Solar Futures
Woodbury University takes on the 2023 Solar Decathlon® Build Challenge
Illuminating Possibilities
The 2023 Solar Decathlon — the U.S. Department of Energy’s global challenge to college students to design and build zero-energy buildings — is in full swing, and Woodbury University is proud to have reached the ranks of Build Challenge finalist.
Our winning concept? A truly groundbreaking 3D-printed, low-carbon, micro-living campus housing structure fully powered by renewable energy sources. The first-of-its-kind project addresses two of the most vexing crises facing humans across the globe today — housing insecurity and global warming — by proposing a viable and affordable housing solution that meets DOE requirements and achieves net-positive energy status.
And now our cohort, which is comprised of both students and professors from the university’s nationally ranked Architecture School, has become one of 14 finalist teams that earned $50,000 in prize funding to take their entry project to fruition. With the price tag for completing the project running at approximately $150,000, our team will look to raise the remaining funds through sustainability-minded partners and donors.
While this competition entry is an initiative of our Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) program, it also demonstrates the principle that guides all programs across the Woodbury School of Architecture — meaningful designs for the built environment — and the laser focus the university, as a whole, maintains on STEM initiatives, environmental stewardship, and interdisciplinary education.
Win or lose in the next round of competition, our team is excited to expand knowledge and create awareness about the challenges, technologies, and solutions needed to bring us all closer to a sustainable housing solution by bringing the right people to the table: designers, engineers, financial supporters, partners, government officials, and more.
From Concept, to Design, to Breaking Ground
The Build Challenge at a Glance
April 22-24, 2022
Woodbury competes virtually with 23 colleges across four countries at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO
April 25, 2022
Woodbury is named one of 14 finalist teams earning $50K in prize funding
Fall 2022
Project groundbreaking & building phase begins
February 2023
Finished project reveal & community exhibition
April 2023
Woodbury University wins the top prize in the Solar Decathlon competition!
2023 and Beyond
Teams present to juries in Solar Decathlon Competition Event, winners announced
About the Solar Decathlon
Since its 2002 inception, the Solar Decathlon has challenged 40,000 college students worldwide to leverage cutting-edge technologies to design and construct zero-energy building—and to consider the clean energy industry as a viable career path. The competition aims to help tackle climate challenges by nurturing a workforce that is well equipped to design, construct, and retrofit a high-performance, low-carbon building stock and to deliver an equitable clean energy future. View all of this year’s winners.
Learn more about the solar decathlon program
Sponsors
Collaborating Organizations
Faculty Lead and Chair of Construction Management
Kishani De Silva
“While labeled a competition, this is really a collaboration. What we learn here will move us closer to the goal that we know is so desperately needed. The ‘winning’ solution will illuminate possibilities and, with the right public support, influence decision makers.”