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Just a month back, 2018 edition Solar Decathlon Middle East (SDME) competition took place at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. Organized by DEWA in Dubai, SDME is an international competition created by the U.S. Department of Energy and consists of 10 contests that followed the lines of those in previous editions of the competition. The main criteria of the competition were creating a solar-powered family home with a facility of electric car charging.
Additionally, the teams had a challenge of adapting and customizing their design to local weather the heat, dust & high humidity that we experience in the Middle East.
The projects are developed by multidisciplinary teams, giving the students the opportunity to learn about technical issues, teamwork, communication skills, and sustainable lifestyle and socio-economic issues in order to ensure the viability of their project.
Every house in Solar Decathlon use solar energy as the only energy source and is equipped with all the technologies that permit maximum energy efficiency. During the final phase of the competition teams assemble their houses in the main expo area, open to the general public while undergoing the 10 contests of the competition, reason for which this event is called Decathlon, ‘Deca’ derives from Greek and means ten. The first Solar Decathlon was held in 2002.
Sustainability Tribe visited the Solar Decathlon Middle East, to see highly efficient and innovative homes designed and built by students from around the world.
We first started our tour from Ora house, just because one of the student from their team (Herriot watt university, Dubai) worked with my team (Ramboll Middle East & Asia’ Sustainability Team) as an intern. Rinku, our intern, presented Ora house to us at work and we had asked her many questions about it, but seeing the house was great fun.
Features like hybrid barjeel and then vertical green wall which acts as a filter for air coming through hybrid barjeel was particularly interesting.
The next house Baitykool was so inviting, made by University of Bordeaux, France; Amity University and An-Najah National University, Palestine. This house was built as a house cum co-working space to suit the modern urban requirements, where the living room and bedroom can be easily converted in a working space. The walls of the living room were covered with some specially made fabric, which can easily act as a screen for the projector, whereas foldable furniture in the bedroom was great to convert the room for different functions during the day and for the night.
The highlights of Baitykool were its sustainability features and their applicability to UAE’s extreme weather be it or green roof or solar canopy & radiative sky cooling over the entire house consist of movable solar panels. Enough importance was given to water efficiency, which is the requirement of the Middle East through sustainable food growing technique of aquaponics installed in the courtyard area and gray water recycling treatment. Not just interior but the exterior was as beautiful. The great use of daylight in the rooms with the help of aesthetic UHPC panels and fantastic use of polycrystalline solar PV panels on the façade of the house.
Aquaponics system on the background
Baitykool was not just sustainable but also a beautiful house. It was so practical and well-designed that I won’t mind staying in such a house with my family.
Baitykool won 1st place in sustainability and energy efficiency scoring 100 out of 100, so you know why I am all praise about this one. They came 3rd in the overall ranking.
This sustainable Australian house by University of Wollongong in Australia was a perfect example of a house with a cause or mission. Many materials were sourced locally in Australia. The second skin wall is made from an innovative lightweight foamed concrete that uses recycled glass powder as a cement replacement- a mixture developed at UOW.
Desert Rose could manage to achieve net positive energy consumption, it means the house produces surplus solar energy, more energy than the house needs. They used Building Integrated Photovoltaic Thermal Tiles (BIPV-T) to replace the roof panels. Due to BIPV-T’s thermal capability, they could also generate hot water through piping that flows through the panels. This also added the advantage of cooling down the solar cells which increases their efficiency by up to 10%. Such an intelligent use of solar PV system!
This house has a beautiful layout and I totally liked the way they used radiative cooling panels as art frames in the living area. You could see the very high quality of design, construction and aesthetic interiors in this house, felt like created by professionals not students.
The highlight of Desert rose was, every aspect of the Desert Rose House has been carefully designed to improve the quality of life for our aging population, including those living with conditions such as Dementia. The UOW team wanted to celebrate human life by constructing a house that is suitable for those from retirement age (sixty-five years) to end of life. During the tour, I learned a lot about dementia. For example, did you know Currently there are over 46.8 million people in the world living with dementia? I would say this house has a totally well thought of design.
The layout of the house was based on occupant’s line of sight. To help the occupant navigate their home more easily than a regular home, visibility is kept throughout the house by changing the internal layout. To provide smooth mobility ramps are provided throughout the house which merges smoothly with the design. The water tap lighting intensity co-ordinated with increasing & decreasing the temperature of water for hot and cold water was another thoughtful feature, which is very useful for people with dementia living on their own.
I liked the little details like their safety Kangaroo in the entrance lobby, which was the team’s mascot throughout the construction.
Very aptly, Desert rose won 1st place in innovation and comfort conditions and overall, they came in 2nd place.
This house by team Virginia tech showed the new way of building modular structures that integrate smart technologies. Their innovative construction process is suitable for factory-built homes, a process that fully engages Building Information Modeling (BIM) software with fully digital fabrication tools and processes including CNC routing and 3D printing. Their “Cartridge” Concept brings the idea of building homes like we build cars. They divided the home into an assembly of parts.
This super hi-tech house was filled with innovative technologies like Drone hatch to allow drone deliveries directly to home and a Majlis mode where Acrylic Resin panels slide to close off the kitchen to create a Majlis. All these innovative technologies were great examples of achieving sustainability through innovation. For example, Orbital shower, which is a closed-loop system, recycles water from the shower and uses 90% less water and 80% less energy.
So when Future HAUS won 1st place in Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018 and it was not a surprise.
Other notable houses were VIRTUe by the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Their concept was to build homes to connect people, a very necessary and relevant approach in today’s world. Al Bayt al Kamel by American University of Ras Al Khaimah represented local culture more appropriately with two entrances and majlis on the roof. Honestly, we couldn’t visit all the houses in a day, as we were taking detail tours and learning about what every team achieved from a construction professional point of view. These net-zero houses made by students were so innovative and inspiring, as a sustainability professional in the construction industry I felt many times that why I didn’t think of it.
I still remember how these student teams got applauds when the participating teams were announced during the first World Green Economy Summit in Dubai back in 2016, you can read more about the summit here. So, it was lovely to see the end results of their efforts over the last 2 years. Lastly let’s not forget the numerous organizations worked and sponsored these houses in SDME, it was a perfect and practical collaboration between students and industry.
The next Solar Decathlon Middle East will be held in 2020, where I am hoping to see the next level of innovation and inspiration.
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Amruta Kshemkalyani, an expert sustainability professional turned social entrepreneur, is the founder of the Sustainability Tribe, AK Sustainability
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