First Place and Overall Winner of Solar Decathlon 2007
A house of the future with ENERGATE windows from Häußler has won the competition in Washington D.C. to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house.
A house of the future designed by the Technical University of Darmstadt with windows and doors from Häußler has won "Solar Decathlon 2007" - an international competition in which teams of college and university students compete to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The German team led by the architecture professor Manfred Hegger beat 19 other top universities from around the globe during the week long final in front of the White House. “We are over the moon about the team winning the competition. It just proves that our high insulating ENERGATE windows are at the forefront internationally”, says Mathias Häußler, head of the "Solar Decathlon" project at Ludwig Häußler GmbH.
The juries of the individual contests were full of praise for the achievements of the TU Darmstadt. The university easily won three of the ten contests - Architecture, Lighting and Engineering. The Architecture Jury said, "The house pushed the envelope on all levels". As regards looks and functionality Darmstadt "achieved everything possible". An important contribution for the construction of the house was the ENERGATE windows from Häußler. They help to achieve an excellent energy balance and provide the building with as much transparency as possible; providing maximum daylight inside the house, thus reducing the need for electric lighting.
The Lighting Jury were fascinated by the way the house glows at night. The Engineering Jury gave the TU Darmstadt team the highest possible innovation score. And the energy balance was also considered to be "perfect". All week, long queues of people waited to get into the house. And the jurors claimed the visitors were amazed and thrilled.
The Solar Decathlon is a U.S. Department of Energy sponsored event to which the general public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency and the best in home designs. 20 international solar houses were presented from 12 – 20 October on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The TU Darmstadt was one of only two European teams and the only German university to compete in the event. The team qualified for the final of this renowned competition by putting forward a convincing design, clear construction and an extremely cost-effective operating concept for their solar house of the future.
The high-tech house built in Darmstadt was shipped across the Atlantic in special boxes and virtually rebuilt at the solar village in Washington D.C. The residential building, which was developed by a team of 30 young scientists from the Faculty of Architecture of the TU Darmstadt under the watchful eye of Prof. Manfred Hegger, won the German Solar Award in 2006 and has been selected as a location of the initiative "Germany - Land of Ideas".
