The Road to Integrated Design Process of Net-Zero Energy Solar House

Abstract

An integrated design process encourages holistic collaboration of the design team to optimize solutions in an iterative development of a building design. This chapter discusses the design process of a net-zero energy solar-powered house developed for the 2013 solar decathlon competition to promote high-performance design while using traditional passive strategies. The University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) entry tries to effectively integrate building systems’ components to minimize energy consumption while optimizing comfort. To that end, each component delivers multiple functions.

Being part of a large and varied team, seeing a project from the preliminary design phase to construction and commissioning, the students were provided a true multidisciplinary hands-on opportunity. The opportunity proved to strengthen their technical skills, acquired in the regular curriculum, via integration of theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Moreover, organized in a multidisciplinary format, students were then able to share their strengths across disciplines and contribute to a synthesis of process and product. The greatest learning experience for the students occurred in the integrated design process—across engineering disciplines, architecture, and business—the student team members also learned how to raise funds, procure materials and construction equipment, and how to interact with one another. This chapter reports a way of effectively designing and iteratively modeling process to inform the design decisions.