Solar Decathlon Europe 2012: ECO TEAM

ETSAV Faculty of Architecture at UPC will participate once again in the Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 edition, an international competition of energy self-sufficient housing.

The experience in SDE 2010 edition and its prototype called LOW3, (Low Energy, Low Impact and Low Cost), turns to (e)co, a new concept that defines not only the new prototype design, but also the process behind it, reevaluating the meaning attributed to "eco" nowadays. Eco = Oykos = House

(e) + co altogether involves the existing social context. (e) "green-at" re-interprets the symbol of our time, it represents the equilibrium among systems as well as spiral self-generative. -Co means putting together, to include new research, development and diffusion areas, all based on cooperation. As a result, (e)co is an alternative to the way to relate technology, resources and users in order to achieve a sustainable progress focused on the development of architecture.

Its objective is to obtain a self-sufficient dwelling based on the principles of zero ecological footprint and zero economical footprint. This intention reflects the changing context we are living in. One mechanism to get this objective is to offer more efficiency, more services and more comfort using less materials, less energy and less money. Another characteristic the defines this new (e)co prototype is its value relative to life, a house where the material organization of the building systems is created according to the life cycles of those materials.

Nowadays, dwelling has to be economic, efficient and comfortable without jeopardizing the environment. But (e)co is more than a dwelling, it's a network of projects of social awareness, dissemination of a life model based on cooperation, a model for all scales, for all users, a model which will reestablish the dialog between people and resources (natural / economic), true meaning of ecology.