Comments on: Solar Decathlon house by Technische Universität Darmstadt

By: Harrison

Harrison — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:19:46 +0000

I would actually completely disagree. This house isn’t meant or intended for the masses, at least not at this point, and innovation is always the main german ideal. As in your view, every architect should be working towards the same three ideals, all the time, they don’t believe that to be the case. Affordability wasn’t a concern of the project, it was for the purpose of education.

By: jl

jl — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:09:41 +0000

I third that…

By: gerhard

gerhard — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:50:40 +0000

I second sjemecs comment lets try to stay real.

By: Victor

Victor — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:53:11 +0000

made in Germany … ;)

By: sjemec

sjemec — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:48:32 +0000

i think the ongoing success of the german team is due to it’s funding. i think the german house was the most expensive again… around 1000$/sq ft… like their previous winning project in 2007. the 2nd place team illinois cost less than 1/3 the cost of the german house, and the rice university house, the only real affordable project was less than 1/4th the cost. i do like the german house and it does represent many future innovations, but the failure of this competition is that it in some ways awards excess… most of these houses lack affordability, and therefore real mass-marketabiliy. the responsibility of architecture/sustainability is three fold: environmental, social, and economic…