The Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) at the University of Stuttgart has won First Prize in the architectural planning competition „Efficiency House Plus with electromobility“ issued by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Development. The proposed design, developed under the direction of Professor Werner Sobek, demonstrates the potential of actively coupling energy flows between the emerging fleet of electric vehicles and our built environment. This concept is architecturally embodied through a striking glass showcase in which all of the core technical systems are laid out prominently to form a full-scale living display. The project not only illustrates the feasibility of building future single-family homes which generate a significant surplus of energy – enough to power the electric vehicles of their occupants – but also demonstrates how future buildings can be designed and built to allow for complete disassembly and recycling at the end of their life cycle.
The holistic planning approach employed by the interdisciplinary design team takes the scope of „sustainable design“ to a new level, incorporating energy and material concepts which surpass the standards set by previous milestone projects such as the SolarDecathlon competition.
