HALO: Swedish Students’ Solar Decathlon Entry

Resently, I have been studying sustainable house which can achieve use nature energy in order to save unnecessary waste. Then i found this project-Designed and built by 25 students from Chalemers University in Sweden, HALO is a socially sustainable home for four students, running on renewable energy from the sun. HALO was designed using one underlying concept: shared space is double space.

 

The shape and name of HALO was inspired by the optical phenomenon that takes the form of a round shining circle around the sun. 

 

 

The round shape of HALO’s structure provides maximum interior area while minimizing exterior perimeter, reducing heat loss potential. While the total area is low, and interior space only 60 m², the students are offered large common spaces and smaller private areas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roof is constructed of monocrystalline silicone photovoltaics laminated in thin acrylic plastic and coated with a high strength polymer. The cells were then applied to 10 mm thick double wall polycarbonate sheets which act as the waterproofing membrane for the roof. The solar panels are not just attached to the roof, they are the roof. Solar cells are often perceived as a limitation, due to strict module measures. HALO shows a potential for solar technologies to be truly integrated into the architectural design of a house. 

Green and Sustainable Buildings

This is especially true today as society faces challenges of global warming, peak oil, and water scarcity. So " green " and "sustainable" are become the key words for modern architectures. How energy a building will save, how much less pollution it will produce,what sort of materials were chosen, and what affect on the health and comfort of the occupants is expected seems to be main questions that people care about. As following project, i mainly focus on green and sustainable house, which can achieve long-term use and save energy and realise environmentally friendly.

There are two ways can achieve what i mentioned above. Generally, there are two ways could utilise solar energy in construction: one is passive solar, the other one is active solar energy. The so-called passive solar buildings are refer to the use of solar energy to provide indoor heating without other mechanical device to provide energy. The passive solar system is a process of transform nature source, which relys on conduction, convection and radiation heat to implement the collection, storage, distribution, and control of solar energy. On the contrary,the active solar buildings usually use of machinery to collection, storage, distribution to control solar heat.It needs two elements for passive solar system: one is to use the direction of transparent material (glass or plastic, etc.) or the dark materials to collect solar energy, the second is collection, storage and distribution of solar energy heat to receive maximal solar energy.

God said: Let there be light; and there was light.

I feel quite interesting about this design of restaurant's facade in Madrid. This design is from the team of fos(means light in Greek), so this decorative style also named "fos". This facade design catched my eyes because no matter day and night, the yellow warm light always shine and never disappear. At same time, in order to caring this design, they mark the best shooting point  across the road. 

 

In addition, i find that the concept of this facade design is not complicated. On the contrary, it's quite simple, but gain extraordinary effect. Everyone knows light, knows every simple things in our daily life, but we miss them. Sometimes it's not complex idea of a good project, instead the initial inspiration is ordinary. We will superise with words"Oh , so that's why" when we saw it.  However, why don't we realize this? Now i am thinking back that our tuitor always said: keep it simple. So i need to pay attention to things around me from daily life. Keeping it simple, but make it special.

The first practice

 This bamboo area is flexcible part. It  can be pulled out or pushed in, deponds on where it be settled or what kind of weather. There are rails at the top of ceilling and the bottom of the floor in order to help it work.