photos, videos, and details about the house (or houses) of your dreams.
Around the World with the Solar Decathlon
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition now spans five continents – from the United States to Spain, France, Colombia, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, to China – bringing together collegiate teams from around the world to address some of the most pressing global energy issues of our time.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy signed Memorandums of Understanding to launch two new competitions. The first Solar Decathlon Africa will take place in Morocco in 2019, and the second Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean will be in Colombia in 2018.
Solar Decathlon has grown in popularity since its inception in 2002, and now sheds light on solutions to energy challenges around the globe. The student teams competing in Solar Decathlon are made up of tomorrow’s engineers, architects, researchers, and policy makers. They are highly motivated and spend two years problem-solving and creating sustainable homes of the future.
As a robust workforce training platform, Solar Decathlon prepares students to become our next generation of industry professionals that will seek jobs in their respective fields.
Similar to the Olympics’ event, Solar Decathlon consists of 10 contests, ranging from architecture and engineering to energy performance, water conservation and communications. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends design excellence and smart energy production with innovation, market potential, energy, and water efficiency.
Teams strive for innovation while demonstrating cost-effective technologies that homeowners can use immediately to save energy and money.
For a country like Morocco, the competition aligns with its goal of reaching 42% of its total installed electricity generation capacity with renewable energy resources by 2020 and 52% by 2030. Morocco has been in contact with several universities in Africa that have already expressed interest in participating in this event. A call for proposals to participate in Solar Decathlon Africa will take place in 2017.
Internationally, each event is tailored to the host country’s unique economic and environmental circumstances. For example, in the Middle East, the competing teams must adapt their designs to the region’s heat, dust, and high humidity, while teams competing in China must take multifamily and high-density urban lifestyles into account. Upcoming Solar Decathlons will add to the more than 200 houses that have already competed in Solar Decathlons.
The Solar Decathlon China (SDC) is set for 2018 in Dezhou, Shandong. It features a net-zero energy site, net-zero carbon emission, and net-zero water waste park with education, entertainment, and exhibition functions. The Solar Decathlon Middle East (SDME) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will be held in 2018. The 22 teams planning to compete have students representing 37 universities and 16 countries.
The eighth U.S. event, Solar Decathlon 2017, will be held Oct. 5-15, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. It will feature a sustainability expo, professional development and consumer workshops, middle school education events, and a community festival. Visitors are welcome to tour the teams’ houses for free, as well as visit the expo to gather ideas to use in their own homes.
Each Solar Decathlon competition involves thousands of university students and tens of thousands of visitors. The Solar Decathlon format is an award-winning vehicle for workforce development, clean energy outreach, education, and technology demonstration.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag
Comments (0)
This post does not have any comments. Be the first to leave a comment below.
Featured Product
