Nexushaus is the UTSOA’s second energy efficient home designed for the Solar Decathlon competition and was done in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Spanning 2 years of work, the house was designed by an international team of students and in October of 2015 was exhibited in Irvine, California, earning 4th place overall in the competition.
NexusHaus addresses sustainable and affordable urban housing in the context of energy and water resource constraints. This net zero-energy, zero-water capable house accomplishes these goals through a combination of photovoltaic electricity generation, integrated thermal/water storage systems, and cutting-edge smart home management. The design of NexusHaus considers environmental control factors unique to central Texas, including air circulation and solar heat gain from the intense summer sun. To address these issues, NexusHaus employs two design features typical in vernacular Texas architecture: the dog trot and a large covered deck on the south side. The ultimate goal of NexusHaus is to serve as a prototype for a next-generation modular home that could be reproduced en masse in an Austin assembly plant.
Images Courtesy of the
United States Department of Energy