Israeli team places 4th in international Solar Decathlon

University student groups from all over the world gathered in China to showcase their fully energy self-sufficient homes.

By SHARON UDASIN
The Israeli eco-house 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Israel Solar Decathlon team)
The Israeli eco-house 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Israel Solar Decathlon team)
The Israeli team of university students participating in China’s international Solar Decathlon this year came in fourth place overall and in second place for architecture and structure of their solar powered eco-home.
From August 2 through 13, university student groups from all over the world gathered in China to showcase their fully energy self-sufficient homes, in a competition sponsored by China’s National Energy Administration and the United States Department of Energy, hosted at Peking University. The 22 participating teams came from a total of 35 universities in 13 countries across the globe.
Hailing from various architecture, engineering, design and environmental programs, the Israeli students came from Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, the College of Management Academic Studies, Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of Environmental Studies and the Neri Bloomfield School of Design and Education. Guiding the Israeli team were architects Dr.
Joseph Cory, a faculty member at Shenkar College and owner of Geotectura – Sustainable Architecture and Chen Shalita, owner of Alfa Sustainable Projects.
During an April visit to the eco-house while it was displayed in the industrial parking lot of Haifa’s Hutsot Hamifratz, The Jerusalem Post toured the horizontal, kite-shaped structure, which contains four modernly decorated rooms that thrive on solar energy and reusable gray water. Built with ecological materials from Israeli companies, the home includes a solar-thermal heating system, windows paned with photovoltaic cells and an external skeleton that can be disassembled and reassembled with an ease similar to Lego construction.
“This house proves that green is economic – really affordable housing – in the latest sense of the word,” Cory said. “Such a house could easily double in size with the growth of a family and in the future be reduced, according to changing needs.”
In the overall competition, the Israeli team scored fourth place behind the Australian University of Wollongong team, the South China University of Technology team and the Swedish Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenberg team. In the architecture and structure competition, the Israeli team scored second place only to the University of Wollongong team.