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The Texas Solar D House
Abstract
The Solar Decathlon provided a national forum
for competition among fourteen university student teams,
each of which designed, built, and operated a totally
solar-powered home with a home office and their
transportation needs using a solar-charged vehicle. The
competition took place on the National Mall in
Washington D.C., where each house was constructed and
operated from September 18 to October 10, 2002. The
competition consisted of ten contests focusing on energy
production, energy-efficiency, design, thermal comfort,
refrigeration, lighting, communication and transportation
Professor Michael Garrison of the School of
Architecture directed the University of Texas at Austin
(UT) Solar Decathlon team along with Pliny Fisk, codirector
of the non-profit Center for Maximum Potential
Building Systems in Austin, Texas. The graduate student
team developed a design that features an open building
system using a reusable kit of parts that sits lightly on the
land and forms the superstructure around a mobile utility
environment. Our investigations suggest that progressive
technologies offer solutions to the serious emerging
challenges of energy efficiency and sustainable
development and thereby become a strong design shaping
force. These progressive technologies: photovoltaic (PV)
power, passive solar heating, daylighting, natural
ventilation, and solar hot water heating were integrated
with concepts of affordability and energy conservation to
help promote an ideology of sustainable architecture.
Citation
Garrison, M. (2004). The Texas Solar D House. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /4607.