PRISPA House

The PRISPA house is the Romanian team’s project for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 competition, the world’s most important student/university competition that promotes the use of solar energy. The biggest challenge we have to face is that the project we propose must be realized by a team of students with their own force and resources. The house must be assembled and be totally functional in maximum 10 days.

Our house takes elements from the traditional Romanian architecture and it uses them in order to integrate contemporary technologies that ensure a high comfort.The envelope’s role is to protect the interior space, while also providing the necessary active surface for generating energy.

At a functional level, the space has been streamlined, resulting in a division generated by the habitual areas – day-area, night-area and study – and the technical areas, gathered in a compact volume which can easily be transported. The “prispa” and the storage space on the north are also buffer areas which are inspired by the traditional space distribution.

PRISPA’s passive strategy is based on controlling the solar energy storage, the correct insulation of the envelope, the materials’ capacity of storing energy (loam, rock), a natural adjustment of humidity with the help of the loam plastering and the natural light optimization.