TU Delft scores with world’s most sustainable terraced house

With their concept Prêt-à-Loger, Home with a Skin, the TU Delft student team won first prize in the Sustainability category at the Solar Decathlon 2014 in Versailles. The terraced house sets an example for improving the sustainability of existing buildings in Europe.

The student team opted to improve the sustainability of a terraced house dating from the 1960s. They achieved this by applying a “second skin”, including a glass structure on the side facing the sun. This new skin enables the house to run completely on solar energy. In the Netherlands alone, there are 1.4 million terraced houses. The student team and the researchers involved are now working with partners in the project to explore how the concept can be applied on a large scale.

Meeting point and test site

The house is now part of The Green Village, a vibrant Living Lab at the university campus. The TU Delft researchers will use it as a test site for improving the indoor environment in homes and for the further development of consumer products, systems and fittings within buildings and solar cells, for example.

Solar Decathlon 2014

At the Solar Decathlon 2014, the Olympic Games for sustainable construction, the Prêt-à-Loger team’s concept finished in third place. The City-zen consortium is proud to partner with TU Delft. Within City-zen 90.000 m2 existing dwellings will be retrofitted. Prêt-à-Loger sets an inspiring example.