Rebecca Maloney
Americas Press Office ,Boston
Arup is a proud industry partner for TeamMTL’s entry in the 2018 Solar Decathlon China competition.
TeamMTL is a collaboration between McGill University and Concordia University comprised of faculty and students from several departments including architecture, design and computation arts, engineering, business, management, dance, and theatre. Solar Decathlon China is a green energy building competition involving participants from four continents — launched by the US Department of Energy in 2002.
Canada’s sole entry in the competition, the student-led team named their entry the Deep Performance Dwelling. The design combines Montréal row-house design with elements of traditional Chinese siheyuan courtyard architecture. The competition requires each team to design and build a two-story, net-zero energy, solar-powered house with a floor area of 1290ft2 to 2150ft2, capable of charging an electric vehicle and equipped with all necessary household appliances. Each entry will be evaluated based on cost feasibility, innovation, market appeal, power generation capacity, and architectural quality.
As a trusted advisor, Arup worked with the team to bring their project to life by providing structural consulting services. Now nearing completion, the house will be open for public visitation between 29 September and 2 October, before being disassembled and shipped to Dezhou, China.
The team’s vision for performance dovetails with Arup’s core aim of total architecture. According to TeamMTL, “Deep performance implies a socially, culturally, and technologically advanced architecture that embodies qualitative and quantitative notions of performance by addressing energy efficiency, comfort, wellbeing, affordability, environmental sustainability, and ecological awareness.”
