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The Solar Decathlon is
an international competition organized by the U.S. Department of Energy,
which invites 20 universities to design, build, and operate the most
attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered homes in the world.
We are doing more.
In this bi-annual competition, we are participating
in the domains of manufacturing, energy management, communication, and
philosophy by not only proposing, but enacting change before 200,000
members of the public and government on the Washington Mall.
We are breaking ground no Solar Decathlon
entry has ever touched.
The focus of the Texas A&M groHome are sustainability, open source systems, disaster relief, and technological growth.
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is the lens through which we see
our building. The Solar Decathlon asks teams to design
a house which uses solar energy to power it; we take
our concept one step further by considering the impacts
of the design, manufacturing, construction, and life
of our building on the earth. The groHome building system
provides the opportunity to grow, share, modify, and
track architectures. We end up with industrial-revolutionized “smart” buildings
who know where they’ve been, where they are, and
where they’re going.
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are the future of software, technology,
media, and architecture. By infusing community into the
creation process—discovery and innovation accelerate.
Take the examples of Wikipedia.org, YouTube.com, and
Mozilla Firefox; apply them to architecture, and you
get the groHome. By utilizing a building system we can
construct our groHome from multiple locations at once,
move our entire kitchen any time we want, and involve
designers from around the world.
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The groHome helps prevent, and reduce
the effects of disaster by introducing a new economic
model into the home industry. To the chagrin of banks
everywhere, the groHome allows homeowners to incrementally
grow, take out smaller loans, and thus, all but eliminate
the costs of debt. If a disaster does happen, the groHome
comes to the rescue with scalable, secure, and sustainable
housing. In fact, the groHome is currently being explored
by CHUD and the Center for Maximum Potential Building
Systems for disaster deployment in Mississippi, Florida,
and Qatar.
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is a fact all areas of business
have to come to terms with. We are entering a new paradigm
where innovation is key and those intrenched in the status-quo
will be left behind. The Texas A&M Solar Decathlon
groHome carries the banner of innovation forward into
the future by utilizinng the latest technologies through
a platform designed for change. Although we incorporate
today’s newest
technologies (RFID, BIM, CAM), the groHome will never decay—it
embodies evolution.
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| Do it yourself! With increasing access
and sophistication of tools and knowledge, individuals
enjoy more and more areas of expertise. Bolstered by television
an internet content, people want to take part in the design
and construction of their home... and why shouldn’t
they? Our Solar Decathlon submittal, like the groHome,
requires no heavy equipment to construct. A team of four
can construct our home in a matter of days. Soon, people
will head down to their local hardware store and walk away
with an entire room, or log on to eBay and sell their walls. |
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