Virginia Tech’s LumenHaus uses the sun’s light in several different ways. It provides light and passive heating inside the home, powers solar panels on the home and helps plants grow to recycle greywater:
The key is to use smart planning and technological advances to not merely adapt the home, but rethink its most basic design and function. To demonstrate what such a house might look like, our team of professors and students at Virginia Tech designed and built Lumenhaus. With functional spaces and a modest size that allows for efficient energy use, Lumenhaus won the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe, a competition that brought together 17 college teams from around the world in Madrid.
The house has a number of innovative features. An introduction:
Moving the house:
The house is on the smaller side – 800 square feet. You can find photos and a floor plan Here. The official website: Lumenhaus. The house won several awards including the American Institute of Architects, 2012 AIA Honor Award.
Other House Ideas
- A different way to build a house #24 – The Future of Houses, The House of the Future
- A different way to build a house #25 – The Passive House
- A different way to build a house #26 – John Travolta’s Airplane House
- A different way to build a house #27 – The Sliding House
- A different way to build a house #28 – floating houses
- A different way to build a house #29 – The folding home
- A different way to build a house #30 – Billionaires’ Homes
- A different way to build a house #31 – Concrete House
- A different way to build a house #32 – Capsule Apartments
- A different way to build a house #33 – Prefab Duplex
- A different way to build a house #34 – bridge house
- A different way to build a house #35 – Tiny houses
- A different way to build a house #36 – Zero-energy and Triple-zero-houses
- A different way to build a house #37 – Build a house that is really thin
- A different way to build a house #38 – Foam and steel construction makes a quick, inexpensive, super-efficient house
- A different way to build a house #40 – The capsule
- A different way to build a house #41 – The ultra-secure house
- A different way to build a house #42: Print it
- A Different Way to Build a House #43: Add Secret Passages and Hidden Rooms to your house!
- A different way to build a house #44 – Display your finest car in the living room
- A different way to build a house #45 – Build yourself an Earthship for an ultra-sustainable green lifestyle
- A different way to build a house #46 – How to add an elevator to your home
- A different way to build a house #47 – underground and able to ride out “the apocalypse”
- A different way to build a house #48 – design your own house like an architect
- A different way to build a house #49 – A tiny apartment with moving walls becomes 24 different spaces
- A different way to build a house #50 – Build yourself a Ninja house, or add Ninja features to an existing home
- A different way to build a house #51 – An inexpensive home using recycled wood and natural materials
- A different way to build a house #52 – The flat pack house
- A different way to build a house #53 – inexpensive housing for the developing world
- A different way to build a house #54 – Log homes
- A different way to build a house #55 – Lustron homes – Amazing steel prefabs from 1950
- A different way to build a house #56 – Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion pre-fab house from the 1930s
- A different way to build a house #57 – Using an RV as a home
- A different way to build a house #58 – Virginia Tech’s LumenHaus
- A different way to build a house #59 – Making the most of small apartment spaces
- A different way to build a house #60 – Building custom houses from laser-cut plywood
- A different way to build a house #61 – Building a house for $3,500
- A Different Way To Build a House #62 – Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) construction
- A Different Way To Build a House #63 – An 1,000 square foot 2-bedroom apartment shrunk into 420 square feet
- A different way to build a house #64 – Fitting your whole life in a 90 square foot apartment
- How to build your own automatic Star Trek door for your home
- How to build an underground fallout shelter to ride out the apocalypse
- The $300 House competition
- Free Boat Plans
- How to live in your car