Solar Decathlon in Madrid: competing for the greenest house

Solar Decathlon Europe, an eco-friendly design competition, has kicked off in Madrid. The Spanish capital is the first European city to host this prestigious international contest organized by the U.S. Department of Energy. The competition was held only in the United States until 2010.

Germany is presenting four projects. Photo: a house designed by Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences wins the engineering and construction competition.

Spain is presenting five projects. Photo: the Fab Lab House from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (Instituto de arquitectura avanzada de Cataluna, IAAC) is made of pinewood and covered with flexible solar panels.

There are two projects from France. Photo: the Napevomo House designed by Arts et Metiers ParisTech features an array of original solar cells installed on its roof.

China is presenting two projects. Photo: Tianjin University’s Sunflower House.

There are two projects from the United States. Photo: The Re Focus House by the University of Florida.

There is one project from Britain: H.O.U.S.E., which stands for “Home Optimizing the Use of Solar Energy,” by the University of Nottingham. It is the only two-storey house at the competition.

The teams are challenged not only to make their designs eco-friendly and appealing to the consumer but also to offer the most original use of the solar panels. Photo: movable window panels embedded with photodiodes at the Living Equia House designed by Fachhochschule fur Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (Germany).

Each house has a ‘control center’ operating the solar-powered equipment.

Three projects, each receiving scores of 120, won the architecture competition: the LOW3 House by Universidad Politecnica de Cataluna (Catalonia),

the Luukku House by Aalto University (Finland)

and the Lumenhaus by Virginia Polytechnic and State University (U.S.)