City Tech students design, build home for 2015 Solar Decathlon competition
In 2012, Superstorm Sandy showed that new models for housing that meet the needs of a high-density urban environment are desperately needed. A team of approximately 60 City Tech students is contributing its solution in a net-zero energy model home, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2015 Solar Decathlon international competition. The model home — built on a donated site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard — will be shipped to California at the end of this month for the final phase of the competition. After the competition, City Tech will donate the retrofitted model home to a disabled veteran.
City Tech’s team was selected as one of 20 student teams worldwide to compete in the two-year Solar Decathlon process to build solar-powered, energy efficient houses that combine affordability, innovation and design excellence. The college’s team, called Team DURA (Diverse, Urban, Resilient, Adaptable), created the DURA house — a stackable design to provide relief after catastrophic storms that can also be used for mobile and low-income housing in urban areas — with materials never before used in the U.S.
“A lot of our work has been inspired by our location,” said decathlete Evgenia Gorovaya, a sophomore studying environmental planning and math. “The qualities of diversity and being urban go hand-in-hand because City Tech is one of the most diverse colleges in the United States. And a lot of different mindsets went into developing our design.”