Solar Decathlon Middle East Virginia Tech

Sugatsune Sponsors VA Tech Team that Wins Solar Decathlon 2018 Dubai Contest

We are proud to announce that the team we sponsored to the Solar Decathlon Middle East, Virginia Tech’s 2018 FutureHAUS team, has won the  solar decathlon design challenge—by a compelling margin of over 30 points!

The Solar Decathlon Middle East is a collegiate competition of 10 contests that challenge students to design and build solar-powered houses. This particular solar decathlon design challenge focused on challenging teams to adapt their designs to the heat, dust & high humidity experienced in the Middle East.

Projects for the Solar Decathlon 2018 Dubai contest were developed by multidisciplinary teams, giving the students the opportunity to learn about technical issues, teamwork, communication skills, and sustainable lifestyle and socio-economic issues in order to ensure the viability of their projects.

Addressing Critical Challenges that Lie Ahead

Sugatsune America helped sponsor the Virginia Tech 2018 FutureHAUS team to #1 overall, scoring just under 938 points, beating second place by over 30 points! To win the Solar Decathlon 2018 Dubai contest, the FutureHAUS Dubai team addressed two very important upcoming realities: first, a radical rise in world population and subsequent need to provide affordable housing; and, second, the recent onset of the digital age and our need to better integrate newer, smarter, and more energy efficient systems.

To address these problems in the solar decathlon design challenge, the design team proposed a small house with the program organized or consolidated into core walls that can be prefabricated. The result will be a pre-manufactured home that can be mass-produced with the complex components all installed in an ideal factory setting providing the necessary precision assembly.

Learn More About the Winning Project

You can read more about the team’s winning design here: https://www.futurehaus.tech/.