Data końca rejestracji: 01/10/2012
Termin składania prac: 01/10/2012
Kraj: USA/California
Architecture at Zero 2012 is a zero net energy design competition open to students and professionals worldwide. The design challenge is a zero net energy (ZNE) student housing or administrative office building design for the University of California Merced in Merced, California.

As part of the Architecture at Zero 2012 challenge, entrants will also be asked to create a diagrammatic district energy plan for the Bellevue Gateway development. The buildings will be part of the Bellevue Gateway, a new mixed-use development located on the campus that will act as both the primary entrance to the University and as a bustling center of activity with sports facilities, dining, residential spaces, administration, and parking.
Challenge

Each entrant or team will produce a diagrammatic/conceptual zero net energy district plan sketch and a detailed zero net energy building design for either student housing or administrative offices. Entrants will be judged based on the documentation of the energy performance of their projects and also on the architectural merit of their designs.

Designing to Zero Net Energy

Although there are several ways to interpret zero net energy, this competition will be using the zero net site energy definition. A zero net site energy building project produces at least as much energy as it uses over a year when accounted for at the site level (as defined by the boundaries of the project, whether one or multiple buildings). This definition does not include the embodied energy in building materials or account for transportation of materials and people to and from the site. This definition does include all forms of energy used on the site (most commonly electricity and natural gas).

Since zero net energy is a performance-based metric measured over time, entrants will need to demonstrate that their submitted design solutions have a reasonable expectation of meeting a zero net energy goal. At its most fundamental level, designing a zero net site energy district or building is a balancing act of reducing building loads and increasing efficiency enough to be able to produce sufficient on-site renewable energy to completely off-set the remaining projected energy use over the course of a year. It is a general rule of thumb in California that to achieve zero net energy performance, building loads must be reduced at least 50% (and usually more) below current standard building loads as defined through the California Energy Commission's 2008 Building Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings, commonly referred to as "Title 24".

All buildings and building district plans designed as part of the competition must be grid-tied. "Grid-tied" buildings maintain a connection to the electrical grid. Maintaining connection to the grid allows for the natural fluctuations of renewable energy sources without the need for on-site energy storage. When insufficient energy is generated by on-site renewables to meet the demand from building loads, electricity is drawn from the grid; when on-site renewables generate a surplus of electricity, the surplus electricity is exported to the grid.

Integration of Renewable Energy Sources

Each building design and each district energy plan will need to include at least one renewable energy source. For this competition, "renewables" will be defined as solar power, wind power, microhydro, geothermal, and biomass/biofuel. Renewable generation is distinct from load reduction, and both are components of a successful zero net energy design.

More: http://architectureatzero.com/site/

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