INTERVIEW: University of Maryland Wins Big at the 2011 Solar Decathlon

Here at Inhabitat we’re suckers for the Solar Decathlon — the biennial design/build competition in which university design teams from all around the globe battle it out on the National Mall in Washington DC to see who can design and build the best solar-powered home. This year’s Solar Decathlon was a nail-biter of a competition, but it was the University of Maryland team which ultimately triumphed over all the other teams with an elegant, water-conservation focused home called WaterShed. We were fascinated by this beautiful winning home, and sat down with project design lead and student designer David Gavin to find out more about how the house came together. David is a second year Masters of Architecture student at the University of Maryland and he’s dreamed of being a Solar Decathlon contender since before he started school. Read on for our insider interview with Gavin as he explains the design of the award-winning home, and how his team utilized Building Information Modeling to streamline the design and construction processes.

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