WaterShed, a solar home designed by students from the University of Maryland, incorporated water-conservation and -filtering features into its design.
The University of Maryland’s solar house—dubbed WaterShed—has come out on top in the 2011 Solar Decathlon. The team of students and their advisers from Maryland bested 18 other teams from various colleges to take the top prize in the contest, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Solar Decathlon rates the student-designed and -built houses on aesthetics, energy efficiency, market appeal, and other attributes.
WaterShed was unusual among houses that have been in the contest in the sense that it had a focus on water use, stormwater, and greywater. The house’s designers said that they had taken inspiration from the plight of the Chesapeake Bay, which is choking on nutrients and other pollution. The house included constructed wetlands and food gardens to filter water coming from the house.
Purdue University’s INHome took second prize. It had a more conventional appearance—one might call its style “Midwest suburban” —than many of the hypermodern houses one sees at the Solar Decathlon. (For example, the INHome has an attached garage.) A team from New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington took third with a house that could open up to the outside during the summer months. Appalachian State University’s house won the People’s Choice Award in the contest.
