Each year the U.S. Department of Energy sponsors a competition for the design of a home that can maximize the energy of the sun for affordable, sustainable living. This year, the team from the University of Maryland took home the competition’s top honor for their project entitled: Watershed. Rather than a visual manifesto on the rebranding of the single family home, the success of the design revolves around the integration and interconnection of a series of technologies and systems to create a compact, efficient and welcoming residence. The result can serve as a model to progressive home building in many ways–an area where our country needs no shortage of help in understanding how sustainability can be integrated into everyday living.
Merely building a small home that gathers the most solar energy would not snag you the blue ribbon in this competition. The Solar Decathlon is judged on a series of criteria including affordability, engineering, communications, comfort zone and market appeal. This is integral to the success of the challenge because despite the fact that sustainability’s public image may revolve around solar panels and wind turbines, the true meaning of the word is a holistic notion of balance that affects all aspects of living. Continue Reading…