Prispa (Romania) and Odoo (Hungary) are the Eastern European representatives at the Solar Decathlon, green building exhibition in Madrid, Spain, this year.

Prispa, Romania

The Romanian project has been rather linguistically inspired. In Romanian, “the PRISPA in front of your house is like a magic strip, an intermediary space between the interior and the exterior, which protects you from wind, from very brutal temperature changes, from sun that’s too strong, and it manages to do all this by design. Being such a control element, filtering the light and blocking or alleviating temperature alterations, it guarantees some of the energy efficiency.” So reads the webbie of the Romanian project, mainly lead by the Architecture School “Ion Mincu” in Bucharest.

Odooproject is also inspired by the local Magyar folk, however it plays joyfully with the in-living and the outside. “Our plans interpret the house-court relationship, which comes from the traditional Hungarian folk architecture. Because of the climatic conditions a closed building was needed, so “out” and “in” were sharply separated from each other. The house is a project of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Odoo, Hungary

At the beginning of September 2012, the houses will be assembled at the Casa de Campo in Madrid, will be open to the public some days later, while they compete on the ten contests of the competition. After kick-off, the European Solar Decathlon will rank and evaluate the houses according to:

1. Architecture
2. Engineering & Construction
3. Energy Efficiency
4. Electrical Energy Balance
5. Comfort Conditions
6. House Functioning
7. Communication and Social Awareness
8. Industrialization & Market Viability
9. Innovation
10. Sustainability

The first international edition of the Solar Decathlon was held in 2002 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. A large number of visitors came to see the solar houses, participate in educational workshops and discover the potential of renewable energies. It continued in 2005, 2007, 2009, its popularity constantly raising. In 2010, the city of Madrid organized the first edition of Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE). This first experience was a success and called for more. The city of Madrid won the organization of SDE 2012. France was chosen for the next European event in 2014. Furthermore, US Department of Energy announced recently a new partnership with China, who will have its own event in 2013.

SDE 2012 is organized by the Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Development at the Spanish Ministry of Public Works in collaboration with Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the support of the US Department of Energy. In addition, SDE counts with the collaboration of the Madrid City Council and Spanish Energy Saving Energy Agency IDAE, and the sponsorship of Saint-Gobain (main sponsor), Schneider Electric, Rockwool, Kömmerling and FCC.

2Celsius and Earth Day Network have covered past editions of the solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C. Enjoy some photos taken at the editions of 2008 and 2009 of the SD. (Pictures belong to 2C Photography under Creative Commons; please reference when copy)