Energy & Sustainability
Building & Physics
High Tech Systems & Materials
team VIRTUe
Alex Donkers
VIRTUe
With a contribution of no less than 40% to the total energy consumption of today’s society, the built environment offers some great opportunities for improvement towards a more sustainable world. The Solar Decathlon competition is an initiative that challenges students from top universities across the globe to come up with innovative solutions for this problem. In 2018, the Solar Decathlon will be held in Dubai, the city where everything seems to be possible. High rise buildings, fast cars and big money: the sky is the limit. However, this massive growth brings some problems as well. The majority of citizens in Dubai are expats, living in disconnected communities. Thanks to the hot, humid climate and the massive and not at all pedestrian friendly infrastructure, they are bound to their homes. Meanwhile, various efforts to bring western elements into the city have an unfavorable impact on our environment.
We believe that there is a way to make a city like Dubai more inviting and comfortable for Western expats, while simultaneously making it more sustainable. We will create a smart, social and livable city, promoting social cohesion and improving the quality of life for its citizens. In short, a city that people will be happy to live in. The homes in this city will be highly sustainable and educate their inhabitants about the importance of sustainability. This way, when expats are to leave Dubai again, they will take with them the knowledge they gained while living in a comfortable place they could call home. In order to reach this goal we will use typical Dutch strengths, such as the fact that the Netherlands is one of the pioneering countries in the field of sustainable innovation. We will also look at cultures and technologies from all over the world, using the principles of Dutch Design to combine them into attractive solutions people are more than willing to live in. In addition, the Dutch ‘gezelligheid’ is a unique export product and one we plan to implement in our city proposal. With an international, multidisciplinary team, VIRTUe will work on designing and building a home according to this vision to display at the Solar Decathlon in 2018.
Douwe van den Wall Bake
30 maart 2017 at 14:20
@all, cool and encouraging project! And as discussed yesterday; please help me with creative partnership solutions. ;)
VIRTUe
13 maart 2017 at 21:36
@jan-theordoor wiltschek: Thank you, our goal is definitely to implement smart systems to contribute to the social aspect of the concept and minimize the energy use.
VIRTUe
13 maart 2017 at 21:27
@bart van as: We are integrating both social and technological aspects in order to tackle our challenge. This includes a social solution for the users, as well as solar energy use and an innovative way of cooling the house in dubai's climate.
Jan-Theordoor Wiltschek
13 maart 2017 at 16:44
I would love to see how technology like smart buildings, or machine learning could contribute to such a sustainable concept
Bart van As
8 maart 2017 at 10:29
Can you elaborate on at least the aspects of energy use in the built environment that you intend to tackle? Is it about reducing electricity use by means of technology, or social influence? Is it about heating/cooling equipment?
VIRTUe
7 maart 2017 at 08:51
For now our project design is in conceptual phase, which means we are focusing on our vision of dutch design. We are currently gathering different dutch design technologies to combine in the design.
Tom Huizer
3 maart 2017 at 09:40
Gaaf concept! Ben benieuwd welke technieken jullie toe gaan passen!
Tom Huizer
3 maart 2017 at 09:40
Gaaf concept! Ben benieuwd welke technieken jullie toe gaan passen!
Alex Jonkers
2 maart 2017 at 22:52
VIRTUe
3 april 2017 at 13:37
@douwe van den wall bake: Thank you, nice to hear! At the moment, our team is working on the creative partnerships solutions.