Rhone Alpes team's 'Canopea' house design wins Solar Decathlon Europe 2012

The house 'Canopea', created by the Rhone Alpes French team has been crowned the winner of the prestigious Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 competition.

Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

Designed under the concept of 'Nanotower' – small towers that house a family house on each floor, with areas such as the upper floor, greenhouses and storage systems – the outstanding structure was created by Rhone Alpes French team to enable residents to enjoy the qualities of a house, and to create the feeling of open, individual space, even when living in a dense urban centre.

The units of a nanotower bring together the spatial and architectural qualities of a single-family house. They have a 360-degree view with external extensions that can be vegetated. The concept also makes use of vertical farming to integrate garden features into the complex and has been designed specifically to allow flexibility to the individual needs of the occupants.

Coming in a very close second position was the proposal ANDALUCÍA TEAM PATIO 2.12. Third place in the competition went to the Italian team MED IN ITALY.

The overall results were as follows:

1 Rhone Alpes (France) 2 Team Andalucía (Andalusia, Spain) 3 Med in Italy (Italy) 4 Ecolar (Germany) 5 Entropy Team Counter (Germany) 6 Odooproject, (Hungary) 7 Ceu Team Valencia (Valencia, Spain) 8 (E) co Team (Catalonia, Spain) 9 Prispa (Romania) 10 Team DTU (Denmark) 11 Tongji Team (China) 12 EHU Team (Basque Country, Spain) 13 Campus Bordeaux Aquitaine (France) 14 Team Brazil (Brazil) 15 Univertity Chiba (Japan) 16 + Cem Cem- (Portugal) 17 Astonyshine (France-Italy) 18 Pi Group UNIZAR (Zaragoza, Spain)

Solar Decathlon Europe is organised by the Ministry of Development, the city of Madrid, and the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) through the School of Architecture of Madrid. It has exclusive sponsorship of Schneider Electric and Kömmerling, and its official partners to AENA, ADIF, RENFE, INECO and LVEF. Additional support is provided by the US Department of Energy and the IDEA (International District Energy Association).

Visit: www.sdeurope.org/?lang=en