Le Corbusier changed the world of Architecture imagining five main points upon which the new era of architecture was based. The Med in Italy project takes its cue to describe in turn a new architecture, based on the needs of the typical Mediterranean climate. Here below is the official video shown by Team Rome at Solar Decathlon Europe 2012.
Med in Italy design philosophy
To design comfortable houses for a temperate climate, comfortable, with reasonable construction
cost, and low consumption, today is no longer impossible. The Rome team is focusing
the design of Med in Italy house on five points, essential for the Mediterranean house of tomorrow.
1. Passive
In a climate that features warm winters and hot summers, the houses that perform better are heavy houses. Heavy stone or masonry walls work well as thermal masses that guarantee winter comfort and absorb thermal loads in summer.
The real estate market is now putting pressure and emphasis on quality and performance control of buildings and building components. The best way to achieve them is through industrial
products and prefabrication. Wood technology in construction is well received by the market. It is very precise, thanks to CNC machining and offers good performance at seismic
forces. The only issue with wood construction is its lightness: it is useful for transportation
and assembling, but it has mass values far from traditional masonry. A possible solution to this issue could be the addition to the wall layers, aside from insulation panels, of a void to be filled with local heavy infill materials once the house is assembled. This solution gives a mass value that is triple the value of a normal framed wall, and therefore very close to a traditional masonry wall. At the same time, this also increases the acoustic performance, by solving a problem that is typical of lightweight construction.
2. Active
The house of tomorrow produces all the needed energy, and even more. The systems commonly
used for energy production are photovoltaics, that right now offer two useful innovations
for the domain of architecture: the first is the possibility to generate energy through diffused radiation, by offering new design freedom because all external surfaces of the building
are potentially available. The second is customization: form and color of the panels can now be adjusted in order to fit and be fully embedded into the architectural concept. This shift makes PV systems move from being just a technical addition to become a mean of expression
for architects.
(See 2.8 Building integrated solar active system)
The design of an intelligent system to detect and manage comfort conditions for thermal, light and CO2 control is also an optimization of the relation between production and consumption.
It can involve the user into the management of building systems, if correctly structured
with an open and user friendly interface.
3. Fast
The aims of the Mediterranean house of tomorrow are cost reduction, performance optmization
and construction time reduction. They are achieved through: industrialization of building
components production; study of the assembly logic, related with easiness of transportation,
transfer to factory of construction and testing of plumbing and the majority of HVAC systems, thanks to their concentration into 3D modules to be transportated fully assembled.
4. Eco-conscious
A careful choice of building materials is the response to the request of a sincere balance with the environment. The most coherent choice, in that sense is the use of natural materials, coming from renewable sources, with low levels of embodied primary energy, resuable at the end of building lifecycle and recyclable at the end of the product lifecycle.
5 - Dense
The efficiency of a building passes also through its potential density- It allows less ground consumption, but also less thermal losses and a reduction of construction cost. It is crucial, then, that the typological and constructive features of the new houses allow aggregation both horizontally and vertically, easy and flexible enough to be adapted to the context of intervention.
About Solar Decathlon
The Solar Decathlon is an international competition organized by the U.S. Department of Energy in which universities from all over the world meet to design, build and operate anenergetically self-sufficient house, grid-connected, using solar energy as the only energy source and equipped with all of the technologies that permit maximum energy efficiency.
During the final phase of the competition each university team assembles their house at the National Mall in Washington DC, where houses are open to the general public, while undergoing the ten contests of the competition, reason for which this event is called Decathlon.
Solar Decathlon Europe
The Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE) was created through an agreement signed between the Ministry of Housing of the Government of Spain and the United States Government, in October 2007, who committed to organize a sustainable solar houses competition in Europe.
The document specified that the European competitions were to be held in alternate years from those in America.
The SDE Organization goal is to contribute to the knowledge and dissemination of industrialized, solar and sustainable housing, and therefore has the followings basic objectives:
o To raise awareness of the students participating in the competition on the benefits and opportunities offered by the use of renewable energies and sustainable construction, challenging them to think creatively and develop innovative solutions that contribute to energy savings and how it affects our everyday lives.
o To encourage the construction professionals to select materials and systems that reduces the environmental impact of a building over its entire lifetime, optimizing its economic viability and providing comfort and safety of occupants.
o To educate the general public about responsible energy use, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and the technologies available to help them reduce their energy consumption.
o To emphasize the correct order of intervention: first reducing the building energy consumption and increasing its energy efficiency; and afterwards integrating solar active systems and/or other renewable technologies. Moreover the building systems must be selected and dimensioned using environmental and cost-effective criteria.
o To encourage the use of solar technologies and other renewable energy sources.
o To promote architecturally attractive solar system integration, working on using the solar technologies to replace conventional construction materials in the building envelope such as the roof, skylights or facades.
o To clearly demonstrate that high performance solar homes can be comfortable, attractive and affordable.
Solar Decathlon Europe objectives are consistent with the European Union goals for 2020, and has demonstrated to be effective on making students, professionals and general public aware of the importance of the energy savings. This constitutes the most immediate and cost effective way of addressing the European energy challenges of sustainability, guaranteeing supply sources and competitiveness. The SDE participant houses present solutions that contribute to achieve the EU targets: saving 20% of the primary energy consumption, reducing 20% of greenhouse gas emissions and producing 20% of the energy from renewable resources.
Undoubtedly, the Solar Decathlon Europe brings prestige and raises the visibility of the selected participating universities; as they are part of the small group of top institutions that will compete in the world most important Solar House Event. One of the main characteristic of the European edition of the Solar Decathlon is its emphasis on sustainability, innovation and research. The participant teams work not only to develop and build their houses, but also to enhance the systems’ integration and generation of knowledge on sustainable construction.
Solar Decathlon Europe offers to the students a unique opportunity for learning, taking theory and putting it into practice, and doing so through a case study. Students working on the project will be challenged to use their innovation capacity, and their ability to design and build an energetically self-sufficient solar house. The projects are developed by multidisciplinary teams, giving the student the opportunity to learn not only about technical issues but also about teamwork, communication skills, a sustainable lifestyle and socio-economic issues in order to ensure the viability of their project.
http://www.medinitaly.eu/
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