Phius Co-Director Lisa White recounts her experience as a juror for the 2024 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge.
Each year, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partner to host the Solar Decathlon® Design Challenge. Forty Finalist Teams from 37 collegiate institutions across the world competed in this year’s challenge. The design challenge spans four categories: Single-Family, Multifamily, Attached Housing, and Education.
The DOE introduced this challenge with two main goals: (1) to incorporate high-performance building design strategies into curricula, and (2) to inspire students to pursue careers in sustainable building. This year, I was invited to be a juror at the final event for the Attached Housing division. It was held the weekend of April 19 in Golden, Colorado on the NREL campus. The top 10 teams from each division, over 250 students, gathered there to compete.
In order to make it to the final, these teams had previously presented virtually to a jury at the semifinal in February and scored higher than 30+ other teams in their division.
The teams are typically groups of students from design studios, or similar, from North American architecture and engineering schools. But, at the event I learned that some teams formed as an extracurricular activity at their university rather than as part of their dedicated course schedule. And, some were collaborative efforts between two universities that connected across the world.
A core objective of this challenge was to have students engage in a multidisciplinary design of a high performing, net-zero energy building. The competition was scored evenly across 10 main categories:
On top of this, it was scored more broadly on both building science and project selection carbon impact, which was justifying new construction versus retrofit approaches taken.
Final design narratives, ranging from 40-60 pages each, and supporting documentation for each team were distributed to us (jurors) about two weeks before the event for us to review and prepare initial scores. There are four jurors for each division.
Final competition day itself was jam packed. Myself and fellow jurors watched the sharply rehearsed, and professionally delivered, presentations from all 10 teams in the division. Each team had 15 minutes to deliver their presentation, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A from us (the jury) to the students. And let me start off by saying, I was impressed. It was clear to see how much work and passion was put into their designs. Each of the teams delivered incredible projects, demonstrating an awareness and sometimes mastery of concepts that many are still working to develop in their professional careers or practice.
Although the division I was reviewing was an attached housing category, the submissions still span a wide range. You’ll find a breakdown of the 10 designs we were presented (with photos) below.
After presentations, our team of four jurors deliberated to select the top three designs. While it was very difficult to select winners, it was fun to meet new colleagues, openly share our thoughts, and learn a great deal from one another.
I’m happy to report that many teams, including the top two teams in our division, included modeling and targets for Phius CORE Prescriptive and Phius ZERO in their designs. While not part of the scoring criteria, it was hopeful to see and hear that the resources and guidelines provided by Phius led these teams to designs that fulfilled and exceeded the requirements in the design prompts. This continued an ongoing trend of Phius-connected projects having success at the competition.
The next morning, the top three winners in each division were announced in a ballroom to all attendees. The 1st place teams went on to present just an hour or so later to the entire crowd, competing for the title of Grand Winner – with just eight minutes (half the time of the prior presentation) – to deliver their message.
You can learn more about the design challenge, review other winners, and watch the 1st place winners from each category deliver their final presentations here.
The University of Arizona, led by Phius Certified Consultant (CPHC®) David Brubaker, took home the grand prize for their design of 24 row houses that integrate passive design and a microgrid to promote energy independence for the Hopi Tribe. This design not only hit every mark from a high-performance standpoint, but it also was deliberately focused on preserving the culture, supporting the needs of the tribe, and reinvigorating the community.
Overall, the Solar Decathlon Design Challenge was an incredibly inspiring and rewarding event and I’m thankful to have been invited to participate. There is something to be said about the creativity, hope, and optimism that shone through the students’ designs that makes me even more optimistic about our future. Although they are only students, we have plenty to learn from these bright young minds. This competition helps equip the next generation of building workforce with the passion, and skills, to create future-ready buildings. While the designs and concepts were appropriately grounded in reality, it still felt like the sky was the limit.
A community-centered connected housing development in South Korea with a focus on indoor/outdoor communal spaces by Myongji University
A 3-story affordable housing development on a difficult sloped site near public transit in Georgetown, Ontario by the University of Waterloo.
A maternity home in rural Oklahoma, designed to provide safe, supportive housing to moms during and post pregnancy by Oklahoma State University.
A retrofit of a historic firehouse in New Bedford, Massachusetts to designed to revitalize the community while also providing affordable housing units and community space by Howard University
New row-housing and microgrid for the Hopi tribe on a reservation in Northern Arizona focused on rebuilding the community and connecting with their culture by the University of Arizona
A very realistic retrofit conversion of the prototypical “Vancouver special” single family home into four affordable housing units by the University of British Columbia
A retrofit of a 1900 colonial and retrofitted into a three-unit affordable housing building, each unit designed to appeal to different age groups that were lacking affordable housing in the area. This team, from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth ended up winning best team name, with “The Big Green Retrofitting Machine”.
Dense urban affordable housing in Toronto, Ontario including two additional units in the alleyway to maximize use of the lot by Toronto Metropolitan University.
Expansion of housing for a children’s village in Aqaba, Jordan, improving the livelihood and health of the housed children and integrating hydro panels that provide 50% of the community’s drinking water needs by the University of North Texas and Al Hussein Technical University in Jordan.
New affordable row homes, supporting accessibility and multigenerational living in Richmond, Virginia by Virginia Commonwealth University
