verspotteten den alten und waren noch unruhiger als vorher
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff This solar home features high-tech fabrics made in New England. It will soon be disassembled and shipped to France for a solar-home competition. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News) PROVIDENCE — A home that uses the same amount of power as a hair dryer is on its way to France for a student solar competition.
The futuristic Techstyle Haus, made of high-tech fabric and steel, is the culmination of 18 months of shared work by students from Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University and the University of Applied Sciences in Germany. The 200-square-foot structure is one of 20 entrants by university teams in the 2014 Solar Decathlon Europe, an international competition to build a full-scale, functional, solar structure. Techstyle Haus has one bedroom and one bath, a kitchen and a multi-functional open space that can accommodate more bedrooms. The competition requires the home to be off-the-grid and energy efficient. Flexible solar panels generate electricity and heat water. A rainwater collection system supplies water. Wastewater flows through a gray water system and is discharged through an on-site septic system. Super-insulated floors and walls and a energy-recovery system provide high efficiency. "For us it’s a way of pushing boundaries and questioning how homes are really built,” said Jason Askew, a third-year student in RISD’s graduate architecture program. The competition has a strong focus on architectural design to challenge the notion that solar and energy-efficient homes are boxy, with unsightly solar panels. Solar homes, Askew said, can be “exuberant, playful and beautiful.” The home’s shell, walls and insulation use innovative fabrics researched by RISD’s textile department. The fiberglass-based Sheerfill, made in New Hampshire, provides the fabric shell. The white fabric is commonly used as a cover for athletic stadiums and other large structures, such as Denver International Airport. The competition's homes also are designed to be mobile to challenge the concept of suburban sprawl and reduce impacts on open space. By mid-June, the home and about 40 student from the U.S.-German team will join the other entrants in a temporary solar community on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. Each collegiate team's entry is judged on aesthetics, innovation, efficiency and livability. The structure was assembled at a local office park and is slowly being dismantled and stored in two shipping containers for an ocean voyage to France. Watch a live feed of the disassembly here. The Techstyle Haus team is one of two entrants from the United States. The other is a partnership between Appalachian State University and a French university.
RISD associate professor of architecture John Knowles first entered RISD in the 2005 Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C. That home now sits at Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, not far from the private school’s wind turbine. The Solar Decathlon began in 2002 through the U.S. Department of Energy. It’s held alternate years in United States and Europe. China recently joined the program.
verspotteten den alten und waren noch unruhiger als vorher
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff This solar home features high-tech fabrics made in New England. It will soon be disassembled and shipped to France for a solar-home competition. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News) PROVIDENCE — A home that uses the same amount of power as a hair dryer is on its way to France for a student solar competition.
The futuristic Techstyle Haus, made of high-tech fabric and steel, is the culmination of 18 months of shared work by students from Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University and the University of Applied Sciences in Germany. The 200-square-foot structure is one of 20 entrants by university teams in the 2014 Solar Decathlon Europe, an international competition to build a full-scale, functional, solar structure. Techstyle Haus has one bedroom and one bath, a kitchen and a multi-functional open space that can accommodate more bedrooms. The competition requires the home to be off-the-grid and energy efficient. Flexible solar panels generate electricity and heat water. A rainwater collection system supplies water. Wastewater flows through a gray water system and is discharged through an on-site septic system. Super-insulated floors and walls and a energy-recovery system provide high efficiency. "For us it’s a way of pushing boundaries and questioning how homes are really built,” said Jason Askew, a third-year student in RISD’s graduate architecture program. The competition has a strong focus on architectural design to challenge the notion that solar and energy-efficient homes are boxy, with unsightly solar panels. Solar homes, Askew said, can be “exuberant, playful and beautiful.” The home’s shell, walls and insulation use innovative fabrics researched by RISD’s textile department. The fiberglass-based Sheerfill, made in New Hampshire, provides the fabric shell. The white fabric is commonly used as a cover for athletic stadiums and other large structures, such as Denver International Airport. The competition's homes also are designed to be mobile to challenge the concept of suburban sprawl and reduce impacts on open space. By mid-June, the home and about 40 student from the U.S.-German team will join the other entrants in a temporary solar community on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. Each collegiate team's entry is judged on aesthetics, innovation, efficiency and livability. The structure was assembled at a local office park and is slowly being dismantled and stored in two shipping containers for an ocean voyage to France. Watch a live feed of the disassembly here. The Techstyle Haus team is one of two entrants from the United States. The other is a partnership between Appalachian State University and a French university.
RISD associate professor of architecture John Knowles first entered RISD in the 2005 Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C. That home now sits at Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, not far from the private school’s wind turbine. The Solar Decathlon began in 2002 through the U.S. Department of Energy. It’s held alternate years in United States and Europe. China recently joined the program.