Virginia Tech Takes the Lead at Solar Decathlon Europe
Monday, June 21, 2010
Virginia Tech is in first place at Solar Decathlon Europe—and it was judged first in the Architecture contest! What a busy weekend for the Virginia decathletes. They worked their way up from third place on Saturday to take first place Sunday based on solid performance in the measured contests. Lumenhaus has performed almost perfectly so far.
Over the weekend, the Architecture jury spent a half hour in each of the 17 houses to evaluate their designs. The Architecture contest is worth 120 points—the most of any of the 10 contests. At 9 p.m. on Sunday, the jury announced the first-, second-, and third-place houses. When Virginia Tech was announced as one of the first-place teams, the decathletes jumped for joy in sweet celebration! (So did I!)
The jury announced several ties, including three first-place teams. The Spanish organizers’ press announcement included the following:
Aalto University Finland, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University tie for first place for architecture.
Three universities have achieved the maximum number of points in the Architecture contest and are the winners of this prize. The team from Aalto University Finland and that of Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña together with Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University received their trophies at an award ceremony held at the Villa Solar.
The classification of the Architecture contest is as follows:
| Rank | Team | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aalto University Finland | 120 |
| 1 | Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña | 120 |
| 1 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University | 120 |
| 4 | Bergische Universität Wuppertal | 108 |
| 4 | Ecole National Supérieure d`Architecture de Grenoble | 108 |
| 6 | University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim | 96 |
| 6 | Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera | 96 |
| 8 | Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences | 84 |
| 8 | Universidad de Sevilla | 84 |
| 10 | Instituto de Arquitectura Avanzada de Cataluña | 78 |
| 10 | Fachochschule fur Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin | 78 |
| 12 | Arts et Métiers Paris Tech | 72 |
| 12 | University of Florida | 72 |
| 12 | University of Nottingham | 72 |
| 12 | Tongji University Shanghai | 72 |
| 16 | Universidad de Valladolid | 66 |
| 17 | Tianjin University | 60 |
For more information, see the Solar Decathlon Europe Web site.
Richard King is the director of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. Throughout the Solar Decathlon Europe competition, U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon organizers are reporting from Madrid.
Tags: Architecture, Competition, Contests, Solar Decathlon, Solar Decathlon Europe 2010, Teams